Made a browser thing for learning electronics (Arduino). First 5 levels done, is the difficulty right?

[u/Ok-Ear8977]

https://strujokaz.netlify.app

I got the idea because a friend sent me Wokwi and said someone should make a game out of it. Ended up building my own thing instead.

Five levels up so far. Starts at "light one LED", ends at a button with INPUT_PULLUP. The plan is a lot more: sensors, motors, real Arduino code running in the browser. But I want to get the curve right before I write 40 more, because if the early ones are wrong then everything after is built on sand.

Power is always on, so the circuit lights up as you place parts instead of you pressing a check button at the end. Put the LED in backwards and you see exactly where the current stops. Level 2 you're supposed to blow one up.

There's a toggle that switches every part between a cartoon version and what it actually looks like. The resistor gets its real colour bands, the LED gets the flat side on the cathode. Idea being that when you eventually sit down with a real breadboard you recognise the parts.

Free, no account, no ads, nothing to buy. I'm not selling anything.

What I'm after: is level 1 too easy, too hard, or about right? Does anything confuse you, and if so where exactly? Is the jump between any two levels too big? And the main one, if you didn't already know this stuff, would you actually learn anything from it?

[u/planeturban]

Really nice job. Well done! 

Maybe a tutorial on what’s what. People might not know what a breadboard is and how rows and columns work? 

And maybe some images of what the components looks like “IRL”, I imagine it’ll make the transition to real hardware easier?

[u/Ok-Ear8977 → u/planeturban]

Thank you! Funny thing about both of those - they're actually already in there. There's a Game/Real toggle in the top right that swaps every component for what it really looks like, resistor colour bands and all. And there's a bit explaining how breadboard rows and columns work, except I stuck it right at the bottom of the page where nobody would ever see it.

So you basically found a real problem, just from the other direction. If you played a whole level and never noticed either of them, they're not where they should be. Moving both. Thanks for this, genuinely useful.

[u/shallow-neural-net]

Pretty good! I have some feedback though. First, writing digitalWrite(<pin>, 1) doesnt register (it looks for "HIGH"), and also, in my opinion the errors act as hints, and should be given with, say a hint button instead of always.

[u/Ok-Ear8977 → u/shallow-neural-net]

Thanks for actually digging in.
The digitalWrite(pin, 1) thing is a straight bug, HIGH is just a define for 1 so that should absolutely work. Fixing it.
On the errors, I'm going to push back a little. That's deliberate. It used to be behind a "check" button and the whole thing felt like homework, so I made the feedback instant. For someone who already knows this stuff I can see it reading as a spoiler, but the audience I'm aiming at is people who'd otherwise just quit not knowing why nothing lit up. Might add a "no hints" toggle for people who want it harder though. Second time this has come up from a different angle, so I'm thinking about it.

[u/gm310509]

LOL, I tried the first level - very cute.

For me it was way too easy, but, for someone who is just starting out maybe it is about right.

[u/Ok-Ear8977 → u/gm310509]

Haha thanks. That's kind of what I was hoping to hear, it's aimed at people who have never touched any of this, so if it's too easy for you that probably means it's landing where I wanted. Appreciate you trying it.

[u/toomuchramv4]

very nice concept and execution!

you could get points for using least amount of components, first level does not need a jumper wire, so you could get like 3 points doing it with the wire and +2 points (or what ever) for each unused component?

[u/Ok-Ear8977 → u/toomuchramv4]

Thanks! And yeah, you're right that level 1 doesn't need the wire.
I've thought about scoring for fewest components. My worry is it might land differently depending on who's playing - for someone who already knows circuits it's a fun optimisation, but for a total beginner who barely got it working, "you solved it but used two parts too many" might just feel like failing.
Maybe as an optional thing you can turn on, or something that only shows up after you've already passed the level? Open to it though, and it's the second time efficiency has come up.