wiggly letters and a little strategy: Clickword
February 19, 2023 3:21 PM Subscribe
Clickword is a new word puzzle game where you "drag letter tiles to a grid and build words to score points." It's a bit like Scrabble, but since words disappear after you form them and you get a few fresh tiles at a time to arrange on the board, it also reminds me a bit of Tetris (but it's turn-based; there's no ticking clock). Each game ends once you've placed 60 letters. From the creator of squareword.
Enjoy the "check word" option in the upper right: "Type a word with at least 3 letters to see if it's in the wordlist".
I believe right now it's English-only.
Drag letters to anywhere on the board. Once at least 3 letters form a word, they disappear and you get points. Words can be horizontal or vertical.Plus you get bonuses for, e.g., placing a letter that forms a horizontal and a vertical word simultaneously.
Letters wiggle to show that they will make words. If there are multiple possible words, the longest is chosen. Place letters strategically to make longer words.
You get points for each word. Rare letters are worth more points.
Get as many points as possible with 60 letters!
Enjoy the "check word" option in the upper right: "Type a word with at least 3 letters to see if it's in the wordlist".
I believe right now it's English-only.
293 on my first try. Felt really frustrating to only get three letters at a time, with no way of knowing what comes next. But I can see this being a good way to pass the time.
posted by Night_owl at 4:28 PM on February 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Night_owl at 4:28 PM on February 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
Very fun!! 318 but I can see where I could have done better. I'll definitely be trying again tomorrow. Thanks for this!
posted by saladin at 4:39 PM on February 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by saladin at 4:39 PM on February 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
292 on effort #1, which is apparently in a percentile that makes me fear for the future of civilization.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 4:44 PM on February 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by ricochet biscuit at 4:44 PM on February 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
204, which puts me in the "top 50%"
It's kind, I'll give it that.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 4:48 PM on February 19, 2023
It's kind, I'll give it that.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 4:48 PM on February 19, 2023
331 on the first outing, definitely see a lot I could do to improve...
posted by kaibutsu at 5:12 PM on February 19, 2023
posted by kaibutsu at 5:12 PM on February 19, 2023
Their word list is missing perfectly good words like "wort".
A thing that bugs me is that I might decide to set up a longish word like THA_K, hoping to get a N, and then not get one, even though N is a fairly common letter. On one hand, the standard advice is not to draw to an inside straight. On the other hand, long words are worth more, and most long words have short words as prefixes or infixes, meaning that if you want the big points, you need to take silly risks. In moden Tetris implementations, you can hold out for an I because you are guaranteed to get one. Here, you cannot do that, since the game has an arbitrary end.
I am not sure how I would fix this. Showing the whole sequence in advance would lead to analysis paralysis. Having the generator be friendly (giving letters that fill whatever you lay doen) would encourage a really weird style of play, but might be interesting.
Over a long enough game, maybe you get the N often enough to make the risk worthwhile. But without knowing the letter distribution, it's awfully hard to know.
posted by novalis_dt at 5:20 PM on February 19, 2023 [3 favorites]
A thing that bugs me is that I might decide to set up a longish word like THA_K, hoping to get a N, and then not get one, even though N is a fairly common letter. On one hand, the standard advice is not to draw to an inside straight. On the other hand, long words are worth more, and most long words have short words as prefixes or infixes, meaning that if you want the big points, you need to take silly risks. In moden Tetris implementations, you can hold out for an I because you are guaranteed to get one. Here, you cannot do that, since the game has an arbitrary end.
I am not sure how I would fix this. Showing the whole sequence in advance would lead to analysis paralysis. Having the generator be friendly (giving letters that fill whatever you lay doen) would encourage a really weird style of play, but might be interesting.
Over a long enough game, maybe you get the N often enough to make the risk worthwhile. But without knowing the letter distribution, it's awfully hard to know.
posted by novalis_dt at 5:20 PM on February 19, 2023 [3 favorites]
It definitely doesn't feel like scrabble distribution. I think I'd like it a lot more if instead of a seemingly-arbitrary 60 letters, it was just a single scrabble bag.
posted by rifflesby at 5:26 PM on February 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by rifflesby at 5:26 PM on February 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
It doesn't let you take a move back, and the cursor is a little imprecise on a touchscreen.
Also it wouldn't accept HYOID. It was on a practice game, so I'm not angry about it, but like, have a complete dictionary, guys.
After it didn't take that, I spent the rest of the game filling in as many letters as I could without making a word.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 5:30 PM on February 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
Also it wouldn't accept HYOID. It was on a practice game, so I'm not angry about it, but like, have a complete dictionary, guys.
After it didn't take that, I spent the rest of the game filling in as many letters as I could without making a word.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 5:30 PM on February 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
I been needing something to get past my Wordle fix.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 5:52 PM on February 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 5:52 PM on February 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
Maybe take a cue from Free Cell solitaire, and have three off board spaces that can carry unplayed tiles?
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 6:10 PM on February 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 6:10 PM on February 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
How do people know their percentile? I'm not seeing that anywhere.
posted by coffeecat at 6:53 PM on February 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by coffeecat at 6:53 PM on February 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
How do people know their percentile? I'm not seeing that anywhere.
It only shows after the daily challenge, not the practice games.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 7:14 PM on February 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
It only shows after the daily challenge, not the practice games.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 7:14 PM on February 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
meaning that if you want the big points, you need to take silly risks
So far what's working best for me is trying to get double words, but with a common (e.g. vowel) as the keystone, particularly with the 2x word tiles. Just got 410 on the practice almost entirely down to getting 194 for saved|coma and 68 for husk|wisp (more than the 224 I got all together in the daily game).
posted by Buntix at 7:20 PM on February 19, 2023
So far what's working best for me is trying to get double words, but with a common (e.g. vowel) as the keystone, particularly with the 2x word tiles. Just got 410 on the practice almost entirely down to getting 194 for saved|coma and 68 for husk|wisp (more than the 224 I got all together in the daily game).
posted by Buntix at 7:20 PM on February 19, 2023
Most annoying thing so far, accidentally making a 3 letter word nuking the longer one you were aiming for.
Just fscked up doze|tow because I got greedy and added a d to the end of d_zed before adding the o and zed flashed and was gone :/
posted by Buntix at 7:26 PM on February 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
Just fscked up doze|tow because I got greedy and added a d to the end of d_zed before adding the o and zed flashed and was gone :/
posted by Buntix at 7:26 PM on February 19, 2023 [2 favorites]
Why on earth is HOS accepted as a three letter word, but NIGHTLY is not in the dictionary?
posted by axiom at 8:41 PM on February 19, 2023
posted by axiom at 8:41 PM on February 19, 2023
There's no way NIGHTLY would fit the grid.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 9:11 PM on February 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 9:11 PM on February 19, 2023 [1 favorite]
It only shows after the daily challenge, not the practice games.
If anyone else is wondering about this, it only tells you your percentile if it's above 50% - or at least, today I got top 40%, while my partner did a bit worse than me and got no similar message.
posted by coffeecat at 10:11 AM on February 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
If anyone else is wondering about this, it only tells you your percentile if it's above 50% - or at least, today I got top 40%, while my partner did a bit worse than me and got no similar message.
posted by coffeecat at 10:11 AM on February 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
It doesn't let you take a move back, and the cursor is a little imprecise on a touchscreen.
Also it wouldn't accept HYOID. It was on a practice game, so I'm not angry about it, but like, have a complete dictionary, guys.
After it didn't take that, I spent the rest of the game filling in as many letters as I could without making a word.
I learn best by fucking around and finding out, but this game won't let you do that and now I'm stuck with a nonsense board that I cannot reset. Oh well, I'll see that game in hell, I guess.
posted by NoMich at 10:57 AM on February 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
Also it wouldn't accept HYOID. It was on a practice game, so I'm not angry about it, but like, have a complete dictionary, guys.
After it didn't take that, I spent the rest of the game filling in as many letters as I could without making a word.
I learn best by fucking around and finding out, but this game won't let you do that and now I'm stuck with a nonsense board that I cannot reset. Oh well, I'll see that game in hell, I guess.
posted by NoMich at 10:57 AM on February 20, 2023 [1 favorite]
I'm enjoying this - it does need a more obvious reset action on the practice games and the dictionary is a bit bizarre. But you can absolutely look up words before trying to painstakingly construct them from multiple rounds of lucky letter pulls.
This is a better fit for my word building strategy needs than Wordle-and-friends. Your mileage, obviously, will vary.
posted by abulafa at 1:01 PM on February 20, 2023
This is a better fit for my word building strategy needs than Wordle-and-friends. Your mileage, obviously, will vary.
posted by abulafa at 1:01 PM on February 20, 2023
I'm not feeling this one, but his other game Square Words is fun .
posted by kathrynm at 5:51 PM on February 20, 2023
posted by kathrynm at 5:51 PM on February 20, 2023
569, top 0,1% today…. is none playing this anymore? (Also, yes, it’s basically all about setting up keystone-crossed words.)
posted by progosk at 8:33 PM on February 21, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by progosk at 8:33 PM on February 21, 2023 [1 favorite]
Still playing. I'm actually finding my score tending downward. The dictionary is strangely arbitrary.
It feels like it needs just a little rules or score or randomizer tweak, some games get into very un-fun situations quickly with six or twelve useless letters in a row.
posted by abulafa at 10:55 PM on February 21, 2023 [1 favorite]
It feels like it needs just a little rules or score or randomizer tweak, some games get into very un-fun situations quickly with six or twelve useless letters in a row.
posted by abulafa at 10:55 PM on February 21, 2023 [1 favorite]
I'm still playing, got my best score today (724, top 0.1%). Setting up words with four x2 bonuses and ideally two long words is pretty satisfying. And easier now with the new rules.
posted by twirlypen at 6:08 AM on March 5, 2023
posted by twirlypen at 6:08 AM on March 5, 2023
I emailed the Clickword and Squareword maintainer to share the link to this thread a few weeks ago, and the other day I got a response that included thanks for how helpful the discussion here was:
"I incorporated quite a bit of the feedback into a big update yesterday. Word list and letter distribution should be much better now."
So if you were dissatisfied when you tried the game before, say, March 5th, consider trying again.
posted by brainwane at 4:27 PM on March 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
"I incorporated quite a bit of the feedback into a big update yesterday. Word list and letter distribution should be much better now."
So if you were dissatisfied when you tried the game before, say, March 5th, consider trying again.
posted by brainwane at 4:27 PM on March 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
The March 5th update to Clickword, per the text on the website:
Hello! Based on your feedback I have made a few important changes to ClickWord.posted by brainwane at 4:43 PM on March 6, 2023
First, words will no longer disappear automatically. Instead, they turn green, and you have to click on them to claim them. If you don't claim a word, it stays on the board, and you can add letters to make it longer. This makes it easier to build long words!
However, if you choose not to claim the word, you must add a new letter to it to be able to claim it later. Be careful with words that cross - if you do not claim them when they turn green, you will not be able to claim them together later! I recommend playing practice mode for a bit to get the hang of it.
Second, I have extended the wordlist. It should include many more words now!
Third, you can now undo the placement of some tiles - just click on the undo sign on the bottom of the screen after a tile has been placed.
Fourth, as you may have seen, there is now a [fact_check] button, which allows you to check if a word is valid.
Enjoy, and let me know what you think!
« Older Abolitionist creativity | “She doesn’t get as much credit as she should for... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
This is fun--thanks for sharing.
posted by box at 4:12 PM on February 19, 2023 [2 favorites]