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The OP does a terrific job detailing the simple beauty of Wordle. Is it OK if we like it more because it was born out of love?: ‘Wordle is a love story’ https:

The OP does a terrific job detailing the simple beauty of Wordle. Is it OK if we like it more because it was born out of love?: ‘Wordle is a love story’ https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/03/technology/wordle-word-game-creator.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/03/technology/wordle-word-ga... And in the space of a month went from ‘introduced in NY Times’ to ‘bought by NY Times’? ‘The New York Times Buys Wordle’ https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/31/business/media/new-york-times-wordle.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/31/business/media/new-york-t... In many ways, I think this is the perfected ideal of what engineer-creators hope for. The intense focus on making something that feels magical for one - even better that that one is magical to you. Sharing the creation with a few friends and having them experience the magic too. And having the world recognize, and then pay $ millions, for your creation done in the name of love. No years lost in the lab, no fighting with corporate suits to keep ads out, no long marches of ‘growth’ tactics that feel icky. It is the Romantic Ideal of Engineering. Does any other story come close?

kyawzazaw 5y ago
Maybe this - https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/mar/25/summly-sold-yahoo-teenage-creator https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/mar/25/summly-so...
- chairmanwow1 5y ago
  Summly was an amazing thing
bobthepanda 5y ago
Stardew Valley doesn‘t have nearly as short of a timeframe but is another labor of love success.
- marricks 5y ago
  I think it's an even better personal success than Wordle, or at least different. It was a man's labor of love for years, which tied together all his interests: music, art, programming, games. And better yet he built a career out of doing all of those things and still owns and maintains it years later. Presumably still loves it too.
  - smoldesu 5y ago
    A lot of breakout successes follow that formula. While I'm not particularly fond of his work, I have nothing but respect for Toby Fox and the years of work he put into bringing his dream to reality.
    - Vepkhvi 5y ago
      Toby Fox made undertale, not Stardew. But it’s definitely in the same vein of “labor of love!”
- NicoJuicy 5y ago
  If you looked at the engineer of worldle, he tried a lot of similar games before eg. On mobile. Dating back since 2013. So, while it could be created in a short timeframe. A lot of experience/thinking went into it. Edit: changed 2016 to 2013
  - ehsankia 5y ago
    The original prototype for Wordle was actually back in 2013 [0]. But yeah he didn't really touch it until mid 2021 when he recreated it from scratch. The improved word list which plays a huge role came then, with the help of his partner classifying all 13k 5-letter words. I believe the share function came much later when he noticed people actually manually typing those colored squares. [0] https://youtu.be/X_e2IEaR4aA?t=1130 https://youtu.be/X_e2IEaR4aA?t=1130
sam1r 5y ago
>> Does any other story come close? What about Mailbox [2013] being shut-down after Dropbox acquisition? [0] I feel like many of gmail's archive and swipe-shortcuts are heavily inspired by Mailbox. [0] https://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/dropbox-just-killed-mailbox-the-greatest-email-app-of-all-time.html https://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/dropbox-just-killed-mailbo...
glandium 5y ago
MKBHD interviewed Josh Wardle, the author of Wordle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_e2IEaR4aA&t=1008s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_e2IEaR4aA&t=1008s
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
Gatsky 5y ago
Yes this is it isn't it, it is clear how much the motivation matters in the case of Wordle. As it does, in a converse sense, for the games trying to extract as much money as possible from the user.

kyawzazaw 5y ago

Maybe this - https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/mar/25/summly-sold-yahoo-teenage-creator https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/mar/25/summly-so...

chairmanwow1 5y ago
Summly was an amazing thing

bobthepanda 5y ago

Stardew Valley doesn‘t have nearly as short of a timeframe but is another labor of love success.

marricks 5y ago
I think it's an even better personal success than Wordle, or at least different. It was a man's labor of love for years, which tied together all his interests: music, art, programming, games. And better yet he built a career out of doing all of those things and still owns and maintains it years later. Presumably still loves it too.
- smoldesu 5y ago
  A lot of breakout successes follow that formula. While I'm not particularly fond of his work, I have nothing but respect for Toby Fox and the years of work he put into bringing his dream to reality.
  - Vepkhvi 5y ago
    Toby Fox made undertale, not Stardew. But it’s definitely in the same vein of “labor of love!”
NicoJuicy 5y ago
If you looked at the engineer of worldle, he tried a lot of similar games before eg. On mobile. Dating back since 2013. So, while it could be created in a short timeframe. A lot of experience/thinking went into it. Edit: changed 2016 to 2013
- ehsankia 5y ago
  The original prototype for Wordle was actually back in 2013 [0]. But yeah he didn't really touch it until mid 2021 when he recreated it from scratch. The improved word list which plays a huge role came then, with the help of his partner classifying all 13k 5-letter words. I believe the share function came much later when he noticed people actually manually typing those colored squares. [0] https://youtu.be/X_e2IEaR4aA?t=1130 https://youtu.be/X_e2IEaR4aA?t=1130

sam1r 5y ago

>> Does any other story come close? What about Mailbox [2013] being shut-down after Dropbox acquisition? [0] I feel like many of gmail's archive and swipe-shortcuts are heavily inspired by Mailbox. [0] https://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/dropbox-just-killed-mailbox-the-greatest-email-app-of-all-time.html https://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/dropbox-just-killed-mailbo...

glandium 5y ago

MKBHD interviewed Josh Wardle, the author of Wordle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_e2IEaR4aA&t=1008s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_e2IEaR4aA&t=1008s

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

Gatsky 5y ago

Yes this is it isn't it, it is clear how much the motivation matters in the case of Wordle. As it does, in a converse sense, for the games trying to extract as much money as possible from the user.