Wordle is one of the most exciting internet-based word games that has been quite popular among puzzle gamers. Most people aren’t privy to the motivation behind the creation of this game. Very few people have no idea that the Wordle game was the brainchild of a love-struck, Brooklyn-based software engineer.
Back in 2013, a prototype of the word game was created by Josh Wardle. Drawing inspiration from the color-matching game Mastermind, Wordle was designed to allow players back then to play an unfiltered wordlist of puzzles consecutively. But due to the difficulty in recognizing some of the less common words, the game’s prototype was abandoned after completion.
Then Covid 19 struck and everyone was holed indoors for months, and creators blossomed. Wardle and his partner Palak Shah became deeply engrossed in The New York Times’ Spelling Bee and daily crossword puzzles during the pandemic. Wardle got the motivation to create a puzzle game for Shah called Wordle, which was a clever adaptation of his name.
Following several months of playing the word game, which quickly became an addiction too among his relatives on the family’s WhatsApp group, Wardle started to acknowledge that he might have developed something valuable. So in October 2021, he decided to launch it to the public.
How to play wordle online
Wordle game is a daily word challenge that prompts players to attempt to guess a five-letter word using a game-play system. How do you play it from the beginning? It is quite similar to the classic “Mastermind” color-guessing game which gave the inspiration for the game’s prototype. Upon submitting their guess, players are informed by the game if any of the letters in their guess match any of the letters in the secret word, and if they are positioned correctly within the word. To win, players must guess the correct word within six tries.
Wordle did not have a feature to enable the sharing of results. Aware that players manually share their results by posting a sequence of green, yellow, and black emojis to represent the grid, Wardle was prompted to create an automated solution. For the game’s players to boast about their achievements without revealing any spoilers.
The New York Times Wordle
In a move towards achieving its goal of reaching 10 million digital subscriptions by 2025, the NYT company acquired Wordle on January 31, 2022. At an undisclosed amount. Citing the acquisition as a key factor in its growth strategy. The game remains free, although it’s very likely that the New York Times will eventually put it behind a paywall.
Is a subscription necessary for accessing the Wordle game?. No, the Wordle game is completely free and does not require any registration or login. And if you’re on a quest for an official Wordle app, it doesn’t exist. The game can only be played online from a browser through a web page. You can utilize any internet browser of your choice to play the game, such as Chrome, Edge, and Firefox. The New York Times Crossword app currently incorporates the game and it’s available on iOS and Android app stores.
Wordle word game application users are restricted to playing one puzzle per day. The daily game resets at midnight based on the user’s local time zone, while the puzzle remains the same for all players. Sharing the game on social media is acceptable, but it should be done without disclosing the solution to avoid spoiling the game for other participants.
Why Did Wardle sell Wordle?
it is not uncommon for people to clone other people’s inventions. In the world of gaming, there is often intense competition and the desire to create the next big thing. Unfortunately, this can lead to some small companies or individuals outrightly copying the ideas and inventions of others.
By creating very similar games without adding any unique features or improvements to said stolen inventions. Cloning another person’s content can be frustrating for the original creators. Not all of these games are protected by intellectual property laws, and even those that are can sometimes be difficult to enforce. This was the case with Josh Wardle as shortly after his launch, we saw the emergence of several equivalent word games.
Wardle equally expressed that the recent surge in attention towards him and his partner had caused them to feel uneasy. And the couple was not inclined to engage in the struggle against the emergence of the game’s replicas. He conveyed that the situation was rather intricate and unpleasant for him, and selling the rights to Wordle was a straightforward way to distance himself from the drama and attention.
Alternative Games Like Wordle Games
If you’re up for a stimulating word puzzle experience, then you might be interested in exploring alternative Wordle games like Quordle, Octordle, Dordle, and Sedecordle. These four-word games share a resemblance to Wordle but present additional complexity with extra rows, columns, and words to solve. Dordle, for example, requires you to tackle two words simultaneously. To top it off, users can also play these puzzle games online from a browser through a web page.
So, those seeking a more intellectually challenging puzzle game should give the following 25 offline and online puzzle games a try.
- Antiwordle
- Quordle
- Word Master
- Crosswordle
- Antiwordle
- Octordle
- Hello Wordl
- Waffle
- Primel
- Dordle
- Nerdle
- Lewdle
- Worldle
- Heardle
- Name That Ride
- Lookdle
- Framed
- Sedecordle
- Words With Friends
- Word Forward
- Wordscapes
- Kitty Letter
- SpellTower
- Absurdle
- Lordle of the Rings
Wordle Tips and Tricks
Although getting hints for the latest Wordle might not be your preference, implementing some useful techniques can surely help you complete the game. One of the first methods is to select your first word wisely. It’s not easy to guess the correct answer right away, so choose a word that has three vowels. While there are over 13,000 five-letter words in the English language, only around 2,400 have approval for use in Wordle.
Next, begin with a word that utilizes five distinct letters to improve your chances of uncovering some of the right ones. Avoid utilizing plurals. Wordle excludes plural forms of three- or four-letter words that end in ES or S. The game does not repeat any answers. So, always choose two distinct words for your initial guesses. If your first guess does not result in many clues, starting over with a new word that has all new letters might help.