Whatsit
Games
daily word game
SHOW HN2025
How HN took it
29 positive, 43 neutral or asking, 22 mixed, 53 critical, out of 147 comments about the project. Thread score -0.15.
Design: 8 for, 25 againstIdea: 8 for, 11 againstExecution: 0 for, 17 againstPerformance: 1 for, 0 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Fun and polished UI
From 3 comments
First 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].…
godelski on HNIt can be a slog to build and release a game like this, so well done on getting it out! Personally, I think it’s quite well polished UI wise. UX wise I guess keyboard input as…
tlh on HNI really like it (I play the NYT games daily). The UI is slick. As others have mentioned categories could probably have broader/non-US content but that's easy. The site/format…
kylecazar on HN
Timer adds competitive fun
From 2 comments
First of all, great game, just the kind I love. Personally, I love the timer. I can see varying opinions though. Perhaps a toggle for easy mode (no timer) or hard mode (timer,…
rao-d on HNSo I actually like the timer and potential competitive aspect of it. If you want to lean into that, consider adding leaderboards and percentiles.
kevinventullo on HN
Objections
Proper nouns like Catan should not be valid words
From 4 comments
One small piece of feedback: typically these games do not allow proper nouns, because there’s too many of them. So having “Catan” be a valid word is pretty awful.
moomin on HNI like it, but here's my feedback: - let me use keyboard input - don't include proper nouns! I did't get catan because I wasn't expecting that - show the answers at the end.…
ascorbic on HNI think you shouldn't include proper nouns (like there's one in the Apr 6 solution).
tuukkah on HNMy friend whos loves word games said she liked it. Asked for the link so I sent it along. Critique was that proper nouns should be removed as it caused a great deal of uncertainy…
karpatic on HN
Valid words rejected as invalid, only one arrangement accepted
From 4 comments
I like the idea but there were several examples where I found a word but it was not the word the game wanted, and I was told "invalid word". Examples: I found "STONE" but the…
nisse72 on HNis it intentional that one arrangement of the letters is correct when another, equally correct, arrangement is wrong? eg 'L L I P S' can be 'SPILL' or PILLS, but only PILLS is…
niccl on HNIt was fun. Couple of suggestions: - It gave me “TCAAN” which stumped me. Afterwards I pasted it into the Internet Anagram Server, which failed to find any acronyms for it. So I…
jamesdhutton on HNI got the letters "AACNT" and even cheated online. The only word online dictionaries could make was "TACAN" and it wasn't accepted.
y-curious on HN
Timer is stressful and off-putting
From 3 comments
To tell you a brutal truth, I dislike any timed game.
fl4tul4 on HNI so hate timers. I left immediately. Sure, have a count up timer for those who what it, but make sure to allow it to be turned off permanently
willf on HNThis is fun! I like the timing challenge but for many people this is a turnoff (there's a great interview with Zach Gage^ where he discusses research - some people are unable to…
wrsh07 on HN
Too many plurals and puzzles too easy
From 3 comments
Fun game but you should disallow plurals. Overall I’d say use the same word rules as Wordle. Almost all my words were plurals and so were uninteresting, but if that was fixed I…
kdamica on HNI would prefer if less plurals were used. Every word in my puzzle ended with an 's' as a plural.
mrinterweb on HNPleasant and responsive lightweight design, but the game itself just has no difficulty to it. Tried four puzzles and all were done in 15 seconds.
cgomez on HN
Requests
Add keyboard input
From 4 comments
Quick UI suggestion: Let users playing on desktop type the letters.
WoodenChair on HNA 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…
angry_moose on HNNice game. Tedious to use on a laptop with a trackpad. You should allow keyboard input. Managing accounts is a huge headache both for yourself and for your users. It's a bunch of…
derdi on HNThe limiting time factor for me was the clicking around on the page. Allowing keyboard input somehow would be a plus.
pnm45678 on HN
Show answers after failing
From 3 comments
Nice work! Would like to see what the correct result would have been for ones I didnt get after the time expires. Keep going!
frankdenbow on HNI agree, today's challenge was really easy. But I did enjoy the other days, I played all of them! What I'd like is an option to show the answers after failing (not by default, so…
DistractionRect on HNI like it, but here's my feedback: - let me use keyboard input - don't include proper nouns! I did't get catan because I wasn't expecting that - show the answers at the end.…
ascorbic on HN
Add a start button and show instructions first
From 3 comments
Just worked through a lot of the puzzles. I love the concept, and I also like how the timer doesn't reset when you switch between them. 3 pieces of feedback: 1. Since your time…
spicybright on HNNice job! Pretty fun game. Only improvement ideas I have are for a smoother start for new players: 1. Let the user start the game themselves so that they have a chance to read…
div3rs3 on HNIt should show instructions the first time, without prompting. I was just confused for a long time. The icons at the start and end of each row were distracting and confusing.
stevage on HN
Allow turning off the timer
From 2 comments
- love the concept, it was unclear at first how to delete a single letter when the button clears the whole word. - I see the comments about a timer but maybe the user can have…
samg19 on HNI so hate timers. I left immediately. Sure, have a count up timer for those who what it, but make sure to allow it to be turned off permanently
willf on HN
Questions
How are the daily words chosen and is there automation?
From 2 comments
Fun! I look forward to seeing what future categories and words are. Do you have to manually curate them each day? How big is your backlog? Is there a way to automate it?
MattSayar on HNCould you share how you pick each day's words?
spicybright on HN
Alternatives named
Bracket City
From 1 comment
A coworker and my wife and I have recently been really enjoying https://bracket.city which is a crossword-clue inspired word game with daily puzzles. It does take a little while…
linsomniac on HN
Jumble
From 1 comment
Cool - it's nearly a subset of Jumble, which I prefer because of the secondary mechanism of solving a pun to guess backwards.
alanbernstein on HN
NYT Strands
From 1 comment
This reminds me a lot of NYT strands, in the sense that it’s “multiple themed rounds of classic word game format X” In the strands example, the base word game is a word search in…
jpjoi on HN
Sporcle
From 1 comment
Reminds me of https://www.sporcle.com/
anonu on HN