2023-03-23T18:32:00Z
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Just tried out the demo of Lok. Itâs pretty good! It is in no way a word game - the letters may as well be replaced by random symbols, although obviously that would make it harder to work through. But calling it a word game is a major stretch.
Also there was a LOT of trial and error so I donât think Iâd like doing it as pencil and paper. So that means the three âword gamesâ were one with poor components where you have to buy two boxes at least (but thereâs a digital implementation), a non-word game also with a digital implementation, and a great, but solely digital, word game. Pretty shaky on the theme!
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Pretty shaky on the theme!
Yeah â I havenât watched the video yet; but I was immediately thinking that if Lok isnât really a word game, and Paperback Adventures isnât really a word game, I sure hope that Knotwords turns out to be a word game, otherwise Tom will be zero for three.
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Delighted to see components described as âWhackâ and laughed very loudly at Tomâs reaction to the klaxxon.
Am downloading Knotwords because it is very much a real word game.
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Oh itâs really evil.
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My favourite computer-based word game right now is:
It looks like yet another Wordle derivative at first glance, but the grid approach makes it a completely different kettle of fish, as the intersection of words enables you to take most of the guessing out of the equation (once you have a decent number of letters on the board). If you like both word games and deduction/logic games, you should definitely play Squareword. If you kinda like the *ordles but get frustrated that you can have 4 different equally-possible options for a guess, you should play Squareword.
(And if you like it, join us â itâs one of several games being played in that thread :â)
In cardboard form, Iâve really been enjoying Letterpress in its solo mode.
And if you want something on-the-go, the most portable word game I own is Handsome.
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I just realized theyâre all basically solo games as well.
You mean like a crosswordâŚ
You mean like a crosswordâŚ
Yes and no. Itâs a 5x5 grid with a letter in every square, so âyesâ in that you have horizontal/vertical words intersecting at a common letter, and ânoâ in that crosswords have unused squares whereas each and every letter in squareword is part of two words (i.e. every word intersects five others).
Also, you can only enter the horizontal words, so itâs more ânoâ than âyesâ at that point.
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The big ciriticism I had of Knotwords is that the puzzles are clearly computer-generated in a way that a crossword would never be. A crossword setter is going to deliberately avoid very obscure or archaic words because it makes the puzzle unsolvable to anyone without a dictionary (or search engine) to hand. Knotwords uses them all the time. They also use unusual plurals and conjugated verbs a lot as well, which is irritating.
Even the promotional pictures on steam have the likes of âohsâ, âdadoâ, âohoâ, âupsâ.
It feels like playing Scrabble against those players whoâve memorised all the 2-letter words. I just think âoh, bugger offâ.
Thumbs up for Letterpress that Phil mentioned earlier.
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Iâve been playing Knotwords for nearly a year now, I think. My âstreaksâ on each of the three daily puzzles are at 293, 290, and 289 days. You can miss days and recover your streaks though and Iâve definitely missed days (didnât play while on a 7-night Alaska cruise for example). I definitely enjoy it or I wouldnât be playing it that long.
There are some frustrations and glitches related to the computer generated aspect mentioned by @Number1TheLarch though. My biggest problem with that is some puzzles technically have more than one valid solution which a well-crafted crossword or similar should not do (unless thatâs the gimmick, which I have seen). Squarewords Knotwords will do things like you need an âaâ in the middle of a three letter word and the other two letters do not intersect with anything else and need to be an s and a p. So you enter sap but it says thatâs wrong because it decided the right answer was pas which is a dumber word in my opinion. The real problem though is that both are valid and you shouldnât be in that position at all.
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Squarewords will do things like you need an âaâ in the middle of a three letter word
Knotwords, I presume.
Yep. Sorry.
Thatâs interesting, Iâve never had this problem. Itâs always accepted either option for me. In fact a recent update added the feature that if you use a valid word that wasnât in its actual solution, once you complete the puzzle it will say âAlternate solution, well done!â
My biggest gripe with Knotwords (and this may just be the phone app) is that if you enter part of a box and then come back to it later, the order of squares it highlights is completely incomprehensible. It will highlight already-filled-in squares when there are empty squares still, so if youâre used to say, NYT crossword functionality, youâll end up typing over letters youâve already entered. Very annoying, an unnecessary slow down to make sure youâre putting the right letter in the right box.
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It used to take alternate solutions from me, but then it stopped a couple months back and Iâve been getting very frustrated. Maybe it has started again recently and I just havenât noticed. Or havenât updated. Iâll check that.
I have tried Knotwords yesterday and it was quite interesting, but I started some kind of big puzzle and then put down the phone and later got back to it, getting the impression I could solve this big puzzle over a number of âsessionsâ â suddenly after midnight the mostly done puzzle was gone and I cannot find it anymore. This is sad. I want closure.
I am also not enamored of the fact that it feels like this wouldnât have happened if I had immediately made a subscription. Also is the big puzzle anSunday special? Because I could not find a new one eitherâŚ
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I have the paid version and there you can go back and complete past daysâ puzzles. There are also monthly puzzles and you can complete past months.
The daily puzzle does the same thing as the New York Times crossword (and probably other newspapers): it is easiest on Mondays and gets harder as the week goes on with Sunday being the hardest. For Knotwords, that means the Monday puzzles are small and the Sunday one is huge.
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If you buy LOK it comes with a plastic sheet and you use your (own) marker pen to trial and error.
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Is knotword still taking alternate solutions for you? I had a particularly annoying one refused on todayâs daily twist. I put in rust and it refused it. The correct answer it wanted was ruts. Only the first letter intersected with any other word and the vowels/consonants were all in the right places either way for the twist so mine should have worked.