Game made for love: Wordle and its origins

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Two weeks away from the day that celebrates love and sees couples scrambling to find the perfect gift, none likely will match the gift-creating ability of Josh Wardle. Also Read — New York Times buys the viral Word game, Wordle

Wardle, famous for Wordle, created the now-popular game for his partner, Palak Shah, who loves word games. A play on his last name, the game was limited to the couple for the first few months in 2020. Then it became a family obsession in a WhatsApp group. It was then Wardle realised he might have struck gold and released it globally in October. On November 1, only 90 people played. Three months on, the game has more than 3 million players globally. Also Read — Bot attempts to play spoilsport to everyone's favourite passtime; Twitter intervenes

It isn’t the first time that Wardle’s creations have captured widespread attention. The software engineer worked for Reddit, previously, where he created two collaborative social media experiments: The Button and Place. Both gained worldwide popularity. Unlike while working in Reddit, Wardle didn’t have a team of engineers to support him with his word game, though. It was just him and Shah finding ways to kill time during the pandemic. Also Read — How to crack Wordle of the day: 5 quick tips

Wardle initially dabbled with the idea in 2013. He created a prototype but his friends weren’t impressed. And that was it. In 2020, though, the couple got into the New York Times Spelling Bee and the daily crossword. It was then Wardle decided to go back to his seven-year-old prototype to create a game his partner could enjoy. The key to success, Wardle told the NYT earlier this month, was limiting players to one game per day. The strategy, partly inspired by the Spelling