Downword

Downword is a browser word game from Boomchuk, the independent studio of Brian Kim Stefans in Los Angeles. It sits beside the studio's other daily games, Afternym and Redthread, and like them it serves three puzzles a day, marked Easy, Medium and Hard. Everyone who opens it on the same date gets the same three.

Each puzzle is drawn as a brick apartment building with ten floors. Every floor is one word on a shared theme, shown with a title and a short line of explanation. On 6 November 2026 the first building was "Reel Possibilities", familiar one-word film titles, and the top floor came already filled with the given word FANTASIA. On 7 November 2026 the three were "A Sweet Arrangement" (sweets and confections, with PRALINE given on the roof), "A Steep Learning Curve" (tea) and "They Clapped for the Set Change" (the stage).

The main move is the release. When a word is solved you swipe it or tap "Release letters", and each of its letters falls straight down the column it sits in, landing in the first matching blank below. Releasing FANTASIA dropped an I, an S, several A's, a T and an N into seven of the floors beneath. With those letters showing, you pick any unfinished word, type only its missing letters and press Enter. Each new answer you release feeds the floors under it, so the board opens up from the roof down.

Your score is a guess count, and a lower one is better. A submitted word costs one guess, and so does using a Current. A clue costs two. Currents are small power-ups: Updraft reveals matches as letters arc up and fall, Drift adds a letter to three unfinished words, and Shower fills half the blanks in a word you choose. You earn free Currents as you solve words across the day's three puzzles. Releases and the given word cost nothing.

The themes run from films, singers and cartoon characters to baking, birds and bicycles, and the hardest puzzle of the day often comes with a little story instead of a plain topic. There are no ads and no account. Progress, a streak for solving all three on their day, and an archive of earlier days are kept in the browser. It suits players who like crossword-style clues but want a puzzle that moves.