Even if you are not a puzzle person, chances are you may have heard the term Wordle, or come across your friends posting grey, yellow, and green squares when you are scrolling through your timeline on social media.

It is the name of a fun word puzzle that can be played by anyone online for free, once a day, but how many of you know that a love story is behind the now-viral game?

Wordle was originally created by Welsh-born software engineer Josh Wardle for his word games-loving wife, Palak Shah, in October last year.

The name of the browser-based game itself is a play of its creator's last name, and it gives its players only six attempts to guess the secret word of the day.

According to reports, Wardle created the game for his wife after they got "really into" The New York Times' Spelling Bee and daily crosswords sections.

To create the game, Wardle had Shah go through about 12,000 five-letter words in English and pick out 2,500 words that she knew. Thus, the basic version of Wordle was born.

Keeping the game to one word a day also "enforced a sense of scarcity", which would entice the player to come back the following day, he was reported saying.

From a game that had about 90 players last November, Wordle has indeed grown tremendously to become a puzzle that is played my millions of people worldwide, daily.

The New York Times acquired Wordle for over one million dollars last month, but thankfully, the game has thus far remained free for players.

Such a sweet origin story indeed.

Have you tried playing Wordle, or would you at least try out after knowing the story behind its creation?


Source: New York Times, screenrant.com
Photo source: The Guardian, hitechglitz.com