Puzzle Maker

Inspiration

The inspiration for PuzzleMaker came from a desire to create something truly useful and widely applicable. During the brainstorming process, I discovered that crosswords and word searches combined have a significant online presence, with traffic of 4-5K and a traffic value of approximately $900 according to Ahrefs, that two the traffic is just from Canva - https://www.canva.com/create/word-search/ and https://www.canva.com/templates/s/crossword-puzzle/. This revelation highlighted a clear opportunity to fulfill users' needs in the puzzle space, to develop an app that will help users to create puzzles withing canva, prompting the development of PuzzleMaker.

What it does

PuzzleMaker is an AI-powered application that generates crosswords and word searches in two primary modes:

Topic-based: Users can enter any topic, and the AI generates relevant words to create a puzzle. Custom: Users can input their own list of words to generate a personalized puzzle.

This dual functionality makes PuzzleMaker versatile and suitable for various users, from educators to puzzle enthusiasts.

How I built it

I developed PuzzleMaker as an application that leverages AI to generate puzzles. The core functionality includes:

• An AI system that can understand topics and generate relevant words
• Use Algorithms for efficiently arranging words into crossword and word search formats
• A user interface that allows for easy input of topics or custom words
• A puzzle generation engine that creates solvable puzzle and map them in grid in Canva.

Challenges I ran into

Two main challenges were encountered during development:

1. Layout Design: Implementing a user interface that displays words/clues and the puzzle side by side proved to be challenging, requiring careful consideration of space utilization and user experience. I solved this by placing puzzle at two positions - top and right and based on that I am calculating the positioning for clues and words.

2. Visual Appeal: Enhancing the app's visual appeal by incorporating topic-related design elements has been a persistent challenge. While not fully resolved, this remains a key area for future improvement.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

I love the templates for word search and crossword, provided by Canva. What I aimed for was to create an app that create similar puzzles that people from all age group would love to solve. Unfortunately I wasn't able to solve this yet, and will definitely work on it after this Hackathon but I'm proud that I completed this app and made it little bit visually appealing by adding border and background rather than quitting and not submitting anything.

I'm also proud of generating grid based on user's topic or custom words. And adding it to Canva.

What I learned

Through this project, I gained valuable insights into:

• AI implementation for content processing and word generation
• Algorithm design for puzzle creation
• User interface design for interactive applications
• The importance of balancing functionality with visual appeal
• The potential market for educational and entertainment tools in the digital space

What's next for Puzzle Maker

Looking ahead, I have several exciting plans for PuzzleMaker:

• Visual Enhancement: Implement topic-related design elements to make puzzles more visually engaging and thematic.
• Expanded Puzzle Types: Introduce new puzzle formats beyond crosswords and word searches.
• Difficulty Levels: Implement adjustable difficulty settings for puzzles.

Built With

• ai
• canva