I’m still trying to sort out my feelings on ChatGPT and the recent wave of generative AI chatbots, but I’ll give credit where credit’s due. Earlier this week, a Substack user named Puzzled Penguin asked ChatGPT for recommendations for puzzle games like Sudoku. He had already heard of all the games that it recommended, so he asked ChatGPT to invent a brand new puzzle game. The result of this experiment is a shockingly competent and fun game.
Play ChatGPT’s puzzle game Sumplete
As Puzzled Penguin explains, ChatGPT went through four iterations of its game before landing on one that looked intriguing. ChatGPT called its new game “Sum Delete,” and the goal was to delete numbers on a 7×7 grid until the sum of the numbers in each row and column was equal to a target number shown at the end of every row and column.
Puzzled Penguin asked ChatGPT to create a playable version of the game, which ChatGPT did using HTML and JavaScript. He could even refresh the page to generate new puzzles.
Puzzled Penguin then requested ChatGPT make the game look nicer by using CSS. ChatGPT obliged, and after a few more hours of iterating, a snazzy-looking, fully-playable game had been invented. After some more discussion, ChatGPT offered up the name “Sumplete” for their game, and Puzzled Penguin bought Sumplete.com and put the game up there.
I do not think Sumplete is going to be the next Wordle, but the fact that it’s a mostly original game put together entirely by an AI chatbot is rather stunning. I have already played a few games and I keep finding myself wanting to go back for more. There are seven difficulty levels, and when the grid gets large enough, it can take several minutes to solve a puzzle.
