I need some help! π¨
Would any of my handful of followers on here like to try beta-testing a new game for me?
It's a word puzzle; you have 100 seconds to find as many words as possible that fit the letters/blanks you are given. As time goes on, there are more words available for you to find.
If you get a chance to play, let me know if anything doesn't work, or looks wrong.
The game has no name yet, but here's the dev server:
https://fillintheblanks.herokuapp.com/
@everywhereist @bykimbo @defaced @martinmeany @HelenTheWalt
Thanks! I appreciate you all testing it out!
I'm super stuck for a name / domain to launch it on. If anyone has any smart ideas, I'd love to hear them. π
@bykimbo Haha - the first puzzle I tested it on was 'SPARK', so I just called it 'the spark puzzle' for a while π
That's cool! I like the idea of playing with the number 'five' somehow.
@joehall Thanks!
Highly caffeinated was how I intended it to be played π
@joehall @everywhereist I know what you mean. π I'm a big fan of slow games like Spelling Bee & Wordle.
There are lots of timed games that are "how fast can you complete these?" (eg: the NYT Mini Crossword) but I didn't know of any word games that flip that mechanic to "what can you achieve in a limited time?".
My next game will be slower paced. I promise π
@randfish I think that could be interesting. I did it this way for now to let people swipe full words on their phone keyboard, but I do like the idea of just typing the missing letters - which is more like how crossword apps usually do things.
I'll give it a try!
@RobOusbey @everywhereist @randfish
Funnily enough I just tried it and my only complaint was going to be that I kept trying to write the whole word instead of just the missing letters so I kept making nonsense words. Also sometimes I forgot I had to press enter.
@mattsevits Oops, thanks! This is exactly the kind of broken thing I was hoping people would find.
Looks like I designed it be "responsive as long as you have a big-ass phone." π¬
@RobOusbey Really, really like this Rob! Actually very impressed at myself for getting 25 points on my first try!
Wondering if there's a way of changing the UX around slightly so you know when you're running out of time on each stint a little easier. I found that I was in the middle of typing a word and lost it before sending it because I ran out of time, haha!
That might be just me though.
Love the concept, though! Would be super fun to play daily to get the brain moving!
@nk Good question!
I took a cue from the NYT crossword, which changes over at 7pm Pacific / 10pm Eastern / 3am UK.
I've seen the frustration with daily puzzle games where people want to play more than just once per day, so I'm also planning on launching with a decent number of backdated games in the archive for people to play as well.
@nk Haha, awesome, thank you!!
My other most popular game is https://cloudle.app , which also resets at 10pm ET - in case you're looking for something to do in the meantime! π
Game is solid/fun!
Some bugs:
Dropping a letter mid-typing is difficult to track. Creates bad entries when typing good words.
On the STAID puzzle, I had ST on the board, and I tried to enter ILL for βSTILLβ
The T dropped out mid-typing and I wound up with LTIL on the board.
On that note, pressing enter with an incomplete word should clear the board same as when you do a bad entry. manual deleting sucks.
Also, text overlaps when multiple messages appear quickly.
@MrFancyPants Thanks for the feedback.
The v2 of this that I launched last night changed the way answers are entered, and lead to the 'letters disappearing while typing' issue. ( @marvs5 noticed the same thing.)
I'll try to find a way to solve for this today. Probably going to involve only removing the letter right after you submit a word.
Do you have an example of how to get the overlapping messages? I can't recreate it.
I made updates based on your notes! π Letters now won't disappear while typing (waits until you submit a word), and the messages won't overlap with the score.
It might have been messages overlapping with score
@mattvanhorn Thanks for the feedback! I just made an update that nudges players to hit enter after filling in the letters, until they have a few words under their belt.
When you say "helpful if the target of keyboard input was highlighted", what did you have in mind?
@zainsyed Thanks for the UI feedback! I just pushed an update that makes the enter button flash a little, once you've filled in the letters.
This hint goes away after you've gotten a couple of words (since I assume the player has the hang of things by then), but hopefully should help people on their first time playing.
Daniel Laurison
Rob Ousbey
π¦ Kimbo πππ
Marty | Goosed 
π³ππππ π―πππππ
Geraldine
Monica Di, PhD 
Cluss Straggle
Chris Johnson
Joe Hall
Rand Fishkin
Shauna GM
Matt Sevits
Schadenfreude-by-proxy
jason r. totten
Ryan Jones
Priya (She/Her)
Marv S
Natasha Knox
Marcos Wright-Kuhns
Mr. FancyPants
CindyG
Matt Van Horn
Zain Syed