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Show HN: I built a new word game, Wordtrak

35 pointsby qrushtoday at 12:14 PM17 commentsview on HN

Hi HN! Looking for feedback on this 1v1 and daily word dueling game I've built over the last few months.

Play here: https://wordtrak.com/

Or on iOS here: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/wordtrak/id6760442363 (Android version soon!)


Comments

videogreg93today at 3:46 PM

Using claude for game design, art design, and coding. I can see you're even using AI to respond to comments in this thread. At that point this is just a game made by AI. It's one thing to lean on AI to cover our blind spots, but if AI is in all stages of the pipeline I just wonder what the point of all this is?

Did you really need to waste money and resources to make a simple word game? Are people really getting to be this lazy already? /rant

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vessenestoday at 2:59 PM

Are opponents autopets-style opponents (e.g. recorded and replayed so you don’t have to wait?)

I’m confused about a lot of things about the game; I guess most particularly the letter draws — do I and my opponents get the exact same sequence of letters when traded in? Do we draw from the same (replaceable? Non-replaceable?) bag?

When I went to sudden death I saw very different words — in my case, I drew a J — was that it, since my foe only used a word with a G, I was basically guaranteed a win. Was that poor word choice on his part, poor or no trading, or a different tile set the foe had?

I think it would be nice to see all the possible letters in the ‘bag’ when we’re looking at trading.

Finally, is there a time component? It would be nice to get some indications about the opponent - maybe showing where they are hovering / clicking, or a clock countdown.

Also - fun!

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loneboattoday at 3:07 PM

My phone's browser picked a heckuva place for the line break in the second sentence:

  My mom has been regularly beating me 
  at Scrabble since I could spell.
frontenderdudetoday at 3:03 PM

Are you coding 3 clients: - Swift for iOS - Kotlin for Android - TypeScript/React/etc for web

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jimnotgymtoday at 2:39 PM

One problem for me, apart from sucking at word games...

I started with a load of vowels in my hand, just two consonants. I found a 3 letter word OK, but got a consonant and vowel back. I traded two vowels and got two more back. Couldn't make a 4 letter word, game over. I suppose the difference in scrabble is that if I had passed, someone else may have put a consonant down that I could use...

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ludovicianultoday at 1:57 PM

I've built a simple word game with my kids recently. It's fun to add stuff quickly even if they are used only by the family. It has only 5 players now and they have their own group, the family, but open to anyone if interested.

undecisivetoday at 3:15 PM

As with anything word-gamey involving internet, you will probably have to trim down your dictionary. While I'm very glad my "sxxg" beat their "txxt", the first probably shouldn't be allowed (although there are non-rude definitions) and the second definitely shouldn't have!

Still, a very fun game, well made.

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roxana_haidinertoday at 2:56 PM

Looks really good, are you in the first photo? How old are you? Good luck for your future projects!

RNanowaretoday at 1:40 PM

Wonderful example of using AI thoughtfully as a creativity multiplier, rather than diluting the artistry of the end result. I love the human elements you scattered throughout the game: your children's initials in some of the navigation icons is an especially nice touch!

oezitoday at 2:43 PM

406 browser not supported (opera mobile). Come on...

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fred_is_fredtoday at 1:16 PM

I don't know if it's my adblockers but your page loads an insanely large picture of your face and then people playing scrabble. Like I have to scroll two directions to see the whole picture large...

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NickC25today at 1:48 PM

I love this.

I'm also building a simple game using Claude, so this is quite inspirational. Keep going!