Tried it yourself first? Good — then this page shows you why each answer is the right one, and what a wish that works looks like.
🧩 The puzzle, cracked
1. 🏀 Two kids want a ball game. → B · «I wish for a ball that bounces around the screen. Every time I catch it with the mouse it gets faster, and after ten catches fireworks go off.»
B. «A game with a ball» fits football, pinball, bowling and a hundred more — the agent has to guess, and a guess is almost never the game in your head.
2. 🪩 Two kids want a party page. → B · «I wish for a disco page: the background flashes a new colour every second and a little dancer wiggles in the middle.»
B. A sounds cleverer — but «loop» and «timer» are building words, the agent's job. And A never says what is fun, so you get a flashing page and nothing to smile about.
3. 🎂 A birthday card for Grandma Rosa. → B · «I wish for a birthday card for Grandma Rosa: balloons float up, and when she clicks one it pops and a cake with candles appears.»
B. Shouting «beautiful» three times tells the agent nothing it can see. It cannot look inside your head — balloons, popping and a cake it can build.
4. ⏱️ A stopwatch for sports day. → B · «I wish for a stopwatch big enough to read from across the gym, with a green start button and a red stop button.»
B. A is longer and full of grown-up words — and every one of them is HOW. JavaScript, variable, file: none of your business. B says what you see from across the gym. That is the part only you know.
5. 🐠 Two kids want a fish. → A · «I wish for a pet fish: when I click, food drops, the fish swims to it and grows a little. If I forget to feed it, it looks sad.»
A. «An aquarium» could be a picture that just sits there. A says what happens (click → food → the fish grows) and adds a twist that makes you care: the sad face.
6. 🚀 Now the tricky one — both are about a space quiz. → B · «I wish for a quiz with five questions about space. Every right answer makes a rocket climb higher, and at five out of five it blasts off into the stars.»
B. A is not wrong — it says what you see. But it forgot the third question: what makes it fun? The agent will build a plain list of questions. B gets you the rocket.
Notice the pattern: the losing wish was never the short one or the long one. It was always the one where the agent had to guess — because of fog, or because the kid explained HOW instead of WHAT.
✨ Wishes that work — as examples
🦄 "I wish for a unicorn that runs across the screen. When I click it, it leaves a rainbow trail. And if I catch it three times, there's confetti."
🍪 "I wish for a cookie counter. Every time I press the cookie it gets smaller and the number next to it gets bigger. At 20 cookies, a congratulations message appears."
🌦️ "I wish for a weather card for tomorrow: a sun, a cloud and a raindrop to click. Whatever I click gets big and tells me what to wear."
What makes them good
| 👀 What you see | a unicorn · a cookie and a number · three weather pictures |
| ⚡ What happens | click → rainbow trail · press → cookie shrinks · click → it grows |
| 🎉 What's fun | confetti after three catches · congratulations at 20 · "what should I wear" |
And not one building word. A good wish sits right between the two traps: plenty about what you want to see and experience — nothing about how to program it.
What a first send looks like
You: I wish for a button with a penguin on it. When I press it, the penguin slides across the ice and tells me a penguin fact. Every fifth press it does a belly flop.
Agent: Here's your penguin button! Press it and the penguin slides across the ice with a new fact each time — and on every fifth press, splash: a belly flop.
You: I love it! Can the ice crack a little on the belly flop?
That last line is the secret: whatever you did not say, the agent chose for you — and you may always wish again.