Word Bunny

Word Bunny is played with your finger rather than a keyboard: you drag a letter from the on-screen keyboard or from the word itself to change it, and each change must produce a real word. Two rules are enough to make the whole tense: a word that has already been used cannot be used again, and you must reach the target word in as few moves as possible. At the top of the screen a thread links several words with arrows, the one to reach shown in bold; because that bold word is not the last on the thread, the day's path is played in several stages. The day's par is shown at the top left, the date and the grid author's signature, samuel simmons, run above the keyboard, and the move counter climbs on the right. The whole is set in a cream and olive-green palette, with an UNDO button beneath the keyboard.

1. Spot the word thread at the top of the screen: the bold word is the current target, the others mark the route.
2. Drag a letter from the on-screen keyboard or from the displayed word to modify the current word.
3. Check that the result is a real word; otherwise the change won't stick.
4. Never return to a word you have already written: the rule forbids using the same word twice.
5. Chain the transformations until you reach the target, comparing the move counter with the par shown at the top left.

For the pleasing feel of direct manipulation: you grab a letter, place it, the word changes under your fingers, and nothing flashes red. Under that softness, the ban on reusing a word makes the route much trickier than it looks, especially when the thread strings together several targets in a row.

No color coding, no gray tiles: Word Bunny relies on numbers and a thread. The current word is shown large in the center then echoed in a strip above the keyboard, the move counter increments to the right of the date, and the par announced at the top left provides the benchmark. An UNDO button and a trash bin border the keyboard to revert a move or start over.

Grille du jour

A dated grid signed by its author, with its own par.

• A word can be used only once: back-and-forths between two neighboring forms to buy time permanently close off passages.
• The thread shown at the top displays the upcoming steps: choose a path that prepares the next target rather than trying to reach the current target by any means.
• The par is a target number of moves, not a cut-off: there is no move limit.