Crosswordle (Minigame Mania)

This Crosswordle is the word game on Minigame Mania, the small daily games site that also runs Screenplaydle, Pitchdle and Rushdle. It is a different game from the other puzzles called Crosswordle. Each day there is one 7x7 grid of eight crossing words, the same for everyone.

The clues are deliberately loose: a category and a letter count, like something you can fold (6) or a unit of time (4). Many words fit any one clue, so the crossings decide which is right. The rules say any real English word is a legal entry, so you can probe a slot even when the category stumps you. In practice its word list is narrower than that. On 26 October it turned down TUNNELS and NUGGETS as not words, though a refused entry costs no lock-in.

When you lock in, the whole board is checked at once, full or not. A right letter turns green and stays. A letter that belongs elsewhere in that word turns yellow. One that is not in the word turns red. A crossing square belongs to two words, so it is split diagonally with one verdict for each. If you change a letter its colour clears, but a bar above the keyboard keeps the yellows and reds for both clues under your cursor. The rules give you ten lock-ins, and you are scored on the share of words you solve. A full board scores 100, and a result card shows the score and how many lock-ins you used.

It sits between a crossword and Wordle: there is little trivia in it, and most of the work is reasoning from the colours.