After selling his hit puzzle game Wordle to The New York Times in 2022 for an undisclosed price somewhere in the “low seven figures,” Josh Wardle is finally back with a new game.
But while Wordle became hugely popular for its simple, intuitive, and satisfying gameplay, Wardle’s latest project, Parseword, is aiming for something quite different.
“Even people for whom English is their second language are able to play,” Wardle told The New Yorker about Wordle. The same cannot necessarily be said for Parseword, which is Wardle’s take on the cryptic crossword.
Cryptic crosswords are very different from the types of crosswords most Americans are familiar with, which are known as concise crosswords.
Concise crosswords often feel like a game of trivia. Players try to solve each clue while making sure their answers fit within the allotted boxes. The clues are confirmed by checking the intersecting answers. If all the letters line up correctly, the puzzle is solved
Cryptic crosswords, on the other hand, treat each clue as its own puzzle. Instead of straightforward definitions, the clues rely on wordplay that hints at the answer. The rules can be tricky to explain, and there are many different ways a clue can be constructed.
It’s easier to see how it works with an example from Parseworld’s own tutorial. In the clue “Taxi reduced fee,” players are prompted to use wordplay to use “taxi” and “reduced” to get to a word with the same definition as “fee.” By “reducing” taxi to tax, you get the answer. Each clue in a cryptic crossword follows a similar kind of wordplay.
With Parseword, Wardle is trying to make the format more approachable. Instead of a full crossword grid, the game gives players a single daily clue along with a definition word they’re trying to reach.
Unlike Wordle, which was easy to jump into immediately, Parseword gives players the opportunity to learn the mechanics over time as they play.
Wardle, who is from Wales, said he played cryptic crosswords when he was younger. But he didn’t really get into them until he heard Craig Mazin, the showrunner of HBO’s Chernobyl and The Last of Us series, talk about them on the Scriptnotes podcast.
After falling in love with them, Wardle wanted to create a game that could help teach people the rules behind these tricky puzzles. He also sees Parseword as an opportunity to do things differently this time around.
Wardle told The New Yorker that the day he sold Wordle was the last time he played it. He also recounted how the sudden fame and attention that came with the game going viral were pretty overwhelming for him.
“Releasing Parseword is happening more on my own terms, instead of happening to me,” he said.
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