icestorm

icestorm is a word game from Boomchuk, a small studio in Los Angeles, and part of its icebreakr family of ice-themed daily puzzles beside coldspell and Faultline. It runs in any browser, still carries a beta label, and asks for no account.

Each date brings three puzzles, Easy, Medium and Hard, and every player gets the same ones. A puzzle opens with a block of ice spelling ICE and an empty quarter. Drag the large I into that space and the ice cracks, dropping sixteen letters onto the board. From then on new words fall in from above in showers. The incoming word is shown on a line over the board before it lands, and its cubes stay touching so you can trace it.

You find words of three to twelve letters by tracing touching cubes, diagonals included, or by typing them. Each word you find clears its cubes and adds to your score, shown beside it in the list of words found. Any dictionary word counts, not only those tied to the day's theme. The goal is sixteen words. If a stack reaches the top, the round ends. Easy drops everyday words of three to five letters. Medium mixes in less familiar words of four to six. Hard drops one unusual word of five to seven letters per shower and gives you a few seconds to read the board once it settles.

An Icebreaker tool lets you swipe through a tower to crack its cubes and make room. You start with one charge shared across the three puzzles and earn more by finding longer words. Unused charges carry over to later days. Solving all three on their release day adds a day to your streak, and an archive keeps earlier dates open.

It suits players who like tracing word boards but want some time pressure, since the board keeps filling while you think.