You may have heard some of your friends talking about a game called Wordle over the Christmas break. You may even be familiar with the viral puzzler yourself, and stand among the many thousands of players who share their scores online - much to the bafflement (and vague resentment) of those not in the know.
If you've yet to feel the warm embrace of Wordle, allow me to explain. Created by developer Josh Wardle, Wordle is a wonderfully addictive brain-teaser that blends Picross with the hacking mingame in Fallout 3.
Each day, players can head here to get their five-letter word, at which point they have six attempts to narrow down the correct answer via process of elimination and deduction. The fun lies in trying to get the word in as few guesses as possible.
It's delightfully simple, and allows folk to flex by sharing their own daily scores on social media. Which is pretty much why it's everywhere at the moment, especially on Twitter.
Given the fact that Wordle has blown up to the extent it has, you might assume that Wardle intends to make a little money from it by implementing ads or some form of monetization. He'd be well within his rights to do so! But it sounds as if he wants Wordle to remain as accessible and cost-free as possible.
"I don't understand why something can't just be fun," Wardle said in a recent interview with BBC Radio 4. "I don't have to charge people money for this and ideally would like to keep it that way."
Wordle currently exists as an in-browser game, and Wardle also explained he sees no reason for that to change.
"I am a bit suspicious of mobile apps that demand your attention and send you push notifications to get more of your attention," he added. "I like the idea of doing the opposite of that - what about a game that deliberately doesn't want much of your attention?
"Wordle is very simple and you can play it in three minutes, and that is all you get. There are also no ads and I am not doing anything with your data, and that is also quite deliberate."
I really would urge you to check it out if you're at all interested. And if the bite-sized nature of Wordle's one-word-a-day delivery style is just too slow for you, you can try out an "infinite" version of the game called Wheedle right here.
Featured Image Credit: Josh WardleTopics: PC