newdle

newdle is a free browser word game by minbytes (Tom Wright, whose name is on the game page), released in August 2024 and playable at minbytes.com or on its itch.io page. The name comes from a misheard remark: told about a new -dle game, the maker's wife asked what a newdle was.

Each day you get a handful of orange letter tiles, the same for everyone that day: 12 on most days and 20 on Sundays. You drag them around a grid until they form one crossword, with words reading across and down and every tile used. The letter Q always comes with an extra U.

The twist on Q-Less is a set of subgoals that each award an emoji. Some reward a compact board, some reward long words, some reward using only a few words or making every word a certain length, and a book emoji goes to grids made entirely of dictionary words. Working out how to earn each emoji is part of the game, and on Sundays some of them become impossible because of the extra letters.

When you are done, the share button copies the date, your emoji and a picture of your grid. It suits players who like Scrabble-style tile shuffling and want a short, open-ended daily rather than a single right answer.

The page is spare: a grid of faint squares, the day's tiles scattered across it and a Share Board button. The emoji appear at the top left as soon as your grid earns them, so you can see which goals you hit while you move tiles. Your layout is kept in the browser until the next day's letters arrive. It plays the same with a mouse or a finger, and there are no ads and no sign-up.