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PlayFour!

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A four-by-four daily mini crossword with eight clues.

Play PlayFour!

on gocomics.com

PlayFour! official art: a four-by-four letter grid with BRIE across, BESS down and SLED along the bottom row, the R square highlighted

PlayFour! is a daily four-by-four mini crossword by John Wilmes, syndicated by Andrews McMeel Universal. Four across and four down clues lead to four-letter answers, which may be names, abbreviations or prefixes. It is played on GoComics Puzzles with a subscription and embedded by newspapers such as Stuff in New Zealand.

About PlayFour!

PlayFour! is a daily mini crossword created by John Wilmes and syndicated by Andrews McMeel Universal in print and online. On the web it is one of the Puzzle Society games on GoComics, and some newspapers carry it on their own puzzle pages.

The grid is four squares by four with no black squares, so every row and every column is an answer: four across and four down, eight clues in all, each a four-letter word. The answers can be names, abbreviations or prefixes as well as ordinary words, which is where much of its difficulty comes from in so small a space.

Its publisher describes it as a puzzle you can finish in a few minutes but that is hard enough to keep you on your toes. Because every letter belongs to two answers, one confident entry usually opens up the clues that cross it.

On GoComics PlayFour! is part of the subscription, alongside the other Puzzle Society games. It suits players who like the NYT Mini and other quick crosswords and want a second short grid each day.

How to play PlayFour!

Open PlayFour! on the GoComics puzzles page and sign in with a GoComics subscription.
Pick a square; the highlighted row or column shows which clue you are answering.
Type a four-letter answer for each of the four across and four down clues.
Use the crossing letters to settle the clues you were unsure of, until the grid is full.

Tips

Start with the clue you are surest of: every letter you place belongs to a second answer too.
Expect abbreviations and prefixes: a four-letter answer is often a short form.
The corners matter most, since each corner letter starts or ends two answers.