Brooklyn-based software developer Josh Wardle created it last year as a gift for his partner, who was obsessed with word games like the New York Times’ “Spelling Bee”. Wardle put the game up for free online in October, and it qui...

Most successful ideas do not arrive out of nowhere; they’re extensions or riffs on existing ones.

This is particularly true with games, where tinkering with an existing form of play can create something that’s i) delightfully new while ii) also being familiar. That combo of “new” yet “famil...

Living as we do in a capitalist society, it’s easy to assume the only reason people would engage in creative labour is for profit. But the world of culture doesn’t work that way. It’s always been full of creators who are

1. astonishingly productive and
2. propelled by desire...

When we’re creating things, it’s normal to start worrying about how our audience will react. All those different people, with different aesthetics! Some of them are gonna love this part of what you’re doing, but hate this other part. Worrying about this can lead you into a ratho...

It’s frequently very valuable to pay attention how your audience is interacting with your work. They see things you don’t, and come up with ideas you can’t. In the early days of Twitter, it was clever users who invented the retweet and the at-reply. To their credit, Twitter’s engineers spotted th...

Anyone can play Wordle, in any browser. You don’t need to create an account or log in. You don’t need an app store. Wardle avoided every single digital walled garden, and instead went with the most wide-open field available: The web.

People are especially enthusiastic abou...

Wordle offers up only one new word everyday. That’s it. Once you’ve solved the day’s word, you…stop playing. You go do other stuff, like your job or hanging out with your loved ones. Sure, you might hanker to play more Wordle, but you can’t. You gotta wait until tomorrow.

Unlike nearly all ...