Anagramle

Anagramle plugs a Scrabble board onto a deduction grid. The instructions state plainly: all words, the target as well as your guesses, must be valid Scrabble words. Each key on the virtual keyboard shows its value, from A at 1 point to Q and Z at 10, and the board is set on multiplier squares: 2L, 2W, 3L, 3W. The top bar holds three counters: THIS GUESS for the current guess, TARGET for the score of the solution word, and the number of remaining attempts. Two buttons set the pace, DAILY and PRACTICE, and a flag selector allows changing the language.

1. Type a valid Scrabble word, using the virtual keyboard or a physical keyboard.
2. Confirm with ENTER: the tiles flip and take the color that indicates what each letter is worth as information.
3. Compare the guess's score with the target score shown at the top, which the game itself presents as a clue.
4. Repeat up to six times, taking into account the multiplier squares under the board.

Two games pull in opposite directions in Anagramle, and that's exactly what makes it interesting. The logic of deduction pushes you to play words full of common letters; Scrabble logic rewards expensive letters and multiplier squares. The target score shown constantly serves as an arbiter: it doesn't say what the word is, it says how much it weighs, which eliminates entire families of candidates without revealing their spelling. Add the seven-tile rule, which causes pre-filled letters to appear as soon as the target lengthens, and you get a grid where you count as much as you spell.

The help panel describes three states: the letter correctly placed, the letter present but misplaced, and the letter absent, each illustrated by an example tile. It adds a rule that no ordinary deduction grid knows: in Scrabble you hold seven tiles, so for a target word longer than seven letters the excess positions are pre-filled in grey italics with actual letters of the solution, and you always type exactly seven letters.

DAILY

The default open mode, remembered by the browser. One grid per day and per language.

PRACTICE

The second button on the bar, next to DAILY.

• The target score shown at the top is a real filter, not ornament: letter values are printed on each key, so a candidate that cannot reach that total disqualifies itself, even before being typed.
• The usual probe words don't necessarily pass: the rule requires a valid Scrabble word for each attempt, target included.
• The 2L, 2W squares and the like don't change the solution, they change the score: the same word does not yield the same points depending on where it falls on the line.