Cryptle

Cryptle replaces the keyboard with a lock. Six bands of letters stack on the screen and slide left or right, like the dials of a bike lock. A vertical window placed in the middle of the stack reads one letter per band, so six letters from top to bottom: that’s your guess. To test it you must spend a key, and the game only gives five for the day.

1. Drag each band horizontally to bring the desired letter into the vertical frame at the center.
2. Check that the six letters aligned in the frame form the word you want to submit.
3. Press the key button to test the guess, noting that the counter displayed next to it shows how many keys remain.

Most daily word games make you write. Cryptle makes you turn dials, and that simple change of gesture changes everything: instead of searching for a word and then typing it, you constantly see forty-five possible letters and juggle combinations in front of you. Five keys to decide is few, and that’s precisely what makes each test costly.

Feedback doesn’t come from tiles changing background but from the color of the letters themselves. The rules panel distinguishes three states: untested, correct, incorrect. On opening, the forty-five visible letters are all in the same neutral state.

Mot du jour

A single grid per day; the help panel invites you to come back the next day for the next one.

• One key press tests all six bands at once and colors the tested letters. Change several bands between tests rather than just one; otherwise the spent key only yields one piece of information.
• The central frame reads top to bottom while the bands move left to right. Getting into the habit of reading the column, not the row, prevents spending a key on a word you thought was aligned.