ARCaptcha
Work out the rules of a tiny unexplained game by playing it, one game a day.
Every day: One ARC-AGI-3 puzzle game a day, the same for every player, scored on how many moves you need against a human baseline. New puzzle: Midnight in your own time zone: the game asks for the edition matching your device's calendar date.
ARCaptcha serves one puzzle a day from the ARC-AGI-3 reasoning benchmark, inside a handheld console drawn in the browser. Nothing tells you the goal or what the buttons do; you find out by trying. Your score compares the moves you took with a human baseline, and you can share a row of coloured squares.
About ARCaptcha
ARCaptcha takes the interactive puzzles of ARC-AGI-3, a reasoning benchmark from the ARC Prize, and turns them into a daily browser game. Each day there is one game, made of several levels, drawn on the screen of a cartoon handheld console. There are no rules and no instructions: you press the direction buttons, the action buttons or tap the grid, watch what changes, and work out what the level wants from you.
The game counts every action. When you finish, a verdict screen sets your total against a baseline number of actions and colours each level by how you did, from Bot through Close and Human to Incredible. A countdown shows when the next game arrives, and the share text gives the date, your move count and the coloured squares, with no hint of the solution.
It suits players who like working a system out from nothing, the way you learn an old cartridge game without its manual. The code is open on GitHub, there is no account, and your run is kept in the browser so a refresh does not lose it.
How to play ARCaptcha
- Open ARCaptcha and start the day's game on the console screen.
- Try the buttons and tap the grid to see what each action does; nothing explains it.
- Work out the goal of the first level and solve it, then carry on through the following levels.
- Use the reset button if you get stuck, but every action still counts towards your total.
- At the end, read your verdict and per-level colours and share the result.
Tips
- Spend your first few moves testing one button at a time and watch exactly which cells change.
- Levels in one day's game usually build on the same idea, so what you learn early pays off later.
- Fewer actions means a better score, so think before you press once you know the rules.
Questions
What is ARCaptcha based on?
On ARC-AGI-3, a set of interactive reasoning puzzles from the ARC Prize. ARCaptcha serves one of them each day.
When does a new ARCaptcha game come out?
At midnight in your own time zone. The game requests the edition for your device's date.
How is ARCaptcha scored?
By the number of actions you take, compared with a baseline. Each level gets a colour from Bot to Incredible.
Is ARCaptcha free?
Yes. It runs in the browser with no account, and its source code is on GitHub.
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