It's nice but it takes a million clicks to get to another day's puzzle. Tap to close the results page, Tap the toast to show the close button, tap the close button, tap the calendar, tap the day. Maybe some big left and right arrows at the top of the page?
Show HN: I built a word game. My mom thinks it's great. What do you think?
161–170 of 273 posts
Re: Show HN: I built a word game. My mom thinks it's great. What do you think?
#162Earlier quoted context omitted.
It cuts both ways. Cryptic Crosswords are almost impenetrable from the US as they're so deep in UK specific words, spellings, and trivia.
I love cryptic crossword, but there's so many "inside rules" that make them hard to approach for newcomers. It doesn't help that there really aren't a lot of good easy cryptics.
Yeah but that's like saying that there are so many "openings" in chess, it makes it hard for newcomers.
That's the game! The 'inside rules' for a cryptic are what makes it cryptic. Without them you just have a word puzzle.
Re: Show HN: I built a word game. My mom thinks it's great. What do you think?
#163It seems not to accept a correct answer, "ladel" for Wednesday, March 26, 2025 (minor spoiler, apologies!)
"Ladel" isn't actually in the dictionary: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ladel https://www.dictionary.com/browse/ladel https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/spellcheck/english?q=la... OED has it as an incorrect/unusual variant: https://www.oed.com/search/dictionary/?scope=Entries&q=ladel It's misspelled constantly on the internet, but "ladle" is the correct spelling.
Ah, fair enough! Thanks
Re: Show HN: I built a word game. My mom thinks it's great. What do you think?
#164A few pieces of feedback from me: 1) Keyboard input would be really nice, especially playing on desktop 2) A "give up" button instead of a 5 minute timeout would be appreciated 3) It might be more fun/challenging if you don't give the category, but have to guess the category after unscrambling the words.
Keyboard is essential; my time was dominated not by the time it took me to solve but the time it took me to click around with my mouse.
Re: Show HN: I built a word game. My mom thinks it's great. What do you think?
#165For anyone interested in word games there's a very fun and free wordle like game I ended up playing daily for the past year, check out https://www.threemagicwords.app/ I'm not the author so this is not a shameless plug, just a good game that is playable on your phone without installing any app.
Seconded. It's somewhat similar to this one as well.
Re: Show HN: I built a word game. My mom thinks it's great. What do you think?
#166I like it
Re: Show HN: I built a word game. My mom thinks it's great. What do you think?
#167I think you shouldn't include proper nouns (like there's one in the Apr 6 solution).
Re: Show HN: I built a word game. My mom thinks it's great. What do you think?
#168Product manager ex. game designer with a number of puzzle/word game in operation here. - Having a timer (urgency) is usually not a very good idea for thinky games. If you insist on having a timer consider making it count upwards. - Additionally as other commenters mentioned is the game is a time trial it needs an explicit “Start” button. Also stop the timer when user is not playing e.g. reading the rules. - There’s n…
I agree about the timer. I almost quit after 10 seconds because of the timer.
Re: Show HN: I built a word game. My mom thinks it's great. What do you think?
#169First off, I love the game. Your mom isn't just placating you. It is fun. Second, I think given all this advice a real clear example can be seen by looking at NYT's Wordle[0]. Instructions are the first thing you see and cover the puzzle. You then click start. Importantly, the instructions have an example. While the puzzle is extremely intuitive, an example can eliminate almost any ambiguity (intuitive for most peopl…
> Almost any TV game is timed.
For the benefit of the audience watching, not the player. You wouldn’t want someone consuming the whole show because they do not make a move. There’s little reason to care about time limits on a game someone plays by themselves.
Re: Show HN: I built a word game. My mom thinks it's great. What do you think?
#170I ended up building a word game last year for the wife and I to play, we kinda forgot about it but this post reminded me (so thanks for that, OP)
Just visited and turns out some people still play!