Codeword

Inspiration

Daily challenges— apps like Wordle, Connections, and crosswords— have become a sensation over the past half decade. What makes these challenges so successful is their simplicity and consistency; having an easy-to-understand, challenging, and shareable model with streaks ensures the player has fun while also being encouraged to play again the next day. We were also looking for a new "word of the day" app, one that could teach you not only the word itself but its definition and usages. All we found were dictionary apps! That's no fun.. We wanted to create an app that:

• gamifies learning even further
• fits more educational content per day
• encourages you to learn daily

What it does

Code Word challenges the player through a daily puzzle which is solved through clues and hints. Throughout the game, the player answers questions based on knowledge of previous days' words to reinforce their vocabulary. As the player completes the puzzle, a new word or "cipher" is unlocked, which the player can then store in the vault as a collection of their word mastery. By testing the player on the previous day's word, the Code Word encourages consistent, successful learning of new words.

How we built it

We started off by formulating ideas for the game and how it would work. The main issue was how to create an app that not only tests the player's knowledge on a word while also solving a puzzle to get the same word. It presents a paradox where the player must know the word first to solve the puzzle, but also not know the word to not be able to immediately guess the word. Thus, we used a simple solution— we will test the player on the previous day's word in order to get hints for the current day's word. That not only solves the issue but also promotes consistent playability as the player is encouraged to learn every day. We then began to create the app using Next.js, with Myer working on the back-end and Sean working on the front-end. We also created imagery using Blender to enhance the game to make it more immersive.

Challenges we ran into

Using Github and version control to actively collaborate on a project was challenging, especially since we'd only used Git by ourselves before. We also ran into issues trying to integrate our backend code with our frontend code. Our team is also only two people.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

One of our ideas was to integrate a spy theme into the app, essentially making the game more immersive and putting an interesting spin on a puzzle game. The idea came naturally as our puzzle was to crack a code to solve for a word. In order to sell the theme, we used Blender to create the game's environent and create realistic, rendered scenes. The theming of the game transforms it from a simple word of the day app to a cohesive, educational game.

What we learned

We learned how to tackle a lot of disciplines at once (Blender, database systems, web/game design, and full stack development). We also learned how to properly plan a project from the ground up and work with teammates to meet a deadline.

What's next for Code Word

We have yet to implement a "vault" system, which is the collection of words that the players have solved. The vault is intended to remind the user's of their accomplishments while also offering refreshers to retain the vocabulary that they have already learned. We also looked into audio for the game, as it further increases immersivity.

Built With

• dictionaryapi
• react
• typescript