Lots more than one

Is there anyone left in the connected world that doesn’t know about Wordle yet? Among my circle of connected friends, it’s a very popular game. Lots of people share their scores and their successes. Others don’t, and that’s OK.

People seem to fall into two camps – one camp loves the game and the other camp refuses to play it for whatever reason. Maybe because it only offers one chance per day? Or they’re not on the bandwagon.

Personally, I probably play it more days than I don’t. I do allow myself a few moments in the morning for game playing and it’s usually been Words with Friends, Boggle, and 7 Little Words. They’re all applications on my phone and so it’s difficult to miss. Wordle needs a visit in the browser and I typically don’t think about it until I notice someone else playing and sharing a score!

We know the history of the program (and if you don’t, there’s no shortages of articles about that) and that it’s been acquired by the New York Times where it continues to be freely available. If you haven’t noticed, the original United Kingdom URL now redirects to the New York Times. The big fear among many is that it may ultiimately end up behind a paywall. There are no shortages of suggestions about how to download the entire game to your hard drive to avoid this. Most of the Wordle posts talk about how to play the game so I’ll avoid that as well.

Recently, it’s been hard to noticed that there are all kinds of other implementations of the game available freely on the web. It was Lisa Cranston who first took me down this rabbit hole when she shared a like to Wordle2. Then, yesterday, another friend Linda Willson shared a score from Brydle and that got me even further down the rabbit hole and I went looking for others. That’s what you’ll find below. We all have the original Wordle to thank for the inspiration and perhaps the fear of the New York Times making it pay for play to have people come out with their own.

Here’s what I was able to find. I did limit myself to things that could be played in a browser so that I could easily check them out and not have to download. No guarantees about any of them but it was just an interesting collection to build. Given the special topic of words, I hope that I get them all in alphabetical order correctly!

Wordle – the original – https://www.nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html

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• Absurdle – a game that doesn’t want you to win – read the rules – https://qntm.org/files/absurdle/absurdle.html
• Byrdle – choral related adaptation – https://www.byrdle.net/
• Canuckle – a Canadian version – https://canucklegame.github.io/canuckle/
• Chordle – play with music instead of words – https://www.chordle.synthase.cc/
• Dordle – guess two words at the same time – https://zaratustra.itch.io/dordle
• Jewdle – all things Jewish – https://www.jewdle.app/
• Le Mot – Wordle en français – https://wordle.louan.me/
• Lewdle – a place to use all those dirty words – https://www.lewdlegame.com/
• Nerdle – because numbers are more fun than words? – https://nerdlegame.com/
• Not Wordle – although it looks like Wordle to me – https://darkcl.github.io/wordle/
• Obscurdle – a rendition with new rules – https://obscurdle.com/
• Ooodle – fun puzzle with mathematics – https://mathszone.co.uk/resources/grid/ooodle/
• Queerdle – a LGBTQ+ adaptation with special rules – https://queerdle.com/
• Quordle – Seriously? Four words at one? – https://www.quordle.com/
• Star Wordle – for Star Wars fans – https://www.starwordle.com/
• Sweardle – a place to use all those four letters words you know – https://sweardle.com/
• Swordle – another one for Star Wars fans – https://wordle.starwars.guide/
• Taylordle – for Taylor Swift fans – https://www.taylordle.com/
• Word Guessr – set your own grid size – https://engaging-data.com/wordguessr-wordle/
• Wordle2 – the grid expands to 6 x 6 – https://www.wordle2.in/
• Wordle Unlimited – allows more than one play a day – https://www.wordleunlimited.com/
• Worldle – a spin into the world of geography – https://worldle.teuteuf.fr/

Do you know of any others? Please add to the list via comment below.

I’ve created this Wakelet as a place to bring all this together.