Word --> Ward --> Draw
August 26, 2023 7:32 AM Subscribe
Wordward Draw is a browser game in which each word you type must be either an anagram of your previous word or identical to your previous word with just one letter changed. If you can reach certain goal words (which are gradually revealed), you get to see a little picture. That's it! See all the pictures!
The neat feeling here comes as you build up a sort of mental map of the dictionary space, how you can end up in cul-de-sacs and dead ends, how some goal words are much easier to reach than others.
(QUIZ looks daunting, but ends up being surprisingly easy to reach if you think your way backwards and ignore the phonetics. TREE, I found to be the absolute hardest, and I wonder if my mental dictionary is missing some basic words around there, because I had to pass through what turned out to be an obsolete anatomy term to -- finally -- reach it. There must be an easier way.)
The neat feeling here comes as you build up a sort of mental map of the dictionary space, how you can end up in cul-de-sacs and dead ends, how some goal words are much easier to reach than others.
(QUIZ looks daunting, but ends up being surprisingly easy to reach if you think your way backwards and ignore the phonetics. TREE, I found to be the absolute hardest, and I wonder if my mental dictionary is missing some basic words around there, because I had to pass through what turned out to be an obsolete anatomy term to -- finally -- reach it. There must be an easier way.)
Ah, looks like the game window might not show up on mobile. (On a desktop browser, right under the title is a big box with a "run game" button.)
posted by nobody at 7:56 AM on August 26, 2023
posted by nobody at 7:56 AM on August 26, 2023
This game opens on chrome in my desktop but not on safari for iOS
posted by Jon_Evil at 8:07 AM on August 26, 2023
posted by Jon_Evil at 8:07 AM on August 26, 2023
“Press Enter to start game.”
Bummer, my tablet doesn’t have an enter key.
Can I press an “any” key instead?
Game sounds fun though, and I want to play.
posted by lothar at 8:35 AM on August 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
Bummer, my tablet doesn’t have an enter key.
Can I press an “any” key instead?
Game sounds fun though, and I want to play.
posted by lothar at 8:35 AM on August 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
fun! it's also interesting trying to guess what sorts of words might be picture words; i've gotten a few just messing around without knowing what to try for. when I get stuck trying to go for a specific word I have found it helps to just go into speed mode without a destination in mind, and then try again from a different starting place.
posted by cubby at 9:44 AM on August 26, 2023
posted by cubby at 9:44 AM on August 26, 2023
I was shown a picture word, I typed in that word - and now nothing is happening. What happens next?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:53 AM on August 26, 2023
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:53 AM on August 26, 2023
(And pressing Tab will show you the list of picture words, the ones you've reached plus three revealed unreached ones.)
posted by nobody at 10:12 AM on August 26, 2023
posted by nobody at 10:12 AM on August 26, 2023
It wouldn't allow WORF or WARG. Fuck it.
posted by seanmpuckett at 10:13 AM on August 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by seanmpuckett at 10:13 AM on August 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
Congratulations, you found every single picture word!
That was fun, especially the harder ones--my strategy was usually to think of a word one letter away, then think about how to get there. Kind of solving the maze in reverse, I guess.
Thanks for sharing!
posted by box at 10:14 AM on August 26, 2023 [3 favorites]
That was fun, especially the harder ones--my strategy was usually to think of a word one letter away, then think about how to get there. Kind of solving the maze in reverse, I guess.
Thanks for sharing!
posted by box at 10:14 AM on August 26, 2023 [3 favorites]
TREE... There must be an easier way.
If you can find DEER, there's DEER -> REED -> REEF -> FREE -> TREE.
posted by jackbishop at 10:25 AM on August 26, 2023
[Spoiler]
If you can find DEER, there's DEER -> REED -> REEF -> FREE -> TREE.
posted by jackbishop at 10:25 AM on August 26, 2023
I thought XRAY was going to be near impossible but I got there in just five steps from WORM. Feeling pretty clever.
Still working on it, but I think I'm getting better as I go. This is a very fun game.
posted by Well I never at 10:35 AM on August 26, 2023
Still working on it, but I think I'm getting better as I go. This is a very fun game.
posted by Well I never at 10:35 AM on August 26, 2023
Wow, thanks jackbishop. It's your last (utterly common) word right before TREE that I totally blanked on. Weird. Probably won't be difficult for anyone else.
(I'd spent ages thinking I was going to get there from TRUE, which really might be a dead end from tree?)
posted by nobody at 10:57 AM on August 26, 2023
(I'd spent ages thinking I was going to get there from TRUE, which really might be a dead end from tree?)
posted by nobody at 10:57 AM on August 26, 2023
I was going to turn off sound, but now I'm totally hooked on the spark-spark-spark Fire Swamp sound when I get a listed word.
posted by Well I never at 11:07 AM on August 26, 2023
posted by Well I never at 11:07 AM on August 26, 2023
I went ahead and wrote a quick-and-dirty Python script to crawl the entire search-space of four-letter words (using this wordlist) starting at "worm" and doing a breadth-first search of words reachable via anagrams and single-letter replacement. The furthest away reachable word is "bubo", which is nine steps. 83 words are not reachable at all, including several extremely obscure words but also common words like "agog", "aqua", "avow", "buzz", "ebbs", "eggs", "envy", "epee", "fizz", "fuzz", "hymn", "juju", "kiwi", "meow", "obey", "oboe", "odds", "okay", "onyx", "oryx", and "ugly".
posted by jackbishop at 12:06 PM on August 26, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by jackbishop at 12:06 PM on August 26, 2023 [4 favorites]
I'm confused - I was given "worm" to start, I entered "warm" and it rejected it. What am I missing?
posted by coffeecat at 12:13 PM on August 26, 2023
posted by coffeecat at 12:13 PM on August 26, 2023
at the start you have to enter exactly the word it's telling you to. after about the 2nd or 3rd step you can enter the word of your choice.
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 12:15 PM on August 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 12:15 PM on August 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
(incidentally, that wordlist is much, much larger than the set of words which Wordward Draw which accept. The somewhat smaller MIT 10,000 word list gives a maximum distance of 12 to "inch" and 151 unreachable words. And that list also has a lot of propler nouns that WWD won't accept, like "leon".
posted by jackbishop at 12:16 PM on August 26, 2023
posted by jackbishop at 12:16 PM on August 26, 2023
Looks kind of cool, but it's pegging the shit out of my CPU and running s u p e r s l o w.
posted by rhizome at 1:54 PM on August 26, 2023
posted by rhizome at 1:54 PM on August 26, 2023
Some of the words on jackbishop's list seem like words that have neither an anagram nor a word that's one letter off: aqua, epee, juju, meow, obey, ugly... and there are some groups that seem cut off from the rest of the set, like oryx/onyx and buzz/fizz/fuzz.
I don't think there's any way to get to a double Z ending. I was thinking you could do something with daze or faze or haze, but I don't see it.
I'm a little surprised by odds, though--data is in the list, and from there it seems like you could go dada-dads-adds-odds.
posted by box at 3:51 PM on August 26, 2023
I don't think there's any way to get to a double Z ending. I was thinking you could do something with daze or faze or haze, but I don't see it.
I'm a little surprised by odds, though--data is in the list, and from there it seems like you could go dada-dads-adds-odds.
posted by box at 3:51 PM on August 26, 2023
This is fun, but I'm discovering there are an absolute shitload of obscure, obsolete, and/or dialectical four-letter words -- enough that I can go "boy it would be really helpful if SONE turned out to be a word", make the guess, and frequently turn out to be right. And it feels like cheating every time
posted by rifflesby at 4:14 PM on August 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by rifflesby at 4:14 PM on August 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
(And the doctor replied, "Well, don't do that, then.")
posted by rifflesby at 4:15 PM on August 26, 2023
posted by rifflesby at 4:15 PM on August 26, 2023
data is in the list, and from there it seems like you could go dada-dads-adds-odds.
Huh. "dads" and "adds" aren't on my list of nearly 70,000 words. A quick digging through it indicates it doesn't have most plurals at all. Surely there's a good list of every word that's not a proper noun out there.
posted by jackbishop at 4:43 PM on August 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
Huh. "dads" and "adds" aren't on my list of nearly 70,000 words. A quick digging through it indicates it doesn't have most plurals at all. Surely there's a good list of every word that's not a proper noun out there.
posted by jackbishop at 4:43 PM on August 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
Very fun game! I'm home sick with a cold and this was perfect.
posted by Blue Jello Elf at 8:38 PM on August 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Blue Jello Elf at 8:38 PM on August 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
It wouldn't accept dire. In this economy!!
posted by ninazer0 at 12:17 AM on August 27, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by ninazer0 at 12:17 AM on August 27, 2023 [2 favorites]
Surely there's a good list of every word that's not a proper noun out there.
Not often I get to say this, but maybe the Scrabble community can help.
posted by box at 5:17 AM on August 27, 2023
Not often I get to say this, but maybe the Scrabble community can help.
posted by box at 5:17 AM on August 27, 2023
box: I don't think there's any way to get to a double Z ending.
I just managed to get to one: PUTS - PUTZ - FUTZ - FUZZ. And from there you can obviously make FIZZ and BUZZ as well. The game doesn't accept JIZZ, though, which blocks the route to JAZZ.
ninazer0: It wouldn't accept dire. In this economy!!
It accepts it for me. Are you sure you're on a word adjacent to it? I don't know about the rest of you, but I find I keep looking at the top of the word list on the left instead of the actual current word.
posted by baf at 5:19 AM on August 27, 2023 [1 favorite]
I just managed to get to one: PUTS - PUTZ - FUTZ - FUZZ. And from there you can obviously make FIZZ and BUZZ as well. The game doesn't accept JIZZ, though, which blocks the route to JAZZ.
ninazer0: It wouldn't accept dire. In this economy!!
It accepts it for me. Are you sure you're on a word adjacent to it? I don't know about the rest of you, but I find I keep looking at the top of the word list on the left instead of the actual current word.
posted by baf at 5:19 AM on August 27, 2023 [1 favorite]
As for word lists, I recommend ENABLE. It was specifically intended as a public-domain better alternative to the official Scrabble dictionary, and it's become the de facto standard word list for puzzle games like this one in recent years. (I'm not saying that this game definitely got its word list from ENABLE, but it would be completely unsurprising.)
posted by baf at 5:34 AM on August 27, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by baf at 5:34 AM on August 27, 2023 [2 favorites]
Shame the UI is so poorly done. Figured it out, eventually, but that frustration was unnecessary.
posted by papercake at 5:35 AM on August 27, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by papercake at 5:35 AM on August 27, 2023 [5 favorites]
Yay, the ENABLE list is awesome. Thanks, baf!
Using it, I get a max distance of 9 steps to the extremely esoteric words "unau" and "quey" (the path to "unau" can't be replicated in WWD; "inro" is not recognized). The furthest words people actually are likely to know are 8 steps: "luau", "quay", and "ugly". 46 words are listed as unreachable, and the double-z words are not among them ("razz" is reachable from "raze", "fuzz" from "fuze", "jazz" from "razz", "buzz" from "fuzz", and "fizz" from "fuzz". If "fuze" looks sketchy to you, "putz" works as baf says, but with a longer path).
46 words are listed as unreachable with ENABLE. Those I reasonably can define off the top of my head (and would thus call "not completely obscure"): ammo, aqua, ebbs, envy, epee, exam, expo, guru, hymn, iffy, jism, judo, juju, kiwi, kudu, lynx, onyx, oryx, ovum, pfft (not a word IMO, but I can define it anyways), upon, uric, void.
Some surprises there; words like "aqua", "epee", "hymn", and all the ones ending in "x" have obviously tricky structures in them, but "upon", "judo", and "ammo" feel like they're not all that far from being reachable.
WWD is clearly not using the ENABLE list exactly ("inro", which frankly looks like a mistake in the first place, is not replicated), but it's awfully close and I'd venture these findings pretty closely match actual reachabiltiy and shortest paths in WWD.
posted by jackbishop at 8:57 AM on August 27, 2023 [3 favorites]
Using it, I get a max distance of 9 steps to the extremely esoteric words "unau" and "quey" (the path to "unau" can't be replicated in WWD; "inro" is not recognized). The furthest words people actually are likely to know are 8 steps: "luau", "quay", and "ugly". 46 words are listed as unreachable, and the double-z words are not among them ("razz" is reachable from "raze", "fuzz" from "fuze", "jazz" from "razz", "buzz" from "fuzz", and "fizz" from "fuzz". If "fuze" looks sketchy to you, "putz" works as baf says, but with a longer path).
46 words are listed as unreachable with ENABLE. Those I reasonably can define off the top of my head (and would thus call "not completely obscure"): ammo, aqua, ebbs, envy, epee, exam, expo, guru, hymn, iffy, jism, judo, juju, kiwi, kudu, lynx, onyx, oryx, ovum, pfft (not a word IMO, but I can define it anyways), upon, uric, void.
Some surprises there; words like "aqua", "epee", "hymn", and all the ones ending in "x" have obviously tricky structures in them, but "upon", "judo", and "ammo" feel like they're not all that far from being reachable.
WWD is clearly not using the ENABLE list exactly ("inro", which frankly looks like a mistake in the first place, is not replicated), but it's awfully close and I'd venture these findings pretty closely match actual reachabiltiy and shortest paths in WWD.
posted by jackbishop at 8:57 AM on August 27, 2023 [3 favorites]
I really appreciate the effort to find out these facts about longest paths & unreachable words. There was a time when I could have implemented the all-shortest-paths algorithm over this word graph but I'm glad I didn't have to.
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 6:33 PM on August 30, 2023
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 6:33 PM on August 30, 2023
Played over the course of three days before eventually winning. I looked at the ENABLE list but eventually just "extracted" the game's actual wordlist to help me plot my courses. I lost sleep over "OGRE". Great game, thanks for sharing!
posted by avapoet at 1:04 PM on August 31, 2023
posted by avapoet at 1:04 PM on August 31, 2023
ok so now "we" need to speedrun the game. target: minimum keypresses.
It's a traveling salesman type optimization problem, but going backwards 1 word is just 1/4 the cost of entering a new word, and where "backwards" is depends on history, so I dunno what 'off the shelf' software would help with this.
At a first guess, the length of the optimal tour is likely under 1000 keystrokes. An average chain of 6 with no backtracking is just 1200 keystrokes.
I dunno how you extracted the wordlist, avapoet, but I grabbed the main javascript file from the game, used a regular expression to find all 4-letter quoted strings, sorted & removed duplicates, and got this list of 3999 words
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 8:39 AM on September 1, 2023
It's a traveling salesman type optimization problem, but going backwards 1 word is just 1/4 the cost of entering a new word, and where "backwards" is depends on history, so I dunno what 'off the shelf' software would help with this.
At a first guess, the length of the optimal tour is likely under 1000 keystrokes. An average chain of 6 with no backtracking is just 1200 keystrokes.
I dunno how you extracted the wordlist, avapoet, but I grabbed the main javascript file from the game, used a regular expression to find all 4-letter quoted strings, sorted & removed duplicates, and got this list of 3999 words
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 8:39 AM on September 1, 2023
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posted by quaeler at 7:50 AM on August 26, 2023 [4 favorites]