If you are frequent users of social networks, especially Twitter, you will have seen a clear trend in recent weeks. Timelines have been filled with green, yellow and gray squares. All of them crowned by a strange word: Wordle.
It is the new Internet sensation. Wordle is a free game with daily updates that has gained people’s hearts all around the world. Its English version was recently acquired by The New York Times, and the Spanish version took very little time to be developed. In this post from the Befree blog we take a look at the trend for the beginning of 2022: Wordle.
How does Wordle work?
The dynamics of Wordle are very simple. When you start, you are presented with a five-by-six grid. The goal is to guess the word of the day – which will always be five letters – in a maximum of six tries. When you try your luck with a term, Wordle will tell you if you have guessed a letter correctly.
It will do so with a color code. If the letter is not in the word of the day, it will be highlighted in gray. On the other hand, if the letter is part of the word but is not correctly placed, it will be colored yellow. Lastly, if it is well placed, it will be highlighted in green. By following the clues and repositioning the letters you will be able to guess the word of the day.
Its simple and appealing gameplay has made Wordle popular among all strata of society around the world. The fact that it can only be played once a day -since the word to be guessed is updated 24 hours later– leaves the player eager to come back the next day without fail.
Although the main objective of the game is to guess the hidden word, there are already several players competing to see who needs fewer attempts to find it. Wordle allows you to share your result without showing the term, so it’s a great way to start a sort of a tournament. Total tries to win are usually between three, four and five. Getting Wordle right on the second try can be considered a fascinating achievement, and getting it right on the sixth try a dismal failure.
Where does Wordle come from?
This popular game was born in 2013. Software engineer Josh Wardle created the pastime for his word game-loving girlfriend, Palak Shah. However, it wasn’t until the worldwide confinement due to the Covid-19 pandemic that Wardle and Shah didn’t delve into the idea of the game.
Wordle –whose name is a variation of its creator’s last name– was reborn in a Brooklyn apartment. There, Josh and Palak killed time with different word games, such as crossword puzzles and word searches. That’s how they remembered their game and decided to give it a breath of fresh air.
Shah created the list of about 2,500 words that Wordle has in its database. Wardle, on the other hand, fine-tuned the design and format to make it more adaptable to any user and launched it on the Internet. Without advertising, without the need to register and with the virtue of adapting to any device, Wordle has broken all the schemes.
So much so that we already have a Spanish version. It was created by Daniel Rodriguez, a Colombian living in Texas, and every day it brings together hundreds of thousands of people eager to guess the word of the day.
Wordle from the inside
One of the best features of the game is its simplicity. This is also in its inner workings and programming. Reportedly, it has a number of pre-programmed words that would be enough to play until 2024. In addition, the order of the words has also been designed manually, which explains why every day everyone has the same word.
Wordle does not go much beyond three HTML files and two static JavaScript files. All of them together amount to no more than 400 kb. Due to the purchase of the game by The New York Times, several users have decided to download Wordle for what might happen in the future.
In addition, video tutorials on how to create and program your own Wordle have also proliferated. In fact, there are even explanations on how to decipher the list of the next words to get right. However, from Befree SAP Talent Hub we recommend you to be honest and not to do it, of course.
