Wordle creator originally made it for his girlfriend

Wardle’s partner’s love of daily crosswords inspired Wordle’s creation (pic: Metro)

Before it was a Twitter phenomenon, Wordle originally only existed for its creator and his partner.

Chances are you’re already plenty familiar with puzzle game Wordle, or at the very least you know the name. All popular games begin with relatively small audiences, but Wordle’s original player base was limited to the man who made it and his partner.

Speaking with the New York Times, Josh Wardle initially made the game for his partner, Palak Shah, after the two of them got hooked on the New York Times’ own spelling bee and daily crossword.

Shah was also responsible for narrowing down which words would be included in the game. Wardle explains that he went through every five-letter word in the English language and tasked Shah with picking the ones she recognised.

This was done to ensure that none of the potential words are too obscure, resulting in about 2,500 words out of a list of 12,000 or so. Since there’s a new Wordle puzzle every day, this should keep the game going for about seven years or so.

Shah certainly appreciates Wardle’s gesture, calling it ‘really sweet,’ and how he ‘shows his love.’ Wardle eventually introduced the game to his family and, after they all got hooked on it, released it to the world.

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When questioned if he has any plans to monetise Wordle, Wardle has already assured fans that the game will remain completely free, even ruling out a possible mobile app. So, the only way to play it is via a web browser.

If you have yet to play Wordle yourself, you can try it out by clicking this link. Your only goal is to guess the five-letter word in a maximum of six tries.

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