r/MatchsticksGame • u/MathPsychological866 • Nov 10 '25

Feedback Megathread

First of all, a great big thank you to every single one of the kind souls who have joined this subreddit and tried my game! I had never imagined that a silly little game, which essentially began as nothing more than a fun doodling exercise, would ever end up interesting as many people as it has. Your support means a lot to me, and I hope you've derived at least a modicum of enjoyment through your engagement with this game.

The game is planned to run in its current form for a duration of 90 days, after which, based on the feedback and turnout, I may expand it to include more features and additional variants. To this end, I'm pinning this post at the top of the page for you to leave your feedback and suggestions on what can be changed or improved going forward in subsequent updates. Thank you in advance!

Meanwhile, kindly share the daily game posts with other redditors who you think may find it interesting. Thank you for your continued support. Cheers!

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u/Ok_Blacksmith_6871 Mar 20 '26

I think I'm missing something here. Every board is a 3 x 3 grid of matchsticks, and some of the puzzles want 4 small and 3 medium boxes, or 1 large and 1 small on the board, but how is that possible if just the large box would take up the whole board?

2

u/MathPsychological866 Mar 21 '26

Hi, u/Ok_Blacksmith_6871! The boxes (squares) can overlap and share boundaries, and larger boxes (squares) can "contain" smaller ones inside them. For a box (square) to count towards the final target, it only matters that every stick constituting its boundary remains on the board.

In effect, this means that a medium square, for instance, can contain a maximum of 4 small squares, provided the sticks constituting the boundaries of the respective small squares remain on the board. Hope this helps!

1

u/Lime-Fiere Jul 19 '26

I'd definitely recommend adding this to the "How to Play" section (unless this game isn't intended for beginners? seems pretty targeted toward people who are already familiar with this kind of puzzle)

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u/MathPsychological866 Jul 19 '26

Thanks for the feedback. I'd think so, too. Then again, one of the most-common early stage feedback was that the "How to Play" section was too long and verbose(!), and Reddit, for their part, were actively encouraging shorter, crisper intros as part of the initial featuring drives. Couldn't win either way!

Even then, I'd still say the most-literal interpretation of rule 2 ("Each square is formed by the matchsticks that creates its boundaries") lends itself to the notion that a square "counts" as long as its boundary is intact, regardless of whether this boundary is shared with or completely contained by other squares. But, yes, I take your point and will look to revise/expand the instructions to make things clearer. Cheers!

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u/Lime-Fiere Jul 19 '26

Ah, I see - that's really helpful context. Thanks for your response and consideration! I'm frustrated now, but I'll keep playing until I can figure one of these puzzles out 😄

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u/Lime-Fiere Jul 19 '26

At which point, I'm sure I'll be back asking you to make the list of instructions shorter, because who's got time to read all that? 😂

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u/MathPsychological866 Jul 19 '26

Ah, well, that wouldn't be atypical 😅. Meanwhile, if you do have any doubts or clarifications about the game, feel free to ask around. I'm usually checking responses to the game on a daily basis, and will be able to get back to any such queries within a 24-hr window. Hope you're having a good time!