Minor, but may be unnecessarily upsetting to non-tech-savvy players. Just display a loading message instead.
steps to repeat: Enter "shaft" for 29th aug. What i see: No feedback is given that the word doesn't meet the constraints, except the enter key is (correctly) disabled. What is expected: It'd be good to have always at least a clearer indication when the word doesn't meet the constraints (though in this case i think it'd be e...
The text this places in the clipboard would include your rare (or all) words. Unlike in wordle i think those are of much more interest to others. This could include the necessary character(s) to hide the spoiler behind a WhatsApp read more section toggle: https://yi-jiayu.github.io/whatsapp-spoilers/
I think there are a different mindsets which one could have coming into the game (e.g. point-hunter, species-collector, fun-seeker) - so it feels difficult to specify "this is the correct way to play the game", but I do understand that some people may not immediately have a strong sense of "what am I trying to do here?" Mayb...
This'll help spot issues such as hard to understand conditions, or condition combos that break some people's heads. Though i guess capturing time taken, number of incorrect guesses, etc, may also tell you some of this. Knowing which puzzles people found enjoyable will be useful, too.
My instinct is that some types and combinations of conditions feel much more interesting than others. I am interested in collecting feedback as we go along as to what days / combinations are more or less enjoyable to play!
Right now, we distinguish between: - 🆕: first time ever catching this species - ⬜️: species caught before e.g. in the below grid 🟨🟧🟦🟨🟧 🆕🆕🆕🆕⬜️ the first 4 species were 'first time ever caught', and the 5th was 'previously caught'. With repeat games, it's (of course) more likely that it starts to skew towards 'previously cau...
For puzzle of [unimportant] i entered [word 1] [word 2] [word 3] [word 4] [word 5] [ed note: all reasonably similar] and it said 4 new species and one new word ([word 3]). Not having fully grokked what a species was i was a little unsure why stock wasn't a new species until i looked through the other species. Perhaps nice ...
We can make it clearer how 'fish species caught' and 'word submitted' are related, e.g. - explaining / signposting in the tutorial to look at 'Diet' - maybe there's a step, "What type of words does this fish eat?" - getting them to submit a word that is same species, to see the distinction Some example feedback: - "It's ne...
"It would be nice to get a running total with each word submitted so I know how hard to try for my remaining words to beat my personal record"
I'm wondering whether players would find it interesting to have an optional post-play "here's some words that would have fitted". Maybe something like '3 belonging to Common species, 3 belonging to Uncommon species, 3 belonging to Rare species'. This comes from me having a day of all Commons (partially because of a Wonderlu...
The way we compute hints may need to take into account the constraints a bit better. For example, here, the 4-letter hint '_OULS' entirely gives away the answer since the fifth letter is repeated at least twice.
Some words may feel like they should belong to an Uncommon / Rare species, but actually belong (currently) to a Common species. It might be useful to collect data on this, or give players a way to communicate this. (It might be frustrating to feel like you found a cool word, but only get a 'Common' Letterfish back.)
I'm considering rewarding 'streak of X days' with a "special" Wonderlure bonus (which e.g. might boost the odds of Rare from the normal 40%)
Currently the user may be shown an amber-coloured feedback under their input boxes (which pushes them up), or a red-coloured one above their input boxes. The red one does not clear even when the input changes (only when there is a successful submission). This should be fixed and standardised.
It might be interesting to award points to users on a basis of 'style'. e.g. if a constraint is 'at least twice' and you use the letter three times, perhaps you get a style bonus?
The keyboard is somewhat small at the moment. We're trying to create space for a few different aspects, but we could possibly achieve this in other ways, e.g. make the keyboard expandable (and shrinkable / minimizable), so people opt-in to it e.g. covering up their species
keen puzzlers may already have invested time thinking of some remaining answers but the game cuts them off. Might be nice to let them finish (giving them choice to go to today's puzzle).
e.g. in this puzzle, the first constraint is redundant - it's already implied by the second constraint
e.g. daily streak breaks if you forget (or are too busy) to do a day's puzzle