# XY Puzzle

> Escape room-style puzzle for tech enthusiasts

- **Year**: 2023
- **Links**: [Try solving the puzzle](https://xy.wastu.net)

Five days before TeknumConf 2023, I had a random idea: what if my name card was a puzzle? Medium complexity escape room-style challenge that requires some cryptography knowledge, but nothing too deep.

## The story

I wanted something like [hacker.gifts](https://frantic.im/hacker-gifts/) but more accessible. Had three days to pull it off - one day for designing and ordering the card, two days for coding the puzzle using Next.js server components (which was brand new tech at the time, making things way harder than expected).

## The plot twist

After distributing the cards at the conference, no one could solve it. Maybe it was too hard, or maybe they just weren't motivated enough. So I recently updated the puzzle to be more accessible while keeping it challenging.

Building this pushed me to think creatively and gave me hands-on experience with the app router and server components. Try [the puzzle](https://xy.wastu.net) yourself, even without the name card.