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Product manager ex. game designer with a number of puzzle/word game in operation here. - Having a timer (urgency) is usually not a very good idea for thinky ga
by Y444 1y ago
Product manager ex. game designer with a number of puzzle/word game in operation here.
- Having a timer (urgency) is usually not a very good idea for thinky games. If you insist on having a timer consider making it count upwards.
- Additionally as other commenters mentioned is the game is a time trial it needs an explicit “Start” button. Also stop the timer when user is not playing e.g. reading the rules.
- There’s no point of having a “Play again” option for a Wordle style daily game, the thinking part is already done, so any replay is just an exercise in dexterity.
- It’s okay to be US-centric actually, doesn’t matter unless you are very serious about monetizing it, and even then being US-centric will work.
- Consider showing rules for first time users before staring the puzzle.
- Consider having some sort of overarching thing in your puzzle, so it’s not just five words on a specific topic to guess, but something more, like a hidden word across all five etc. This makes a delightful discovery moment and sometimes might work as a clue.
- JKCalhoun 1y agoAgree that timers suck the fun out of a game like this. I avoid any solitaire game with a timer for example.
- Y444 1y agoSome crossword people like having their timers (see NYT Games app for example), but as I’ve mentioned the timers are counting up, not triggering any negative conditions, and can be turned off completely.
- accrual 1y agoThe OG Windows 3 solitaire has an option to disable the timer, it's one of the first things I uncheck. I did "speedrun" solitaire in my computer classes for fun, though. :)
- megadata 1y ago> and even then being US-centric will work. The world has sadly changed a lot in recent months.
- bdhcuidbebe 1y agoWhat did I miss, did Trump replace the english language now?
- taneq 1y agoThere’s a 40% tariff on the letter ‘u’.
- nathancahill 1y ago_ser paid 40% to incl_de that letter in this comment.
- labster 1y agoYou mean the American language
- ghssds 1y agoSpanish?
- bdhcuidbebe 1y agoSpanglish?
- tasty_freeze 1y agoThe implication wasn't that people have stopped knowing or using English. The implication was that much of the world, except Russia and her allies, suddenly has a much great deal of resentment toward the US.
- zwnow 1y agoEnglish? Did you mean USAlish?
- doctorpangloss 1y agoThe timer doesn’t matter. Nobody needs rules for this game.
- xyst 1y agoThis is 90% of my thoughts as well. Another note I had is: keep the words to a specific category rather than a broad category. For example: the today’s puzzle of “professional sports teams” had 4/5 of the teams from the NBA. The 5th answer was either the Detroit “Lions” (a professional _American football_ team) or more likely the London “Lions” (a _British_ professional basketball team).
- HenryBemis 1y agoI live in the EU. I have no idea about US hand-egg teams. As long as these are proper words (e.g. Bucks, Lions) and they are not "rizzz" (or whatever other moronic sound comes out of people with 45 IQ) then people will play the game.
- wizzwizz4 1y agoThe sound "rizz" is present in the word "charisma".
- wordglyph 1y ago[flagged]
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- coldtrait 1y agoThanks , just found a new fun word game!
- FlamingMoe 1y ago"a timer (urgency) is usually not a very good idea for thinky games" 100% agree. I hate the timer on the NY Times mini puzzle. I like these types of simple games for unwinding, and a timer makes it more stressful.
- binarymax 1y agoContrarily, I love the mini timer, because it’s something to beat. The mini is too easy of a puzzle. The NYT crossword is more for the thinking type - it also has a timer, but its less in your face and I don’t feel the pressure.
- sharkweek 1y agoI agree - me and several friends had a rolling text convo where we’d share our mini times each day in a fun daily competition. Has since faded but anytime I think about it I like to load up the puzzle app and do it.
- hnlmorg 1y agoYou can still have that with a count up timer (like the GP suggested) but then you don’t put people off like myself who don’t want to be timed out of games
- fiddlerwoaroof 1y agoThis reminds me a bit of Boggle which really needs a timer. If anything, the timer on this is too long: I did it in 0:32 and was better than 53% of other users, which suggests to me the timer should be about a minute
- zamadatix 1y agoThey do give the option in the settings for this reason but I think that's the best part about the mini specifically, it enables the daily leaderboards to work even for folks who's friend group doesn't sit down and do full Saturday level crosswords regularly. I think the midis/larges are a better balance if you're just looking for relaxing but short solo play and there I wouldn't really mind if the timer was off by default (or not, there is less competition at that point).
- ohnoabigshark 1y agoThe overarching "thing" in the puzzle is a great idea. Choose a column that spells another answer when you get them all right. Works even if you expand the size of the word grid.
- huijzer 1y ago> It’s okay to be US-centric actually, doesn’t matter unless you are very serious about monetizing it, and even then being US-centric will work. As a European who on a typical day uses/watched/reads more English than my native language, I agree. Except sports teams and other more locally phenomena. Those are the worst.
- doublerabbit 1y agoI am from the UK, I hate word games that specialise with US English spelling over than British English. Getting the answer wrong when trying to spell the correct answer in British English spelling ruins the game.
- aardshark 1y agoNah, it's very annoying to be country-centric. The NYT game clues are just so fucking American sometimes and it's very irritating. It's difficult to avoid this altogether of course, but staying away from sports and politics helps a good bit.
- cognomano 1y agoMay be making the countdown optional will be better. I like it!
- 4887d30omd8 1y agoThis is good feedback. Is there a single resource you would recommend for someone somewhat interested in game design?
- Y444 1y agoIf you want a general overview try finding a book called “Fundamentals of Fame Design” by Ernest Adams. It is a sensible intro, after that - just dive into thematic communities and do your own things. I know nothing about formal game design education sorry.
- redbell 1y agoThanks for sharing! I found it on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Game-Design-Ernest-Adams/dp/0321929675 https://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Game-Design-Ernest-Adams... Also, because the keys "F" and "G" are adjacent in the keyboard layout, I believe you made a typo in the book title where you wrote Fame instead of Game.
- bagels 1y agoI agree about the timer. I almost quit after 10 seconds because of the timer.
- ugh123 1y ago>There’s no point of having a “Play again” option for a Wordle style daily game, the thinking part is already done, so any replay is just an exercise in dexterity. What if i'm handing it to a friend/spouse to play to beat my time? >Consider having some sort of overarching thing in your puzzle, so it’s not just five words on a specific topic to guess, but something more, like a hidden word across all five etc. This makes a delightful discovery moment and sometimes might work as a clue. That just sounds like your idea for a different type of game. I like his current idea for this game.
- Y444 1y ago>What if i'm handing it to a friend/spouse to play to beat my time? I generally find it more effective to improve the parts that concern most of the audience, like the timer that is seen by every player. The pass-and-play use case is valid but seems pretty rare. >That just sounds like your idea for a different type of game. I like his current idea for this game. Yes, it’s a part of giving feedback, the author might not like any of my comments and is free to ignore them, it’s their game. But why do _you_ seem so irritated about it?
- gnatman 1y agoI don't think that commenter is irritated-- they're making gameplay comments just as you are, comments that you too are free to ignore.
- Y444 1y agoFair enough, I somehow imagined a wrong tone of voice in their message, shouldn’t have done that.
- SamBam 1y ago> The pass-and-play use case is valid but seems pretty rare. The NY Times Mini Crossword specifically has a "Clear" button for this very use-case.
- scottmf 1y ago
- bahmboo 1y agoThank you. I really appreciate product people.
- Anon4Now 1y ago> - Consider having some sort of overarching thing in your puzzle, so it’s not just five words on a specific topic to guess, but something more, like a hidden word across all five etc. This makes a delightful discovery moment and sometimes might work as a clue. You've essentially described the Jumble puzzle, which appeared in daily newspapers. It's been around since 1954, but I'm not surprised to see it reinvented since few people get a daily newspaper anymore. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumble https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumble
- redbell 1y ago>..you are very serious about monetizing it Ads aside, I'm curious to know what you think would be a good monetizing strategy for this kind of games (simple, online): subscriptions, sponsorship, donations..?
- Y444 1y agoUnfortunately, I think ads is the most realistic way to go. Sponsorships and/or donations would be a nice “beer money” bonus. Subscriptions are PITA and too much hassle unless you’re doing them via some third party and they won’t bring a good amount of money at the “online daily puzzle in a browser” scale. There are more exotic ways like licensing your puzzles to other sites, like online newspaper puzzle pages, Puzzmo is going in this direction IIRC.
- 2muchcoffeeman 1y agoI think the timer exists since there are only so many 5 letter words. And you have just shown players the letters. You can complete this by just starting words with the letters available of which there are only so many combinations.
- slig 1y agoHi! I'm working on a project that could benefit from that kind of experience. Do you offer consulting services?
- Y444 1y agoSorry, I don't have capacity for more than a few comments here or a casual chat once in a while.
- Kuyawa 1y agoWhat's the best way to monetize a game like this?
- VerminOctopus1 1y agoI really dislike your suggestion to eliminate the timer. You frame it like it’s objectively the better choice since you’re a professional - however it’s not. It’s a design decision that leads to a sense of urgency that many players enjoy. Games don’t need to be for everyone. This drive towards the most universally appealing, milquetoast design decisions neuters games.
- oliwary 1y agoThis is really good feedback I think. My puzzle has an overarching thing with down direction also forming words: https://squareword.org/ https://squareword.org/ I think that would not work here as there are though as there are not enough combinations. I quite like this one though, combining the unscramble mechanic with a category. A bit like a combination of connections and waffle. For the "play again" issue, in my latest game https://spaceword.org https://spaceword.org I made it an open-ended puzzle, where there is no correct answer, so people can keep improving as long as they want.
- wordglyph 1y agoYou got some fun games! I like your simple direction ui on spaceword. And I enjoyed the time it took to solve square word. It's good to have play again so players can get better. I implemented it on https://wordglyph.xyz https://wordglyph.xyz for same reasons. It's nice to see players discover the stick strategy over time and get better.
- aerhardt 1y agoReading comments about a puzzle game coming from a "product manager ex. game designer with a number of puzzle/word game in operation" is one of the main reasons why I come to HN.