What Your Daily Game Says About You
I rank 25 micro games across the 4 most popular platforms...
Daily games are everywhere nowadays, huh? Since Wordle hit the scene 4 years ago these small digital teaser puzzles have felt like they’re everywhere. And they’ve exploded in popularity. It’s probably some combination of people getting more interested in games, news sites looking for new ways to boost their retention, and the spark provided by Wordle that’s taken hold in the popular consciousness.
As some have noted, games really are the primary growth driver for a lot of businesses.
Also to celebrate the 1 year anniversary of Puzzmo1 I wanted to journey through the most popular and profane daily game jaunts.
The Terms
For this exercise I specifically focused on platforms and not games themselves. You won’t find games like Worldle (my wife’s personal fave for a while), or Murdle (a fun detective mystery game), or Numberle (the math Wordle), or even my personal fave Fibble. These are all (mostly?) great games, but I wanted to focus on games that are likely to have a relatively popular following, and ones that have a fairly high standard for being consistently good.
How this will work:
I’ve decided to mash up two different concepts. Firstly, I will be ranking the games in terms of my personal preference. Secondly I will be deciding what playing this game regularly says about you. Finally, I will recommend one other game that you might enjoy that’s similar-ish to the game I’m talking about.
I’ve chosen 4 platforms (LinkedIn, Apple News+, NYT Games, and Puzzmo). They are, as far as I am aware, the most popular ones with consistent daily games. You could reasonably chuck Apple News+ off this list but it does technically exist, likely has a reasonable large player base, and they did come up with a new Micro Game that can be technically considered a game!
Let’s Go!
The Games
25. Cube Clear (Puzzmo)
My assumption is that if you like Cube Clear, you really Boggle gave you just a little bit more of a rush while playing it. You really enjoy both word searches and optimization.
Cube Clear is a simplified version of the longer lived game SpellTower (which we’ll discuss further down). The conceit here is that it’s a much smaller board. This theoretically should make the game easier but from my perspective it only makes the game more tense and stressful.
You Might Also Like: Strands
24. Crossword (Apples News+)
Do this person exist? I’m honestly not sure. If you do, reach out! The Apple News+ Crossword player is committed to the idea of the Apple ecosystem and also hates downloading apps. The thought of installing NYT Games is just too much.
This is a standard game of crossword, but with worse UI. (I refused to play this one, even for a GIF).
You Might Also Like: Literally any other crossword? Heck, I’m fairly confident pen and paper has a better experience.
23. Quadriles (Apple News+)
You’re someone who has Apple News installed on their phone because it started there, you don’t subscribe (yet), and you were clicking through apps while you were bored and decided this could be fun. You will forget this game exists the second you exit the app.
Legally speaking, Quadriles is a game, I think. It ranks ahead of Crossword because at least it’s trying something, and Cube Clear stresses me out that much. But… I don’t think this game is fun.
You Might Also Like: Wordbind
22. Tiles (NYT Games)
You’re on a NYT Games kick and need another fix. Tiles pops up and you go for it. You will also, never play again but occasionally you see it in the app and wonder if you should give it a shot.
You Might Also Like: stitch. (an iPhone game)
21. The Crossword (NYT Games)
You are intellectually and morally superior. You might be right. You look out at the world with dismay as easier “more fun” games litter the world with refuse. The pro to all of this is that people have written more interesting books about your hobby than anyone else.
Literal books have been written about the crossword, many of which feature the NYT crossword specifically. There is not much I have to say here. I personally quite enjoyed Thinking Inside the Box by Adrienne Raphael
You Might Also Enjoy: Alphabear (this one is admittedly a stretch but I really wanted to get it on the list)
20. Crossword Mini (Apple News+)
You’re probably one of those people who subscribes to Apple News+ and occasionally hits the mini when you’re bored or want to take a break from news. The awful interface helps reduce your sense of moral superiority.
This isn’t bad, but it also doesn’t feel like it has much of the same joy that other minis (or midis) have. It’d be hard to fault anyone for playing, but there are really are better options out there…
You Might Also Like: NYT Crossword Mini (I promise having another app on your phone will be ok)
19. Letter Boxed (NYT Games)
You’re an OG NYT Games enthusiast who’s been playing back when it was just the NYT Mini. You are surprised this game still exists every time you finish Wordle, and if you’re feeling a bit adventurous you’ll take a try at it.
I’ve got a soft spot in my heart for Letter Boxed because I think it’s a neat game that pushes at the boundaries of spelling, without being so intricate that it’s impossible to understand.
You Might Also Like: Wordbind (on Puzzmo)
18. Spelltower (Puzzmo)
You also loved Boggle but maybe loved Tetris too, and the game features enough letters that you might be able to play spontaneously instead of planning everything out perfectly.
Spelltower is a closer fit for me because I can play a bit more freely, but it’s never been a game I’ve been able to get into. I can appreciate the design chops but I’m not a huge fan as a player.
You Might Also Like: Banagrams
17. Connections (NYT Games)
You caught the Wordle bug and love the NYT Games aesthetic. You aren’t enough of a nerd to know that this is suspiciously similar to a British game show game. It really is a nice shade of purple though.
I don’t have a lot against Connections. It’s a slick game that’s pretty fun to play. It also doesn’t have a ton of heart and most of the fun hinges on subtle differences in definitions, not on unlocking an interesting perspective. I also deeply dislike the share emoji feature, it feels like a hack.
You Might Also Like: Codenames (the board game)
16. Weather Memoku (Puzzmo)
You’re just happy memory and pattern matching games are socially acceptable to play as an adult now. You like the aesthetically pleasing icons and the light rules structure.
For me, this is such a neat play on a “brand integration”, with the addition of a light “Sudoku” type rule to make the memory aspect a bit less of a random walk in the park.
You Might Also Like: Wilmot’s Warehouse (either the video game or the board game, both which I highly recommend)
That’s All For This Week!
Those are the first 10. Hopefully none get launched between now and the end of the series! Come back next week for 15-6!
Three Game Think Pieces I Enjoyed This Week
https://www.polygon.com/review/465091/neva-review-nomada-devolver-digital
Type to Learn Became a Battle Royale in Our Computer Lab
Primary bragging rights were won by a simple question: “What level did you get to?” This is what was tracked on the wall, but I also remember running over to my neighbor’s computer during the shorter typing tests that were held at checkpoints throughout the semester.
This one hit home for me, both because of my own love of typing games as a kid, and also because fun is often about the connection between a challenge and a community, as it is about a design language or an innovative mechanic.
This might seem like an odd one to highlight, but it digs into some of the challenges around board games in such an interesting way that I wanted to call it out. Specifically there are two points of interest here. Economic building games are a dime a dozen in the board gaming scene now, and it’s interesting to try to deal with that. How do you pick which one to recommend if a lot of them are the same? But, the review goes deeper and talks about the relationship between creatives, their audience and who is responsible for expectation settings and delivering on those expectations. I did not expect the outcome!
Why Are Toxic Superfans Such a Nightmare for Hollywood
Not explicitly game focused, but it applies to a topic I’ve thought a lot about. The biggest theme of the last 5-10 years for creatives of all genres, popularity, wealth, and fame is how they relate to their fans, and what fan culture actually looks like. This persuasively makes the case for the idea that huge fandoms can only be constraints on creativity and not advocates for it:
Here's the conundrum about super fans in a nutshell: they have some ability to do damage to a movie or TV show, but they have zero ability to make a project successful.
How artists and producers respond to and work with this moving forward will define a lot of the type of movies, books, and games that get made.
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