18 Words
Games
word puzzle
SHOW HN2026
1,160points
366comments
#8of 4,366 in 2026
Top 1%of 2026 by points
How HN took it
MixedNo clear lean
85 positive, 119 neutral or asking, 15 mixed, 48 critical, out of 267 comments about the project. Thread score +0.19.
Design: 41 for, 22 againstIdea: 18 for, 5 againstExecution: 1 for, 21 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
Simple, clean UI and fun quick play
From 4 comments
The timer makes it not enjoyable for me. It seems necessary to the game design and I’m not being negatively critical. Just sharing an additional perspective. I’ve been playing…
Waterluvian on HNThis a good game. It’s fun, simple and quick. It’s self explanatory and clear what you need to do. The UI is almost perfect, it’s seamless on mobile and desktop. I made some…
curiousObject on HNVery fun and I loved the UI. Just wish I could have played the rest of the words ("photo" got me out)
fisher-brett on HNThis is great. The speed aspect reminds me of the old AOL chatroom word scramble games. I personally love the timer, but I also do the newspaper anagrams without a pen, so I'm…
forbiddenvoid on HN
Timer adds pressure and fun
From 3 comments
This is great. The speed aspect reminds me of the old AOL chatroom word scramble games. I personally love the timer, but I also do the newspaper anagrams without a pen, so I'm…
forbiddenvoid on HNI beat it! This is the first of your challenges I’ve actually completed. It’s coming along nicely btw, some people are saying they don’t like the timer but I personally think the…
ninjahawk1 on HNVery cool game - the timer put the pressure on quick! Have you thought about about enabling the ability to slide between letters like how you can on a mobile keyboard? This would…
thomasjackson29 on HN
Objections
Timer is frustrating and ends the game too early
From 4 comments
The timer makes it not enjoyable for me. It seems necessary to the game design and I’m not being negatively critical. Just sharing an additional perspective. I’ve been playing…
Waterluvian on HNI like the idea, but I didn't like losing after a few words. Now it might just be me not being good at losing, but who is? Maybe the game can always progress to the next word…
dirkc on HNI can understand the clock running out meaning a loss - but I still want to play the rest of the words? how do I do that? I don't think they are accessible anymore
NooneAtAll3 on HNI would suggest instead of a countdown timer, use time as a score (less time used = higher score) so at least the player can advance. Also it’s no fun and extremely annoying to…
temporallobe on HN
Some words accepted or rejected inconsistently (e.g. LATER/ALERT, COLOR)
From 2 comments
BUG: I guessed "LATER", but it said - wrong and mentioned "ALERT". The only fix I would make is to ensure that all possible words with scrambled characters make sense. LATER and…
qocialApp on HNLAMER is a real word and COLOR is not.
chadgpt3 on HN
Hard for non-native English speakers
From 3 comments
Non-native speaker here: really really hard, never make it past 13/18
woodpanel on HNKnow 6 languages and you will never get anything right. Search space too large.
timonoko on HNCool. I wish I could choose British English as an option though, I failed to get words like Humor or Color because they’re just not in my lexiy.
willtemperley on HN
Requests
Allow playing remaining words after losing
From 3 comments
I can understand the clock running out meaning a loss - but I still want to play the rest of the words? how do I do that? I don't think they are accessible anymore
NooneAtAll3 on HNVery fun and I loved the UI. Just wish I could have played the rest of the words ("photo" got me out)
fisher-brett on HNI failed on the last one, I wish I could've gone into "extra time" to keep guessing even if it didn't contribute to my score.
Retr0id on HN
Add other languages
From 2 comments
Non-native english speaker here. Any plan adding other languages? I have fun training my vocabulary, but my kids would love a french version :) Robust UI/UX and well balanced…
alucardo on HNLove the timer, that's the killer feature. I would add a leaderboard, and then from the second word on, as you keep guessing something like "better than 10% of users", to keep me…
altern8 on HN
Questions
What should happen when stuck: hints or skip?
From 1 comment
Thanks everyone for the feedback! Two questions 1. For a version without the timer what would you like to happen if you are just completely stuck on a word? Hints to reveal…
pompomsheep on HN
Alternatives named
23 Words (wordnerd.co)
From 1 comment
https://wordnerd.co/23words/ is similar (but 23 words instead of 18). Possibly the biggest difference is that 23 Words continues with the next word if you fail to get a word…
pekim on HN
Zanagrams
From 2 comments
The timer makes it not enjoyable for me. It seems necessary to the game design and I’m not being negatively critical. Just sharing an additional perspective. I’ve been playing…
Waterluvian on HNI didn't realise at first that you could choose letters which weren't adjacent which made it very hard! Guess I've been playing too much https://zanagrams.com/ (which was also…
nickcw on HN
Wordiest
From 1 comment
You should take a look at this: https://www.uptoplay.net/wordiest-online-game/com.concreterose.wordiest Very similar in spirit, but IMHO a lot more enjoyable than your version.…
lisper on HN