Letterly

Letterly is the paper game baccalauréat, in a daily, worldwide version. At midnight UTC a letter is drawn and ten categories are fixed; everyone plays exactly the same round on the same day. The clock starts at ninety seconds, the day's letter sits at the top of the screen, and the ten numbered categories each await an answer, with a single Submit button. The real discovery is in the scoring: it isn't correctness that pays, it's originality. An obvious answer earns a few points, an answer that almost no one gives can go up to one hundred, and the game explains that it compares your answer both to a base of common answers and to what other players wrote, being the only person to play therefore isn't enough to get a good score.

1. From the home screen, start the day's round: the letter is revealed only when you start.
2. The ten numbered categories appear, the day's letter at the top, and the ninety-second timer starts to count down.
3. Type one answer per category, each one required to begin with the day's letter, wrong letter or empty box score zero.
4. Confirm with Submit, without waiting for the clock if you are satisfied with your answers.
5. Collect your emoji card at the end of the round to share it without revealing your answers.

Because the childhood paper game regains here the only thing it was missing: an arbiter. No need to argue about whether “chat” counts, the scoring decides, and it decides against the obvious. Ninety seconds are enough to understand that Letterly doesn't test your vocabulary but your refusal of the first word that comes to mind.

Each answer receives an originality label: UNIQUE for a finding that almost no one gives, worth up to one hundred points, then RARE, UNCOMMON and COMMON in descending order, and INVALID for an empty box or an answer that does not start with the correct letter. A bonus of twenty points is added when all ten answers are valid. Sharing follows the same logic of discretion as the gender: a strip of ten colored squares that shows the degree of originality of each box, accompanied by the score and the streak, without ever displaying the words.

Daily round

The same letter and the same ten categories for all players in the world, drawn at midnight UTC, once per day and per device.

Archive

A tab in the navigation bar; label observed, content not opened.

Leagues

A navigation-bar tab that implies rankings among players; label observed only.

• The scoring compares your answer to a base of common answers as much as to other players' answers: the answer that first comes to mind is precisely the one that scores the least.
• A banal but valid answer is always better than an empty box: empty counts as invalid and cancels the no-mistake bonus.
• The timer is short for all ten boxes at once, not per category: abandon a category that resists and come back to it if you have time left.
• Only one game per day and per device: the round does not restart, which makes the first reflex costly if you start without reading all the categories through.