Whittle

Games

word game

SHOW HN2025

141points
58comments
#532of 3,837 in 2025
Top 14%of 2025 by points

How HN took it

MixedNo clear lean

11 positive, 18 neutral or asking, 3 mixed, 7 critical, out of 39 comments about the project. Thread score +0.15.

Execution: 1 for, 5 againstDesign: 1 for, 2 againstIdea: 3 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 addictive word game

    From 4 comments
    • This game is awesome. I have no other feedback other than I had a lot of fun.
      kipukun on HN
    • I had much more fun than anticipated. Nice work! Sharing with some friends
      strongpigeon on HN
    • Interesting concept. I enjoyed it, has something to it.
      skurtcastle on HN
    • Love the concept and execution! After finishing today’s I am going backwards to play the archive :) If anyone else likes simple but fun word games, I made one for iOS here:…
      jzting on HN
  • Good UX and clever concept

    From 2 comments
    • Cool, the description reminded me a bit of my word game https://gramjam.app, but after playing they're pretty different. I like your UX!
      jessecoleman on HN
    • Good game! Nice little touches on the website too like the tray at the bottom and the header click easter egg.
      dylanhouli on HN

Objections

  • No win state or victory feedback; unclear when puzzle is finished

    From 3 comments
    • Fun! I was a bit confused at the end because there's no "victory" state or indication. I think I was expecting it to give me a new word pair once I got to the end, or tell me…
      duncancarroll on HN
    • I didn't understand what you were saying at first, but it turns out that you have to click to remove the final, single letter before the "you won" screen shows. And I agree it…
      teach on HN
    • I didn't realize that I was supposed to get to 0, but just trying to get as many words as possible. I got down to 'a' and reset, it would be nice if just getting to a 1 letter…
      yobananaboy on HN
  • Puzzles Aug 1 and Aug 4 were unsolvable due to invalid dictionary words

    From 3 comments
    • Is it always possible to go all the way down to a single letter? I'm working on August 4, and it's proving challenging
      teach on HN
    • August 4 is not solvable with the given wordlist. There is no way to get to a word below 3 letters ("set")
      ipsento606 on HN
    • Hi, this is OP! Thank you to everyone for pointing this out, you are not crazy-- these puzzles were impossible after I removed some invalid words from the dictionary. I had…
      babel16 on HN
  • Unclear UI: letters not obviously clickable, unlabeled tabs, no hover effects on desktop

    From 2 comments
    • Nice! You definitely have something there. I would love a dictionary lookup. I'd expect a big part of the strategy to be working backwards from the possible 1/2 letter words, but…
      jsnell on HN
    • Feedback: I wasn’t sure what to do in the initial game state. It wasn’t obvious that the letters could be “clicked” directly. In a similar word game [0] (also posted on HN…
      pimlottc on HN
  • Crashes on load after an update

    From 2 comments
    • I like the idea of it; though I think the latest update (around puzzle solveability?) may have broken the game as I'm unable to begin in any browser I've tried: ``` Uncaught…
      davidsojevic on HN
    • Crashes for me under Firefox and Chromium. ``` Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read properties of null (reading 'puzzleLog') ```
      hackyhacky on HN

Requests

  • Hint feature

    From 3 comments
    • I’m stuck on that one too! Got 100% of all possible words but cannot figure out how to reduce to zero. A “show hint” feature would be nice when you’re stuck.
      spadros on HN
    • Really fun! Could use a hint function though. I got %100 of all words on Aug 4 but still have not found a way to get it down to zero letters. If anyone has figured it out please…
      spadros on HN
    • Thanks! I've been thinking about adding a hint function for a while, but not sure what form I want it to take. Also, Aug 4 was broken-- please try again for a new, solvable…
      babel16 on HN
  • Dictionary lookup

    From 1 comment
    • Nice! You definitely have something there. I would love a dictionary lookup. I'd expect a big part of the strategy to be working backwards from the possible 1/2 letter words, but…
      jsnell on HN
  • Give up button to lock in daily result

    From 1 comment
    • There should be an “I give up” button to let you finish the game and be locked into that result for the day. I like the idea, there’s just something about the UX that’s weird to…
      unnamed76ri on HN
  • Respect prefers-color-scheme

    From 1 comment
    • Please respect `:prefers-color-scheme`.
      kps on HN
  • Share button fix on desktop

    From 1 comment
    • Hey! I absolutely love it! I wanted to share the results with my partner but it looks like the share button doesn't work on the PC? (Firefox 141.0, Linux)
      fao_ on HN

Questions

  • Is every puzzle always solvable down to one letter?

    From 2 comments
    • Is it always possible to go all the way down to a single letter? I'm working on August 4, and it's proving challenging
      teach on HN
    • Yes, 1 August and 4 August have me stumped. Interestingly it says I have discovered 100% of words on 1 August, but I wasn't able to whittle it down to 0. I'm not sure if that…
      NoboruWataya on HN
  • Why does removing h from 'rat he' not give 'rate'?

    From 2 comments
    • When I remove "h" from: rat he It doesn't accept "rate" as a correct word. What am I doing wrong?
      busymom0 on HN
    • I ended at: rat he I remove "h" but it doesn't accept "rate" as a correct word. Am I missing something?
      busymom0 on HN

Alternatives named

  • Shrinkle (shrinkle.org), a similar shrinking word game

    From 2 comments
    • WOW, we had a similar idea: https://www.shrinkle.org https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44714167 Great work!
      onion92 on HN
    • Feedback: I wasn’t sure what to do in the initial game state. It wasn’t obvious that the letters could be “clicked” directly. In a similar word game [0] (also posted on HN…
      pimlottc on HN
  • Wordle

    From 1 comment
    • Congrats on your imminent acquisition by the New York times (a'la Wordle)
      werds on HN
  • Gramjam

    From 1 comment
    • Cool, the description reminded me a bit of my word game https://gramjam.app, but after playing they're pretty different. I like your UX!
      jessecoleman on HN

Category, keywords, summaries and labels on this page were made by AI (Thread Reader v2) and not checked by hand. Each point links to the comments it came from.

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