Zynga WWF Daily Puzzles – Guess Word
Guess Word was our take on the classic Mastermind and modern Wordle style puzzle game. Players have to find the winning word in 6 tries or less and are given hints along the way.
The business goal for this daily puzzle was not engagement or monetisation, but rather as a top-of-funnel tool for our then-new club feature. The goal of this gamemode was to get players into the clubs feature, and in that respect, it worked perfectly. During the initial launch of the puzzle, we saw a 300% increase in club joins just to play Guess Word.
Our initial exploration for this daily puzzle was really about what we could do to push ourselves away from the Wordle format. How can we merge the gameplay of WWF with the puzzle elements? This was a question we wrestled with for much of the pre-pro cycles before landing on the score model from WWF.
Once we arrived at the score mechanic, I had to create the logic for how we approached scoring and the creation of the winning word list for the feature. The player's response over time has been fascinating, with the scoring mechanic serving as another point of information for the player. They have created a word matrix that helps you narrow down your winning word based on the score threshold. This emergent approach to the game makes the player feel smart and adds to their enjoyment of the puzzle, knowing they beat it their way.
Links
Video Demo of Daily Puzzles
Preview of Daily Puzzles for Words with Friends.
