I was also bad enough at Wordle that I made an Excel spreadsheet to cheat at it for me (look through all the possible words and tell me which ones fit the clues given)
With six letter words, you will find many are weird variants of everyday words. Lots of yâs, sâs and edâs at the end too. I have a relatively decent vocabulary so I did put a probability scale on the words and it is much more likely to put words that I have at least heard of (even if I donât know what they mean) than a word I have never heard of. However, every once in a while you will get a word that nobody has heard of!
Todayâs seemed unusually hard. I solved it only after 8 strikes. [And after updating the app]
Some minor surprises: After 5 strikes I chose NOT to watch an ad to get more strikes. Figured I would just redo the puzzle. Nope: had to watch an ad to replay it. Just as well, I suppose, since I additional strike would not have helped, I would still have needed to restart the game (would that have required a second ad? Who knows?)
But if I had continued the first game and solved it, I think the scoring rules would say I get 0 points. By restarting, I earned 60 points.
System bug (or feature?): even though it said I got 60 points, I donât see myself on the leaderboard. What displays for all 3 ranks and all 3 positions is n/a.
Another system bug or incomplete statement? After strike 5 it offered me one more strike if I watched an ad. I declined, but if I had watched that ad, would I have gotten 2 more strikes? Or only one more, but after that one more another chance for another for watching another ad. [In which case, the 100 point bonus is available for those getting it before 7 after watching 2 ads]
It should say âWould you like to get 2 extra tries to solve the puzzle by watching an ad?â The âtriesâ are strikes. You would still get the 100 bonus if solved on first try including the two extra strikes. You donât have to watch an ad to play the daily puzzle the first time. After the first time, you do have to watch for subsequent tries. I didnât put a whole lot of thought into the scoring. Just something that made sense in most cases. When you make apps, it is better just to get something out there and update as you go along. It takes a while for people to find your app in the plethora of apps out there even with advertising. Make sure you have version 1.2. I think you may have updated to 1.1, but I have done 2 updates. The n/a is the same issue my wife had. It is before I was inadvertently using a 24 hour time period rather than a calendar day. It gets even weirder with time zones. I still havenât wrapped my head around that one.
How do I tell? I updated it in the app store this morning, after you posted that your wife had an issue due to not updating. I thought that would give me the latest version. The app store does not show it as an available update now. (Iâm better at updating iPad than phone. phone said I had 28 updates available this morning, so I updated them all. Now it says none available.)
If you go to the App Store page for the app and under the âWhatâs newâ section it says v1.2 and the top says open rather than update, then you have latest version. Easier way would be to lose a game under the Random Puzzle option and see if it shows you the letters that you did not get. That is the main new feature I added in the latest version.
OK I was not on version 1.2 and now am. Thatâs probably why I found todayâs puzzle hard (not really the reason).
Some minor oddities on the stats:
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My current streak is 1 day. Is that because, even though I have solved the puzzle for 3 straight days, I failed it on the first try today?
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I donât remember what if anything the history for random games showed before. Now it shows 1 game, a loss. My guess is that I never opened a random game, certainly never guessed a letter in one. (âCertainlyâ is my impression, so if you think thatâs impossible, maybe I did guess a letter. But donât recall that, and donât know why I would have stopped if I did,)
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For todayâs leaderboard I have 0 points, even though I earned 60 today in my second try, a game that is included in my cumulative history.
I have had some issues with the streaks that I think I have figured out, but they were fixed in version 1.2. Anything before you updated would not be accurate.
Losses are backed into from games played less each of the win stats. A game played counts if you hit the play button. If for some reason the app crashed or you shut it down, it would count as a loss. I am not sure if there is a bug if you are saying you didnât hit the random puzzle button. I am not sure what I can do, but play and see if it happens to me.
Did you win the game after updating to 1.2? Make sure you closed app after updating so it loads the new code.
I definitely won the game before updating to 1.2. I now (just to be sure Iâm now in 1.2) I closed it and reopened. Leaderboard still shows 0 points today (and there are 0 after updating). All time leaderboard has me at 350. I donât remember for sure, but I thinks thatâs correct as 160 day 1; 130 day 2; 60 today before updating.
Games history is 2 as 3 strikes, 1 at 4 strikes, 1 loss. That looks consistent with the 350 points: 3 strikes day 1; 4 strikes day 2; loss then 3 strikes today.
That also means (and I think this is good) that the first game I started today, which started with 3 strikes then it crashed, is not in the stats at all (unless somehow it is the random puzzle loss, but it definitely supposed to be todayâs puzzle, not a random puzzle.)
I donât get any points if I watch an ad to get 2 extra strikes - kind of makes it pointless to watch the ad, right?
I do appreciate you making them the short ads though, and not the long 30-60 second ones!
I also agree that it would be nice if the leaderboard scrolled. I have found myself trying to scroll on it multiple times.
My impression is that there are potential scoring advantages. If you solve it after 5 or 6 strikes, you get (I think) the 100 points for solving it on the first try. Also, not points but stats, if you solve it after 5 or 6 it is a win, not a loss.
Plus, if you donât solve it after 7 strikes but then play the game again(after another ad) your score in game 2 will be based on âtodayâs strikesâ - 7 instead of âtodayâs strikes - 5â.
Pro-tip: remember what your strikes (and hits) were in game 1, so that you donât repeat the mistakes in game 2.
Sorry, I was talking about random puzzles, not the daily puzzle.
Iâve played the game a little bit. Enough to get to 2 in the daily leaderboard - OldTimer is way ahead of me still though. Some of the words are just really hard. I think one thing Wordle did well was have a list of ~2,000 words to choose from. Just my opinion.
Also, once I start a random puzzle I canât quit without guessing a bunch. There should be an âXâ or something to close it out.
Iâm also really bad at these types of games, so maybe itâs just me that thinks itâs really hard. Would be nice if there were difficulty levels, or some sort of progression aspect.
I need levels (or some sort of progression) so that I have something (besides the leaderboard) to keep me going. You could watch an ad (or solve a certain number of puzzles) to earn a free letter on a puzzle at the time of your choosing.
It would be fun though if you had some sort of progression feel though. I am biased, as I find games without that boring and lose interest quickly. Even if it was just like a map and you tried to solve all the puzzles on the map (with some puzzles needing to be completed in order).
I put the extra two strikes with ads for those that really want to figure out the words. I may rethink the point system though at some point. Still thinking about making the leaderboard scrollable. It is actually easy to do. I just donât know if people will keep playing if first place has 20,000 points but the place above that person is only 5 points ahead.
Kudos to you for doing this at all. I think itâs really cool. Iâve always wanted to get into app development, but itâs a little daunting based on the small amount of coding knowledge I have.
Good ideas. I will have to think about the best way to do that. Progression games have certain challenges. My actual favorite game I put together is the only one that has progressions, but it is also my least downloaded and played. It is called Word Goblin. I have been thinking about rebranding it as I think that is the problem, but havenât got around to it.
I found todayâs puzzle to be quite challenging. I got it on the first try, but with 4 strikes. I really didnât think I was going to get it as I got 3 strikes right away.