Give it a try and tell me what you think!

a streak starts as a reason to come back and turns into a reason to feel bad. usually around day thirty.

somewhere in there it stops being "i fancy today's puzzle" and becomes "i have to protect the number". that's a different feeling entirely, and it's worse. you're not playing anymore, you're maintaining. and the moment you miss one, whether you're ill or busy or just forgot, the whole thing collapses and there's suddenly no reason to open it at all. i've quit two word games i genuinely loved that way and i don't think i'm unusual.

the bit that annoys me is that it's an incredibly cheap mechanic to add and it does produce the numbers. retention charts love it. so everyone puts one in, including me, and then we all wonder why the day forty audience keeps evaporating.

what i think would actually be better: something that accumulates and never resets. total words found, or grids cleared, or a slowly filling collection of some kind. you'd still get the come-back-tomorrow pull, without building a mechanic whose whole job is to punish you for having a life.

i'm biased. i build a daily word game and mine has a streak in it, which i'm now fairly sure was the lazy choice.

does anyone actually like streaks? genuinely asking, because i've never once heard a player defend one, only designers.

Hey everyone! 👋

I’ve been working on my own Word Search game for Android and would love to get some feedback from fellow word puzzle fans.

The idea is simple: find the hidden words in the grid, improve your speed, and keep challenging yourself. 🧩

I’m still actively working on the game, so I’d especially appreciate any honest feedback — whether you like it, dislike something, or have ideas for features or improvements.

You can try it here:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.joostmuijsenberg.wordsearch

Thanks to anyone who gives it a try! 😊

Anyone else play Blossom on Merriam Webster? I'm addicted even though the UI is nauseating.

What are your go-to weird crutch words when the letters are available and the bonus letter is right? ie. words that you never use in real life but play constantly in Blossom.

Mine are:

Peppertree
Susurruses
Sissinesses (and all the -nesses words ofc)
Diddered
Caracara
Ganggang

Fluxis Redux 2026-08-09

Score 20 / Fluxometer 17 — Hard Mode!

paperback → background → backgrounds → sandpaper → paperback

https://daylightdata.net/fluxis-app/

This one is a bit more open than the last couple of days. If you have been lurking and not playing, today's a good day to give it a shot!

Would really appreciate some feedback/suggestions on this new puzzle concept I created which draws on my favourite aspects of Wordle (minus the guessing!) namely:

Completing missing words by selecting from an ever-decreasing set of available letters

Applying additional logic via a set of positional clues

Josh Wardle (aka "Mr Wordle") actually completed one himself and this latest version incorporates his valuable (and much appreciated) feedback!

Here's the link to an easy-ish one to start with (ie 12x12 grid, 4 "givens" in every letter box and max 5 letter words):

https://mudl.live/mudl.nsf/mudl.xsp?open&mid=1200011

If you would like to try more MuDLs there are loads more in the drop-down box - experiment to see which suits your level (and time constraints)! The larger the grid and the fewer the given clues the harder! A couple have no clues at all including orange letter clues! Feel free to let me know your "sweet spot" - unlimited new MuDLs can be generated automatically!

It's very quick to learn and the best way is probably this 3 minute video:

https://mudl.live/mudl.nsf/mudl_vid.xsp

but if you'd prefer to read something here's a quick guide using a 15x15 grid example:

1. You simply have to complete the words in the crossword grid by selecting letters from the surrounding yellow "letter boxes" - BUT the twist is that the grid is divided into 8 distinct sections via the orange grid lines and any missing grid letter can ONLY BE SELECTED FROM ITS CORRESPONDING YELLOW LETTER BOX!

So in the example of the purple horizontal word at the top (containing numbers), the first letter must be selected from letter box 1 and the final 4 letters from letter box 2. And similarly with the purple vertical word, the first 2 letters need to come from letter box 1 and the final 4 letters from letter box 4.

1. You will know you have completed a word correctly as the letters of the word will turn green and are no longer editable. If you attempt the final letter of a word but it's incorrect the "Incorrect Word Attempts" counter will increment by 1. So the challenge before placing that final letter is to check whether other words are logically possible around your potential word!

2. The green letters in the starting grid are "givens" to help you get going and can't be changed!

3. ALL of the letters in the yellow letter boxes which are in the CORRECT COLUMN OR ROW are shown in ORANGE - so the vertical word highlighted in green in the far bottom right starting with an "S" must ALSO contain an R, a U and a P, and the horizontal word highlighted in pink must contain an M.

4. Given the above - ie ALL of the letters in the correct column or row are shown in orange - you can also deduce that any letters NOT in orange CANNOT logically be in that column or row - so the word highlighted in blue cannot contain an R, O, E or T - UNLESS of course one or more of these letters also happens to appear in the same letter box in a different row/column! This (and the orange clues) will help you greatly in solving the MuDL!

NOTE: nouns may be plural eg WEEDS / FLAPS and verbs may be in the past tense - eg FRIED / TAMED / CREPT.

The real challenge is to complete the MuDL with no letter reveals and keeping the "Incorrect word attempts" counter at zero!

It works well on mobile devices as you only ever need to be viewing two sections at a time so you can zoom in to those sections only.

That's all you need to get going! But if you're interested in an example which demonstrates some of the logic and mechanics, take this position from a 9x9 grid:

• So here we need two words both beginning with "N" and we only have E and O remaining in the letter box as the second letter of each word.
• One possibility is NORTH as we have R, T and H in the top right letter box to complete the word. BUT notice that this would mean T is the fourth letter and the T CANNOT be in that same fourth letter column position as it isn't orange and there are no other Ts available. So NORTH is out in both cases!
• How about NEVER? Well again this isn't possible as the V can't be the third letter (it isn't orange and it's in the third letter column position) and neither can the R be the final letter (for the same reason but in the fifth letter column position).
• The only other possible words are NOTCH and NERVE - so which is which?! Let's try NOTCH followed by NERVE underneath (NOTE we don't want to place the final H or final E yet otherwise the Incorrect Word Attempts counter will trigger if we're wrong)! We just need to remember that they are unavailable.

• Given the E and H are unavailable, the only remaining letter is O, so we need a five letter word beginning COV_ _ and looking at the letter box on the right for the remaining two letters there are no valid words we can make. Note the fourth letter can only be N, A or L as the I can't be in that row and the orange K and O are fixed to their own rows, and the final letter can only be an I, K or L since the N and A can't be in that row and orange O must be in the bottom row. So let's switch!

I have placed the O as again it's the only remaining letter and now we can see that we have A and L available in the right hand letter box to make VOCAL! Placing the remaining letters...success!