"Meant to fill that word-search-size hole in solvers’ hearts."

March 4, 2024 9:22 AM

Strands is a new word game from The New York Times, released in beta today.
posted by box (29 comments total)

Kinda fun. See it ending up in the graveyard alongside Digits (RIP).
posted by paulcole at 9:32 AM on March 4 [3 favorites]

I don’t like how closed-ended it is, where the same word can be spelled different ways on the board but it only gives you the credit for the way they want you to do it.
posted by Jon_Evil at 9:37 AM on March 4 [1 favorite]

The first puzzle: t'was fun, full stop. A-.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 9:38 AM on March 4 [2 favorites]

Reminds me of CellTower which is much more complex and interesting.
posted by vacapinta at 9:52 AM on March 4 [9 favorites]

Not bad! I finished it, and it took me to a totally empty white page, which I imagine was not the intended result? What are y'all seeing when you complete it?
posted by taz at 9:55 AM on March 4

I got a congrats, some stats and the recommendation that I do the Spelling Bee.
posted by jacquilynne at 10:01 AM on March 4 [1 favorite]

Once I got the mechanics figured out it was fun! Hope it doesn’t end up behind a paywall like so many of their other games.
posted by TedW at 10:19 AM on March 4

OMG. I literally started coding the exact same puzzle idea this weekend after looking through different boggle solvers. Wild! Guess I missed my chance to be bought out by the NYT haha.
posted by lock robster at 10:23 AM on March 4 [5 favorites]

At least they didn't steal this one from Only Connect, I guess.
posted by yellowcandy at 10:32 AM on March 4 [5 favorites]

I have no clue as to how to do this. I feel stupid. I can't seem to find anything it wants other than one word.
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:20 AM on March 4 [2 favorites]

It took me a bit to wrap my brain around what exactly they wanted. Here is an image of (an? my?) solution to today's puzzle if that helps it click. And it does seem like Cell Tower, in that there are many words that could be formed on the grid, but only one solution that completely fills the grid (and satisfies the theme?)

I enjoyed this, for a first play. I think I like Cell Tower more, but I'll keep trying this one.
posted by xedrik at 11:29 AM on March 4

At least they didn't steal this one from Only Connect, I guess.

As I understand it, Only Connect people are involved with NYT's Connections. I prefer to think of it as broadening American's horizons.
posted by pwnguin at 11:40 AM on March 4 [1 favorite]

Fun once I figured out how to play. Not as challenging as SpellTower (scroll down).
posted by oneirodynia at 11:49 AM on March 4

Pretty soon the NYT is going to be 80% puzzles, 10% opinion pieces and 10% "why this is bad for Biden" articles
posted by gottabefunky at 12:26 PM on March 4 [13 favorites]

gottabefunky, don't forget Cooking!
posted by epj at 12:46 PM on March 4 [1 favorite]

It was a bit tough, but once I got a hint, I was able to find them all. Hoping tomorrow I won't need a hint.
posted by hydra77 at 1:34 PM on March 4

As I understand it, Only Connect people are involved with NYT's Connections.

I mean, maybe more information has come out about it since that this article (and the tweets within) were written, but I haven't seen it.

It's a blatant rip-off...and a much easier one, at that.

None of which is to say I don't play it. But still.
posted by yellowcandy at 4:16 PM on March 4

I'm playing the same game xedrik solved and posted above, but I can't spell out my last word in the lower left. The letters are there but in the wrong order, and it won't let me link them.

I guess there are still some bugs to work out. Or I'm missing something about the basic mechanics, since xedrik was able to connect them.
posted by hydrophonic at 4:27 PM on March 4

Totally fun! Part of my rotation now! I like working on the NYT crossword and Spelling Bee here and there throughout the day, and then doing these little quickies in between.

I know this is a bit off-topic but I have to say that the purple line in Connections is sometimes way too obscure.
posted by Kangaroo at 4:55 PM on March 4 [1 favorite]

I don’t like how closed-ended it is, where the same word can be spelled different ways on the board but it only gives you the credit for the way they want you to do it. posted by Jon_Evil

The proper solution has to have the theme description dividing the board in two and the other words contained on either side.
posted by DanSachs at 5:03 PM on March 4

Oh, not divided in two sections but discrete regions.
posted by DanSachs at 5:09 PM on March 4

That recent Connections, where the purple words were like BASSINET CELLOPHANE HORNY ORGANISM and the clue was ‘starts with musical instruments’ (I may be misremembering some details), was great though.
posted by box at 6:29 PM on March 4 [2 favorites]

Maybe some of them are harder than others, but the one I got was extremely easy. Like it took under two minutes without fully knowing the rules. I can't imagine this is going to be a major draw for a lot of folks once the novelty wears off.
posted by The Manwich Horror at 5:37 AM on March 5

hydrophonic: You may be starting with the wrong H.
posted by dfan at 11:04 AM on March 5 [1 favorite]

I know this is a bit off-topic but I have to say that the purple line in Connections is sometimes way too obscure.

Are the lines colour coded in some way that has meaning?
posted by jacquilynne at 11:17 AM on March 5

From the instructions for Connections:

Each group is assigned a color, which will be revealed as you solve:
Yellow (Straightforward) -> Green -> Blue -> Purple (Tricky)

posted by dfan at 11:20 AM on March 5

Huh. I will have to pay attention to that in the future. I'm not sure if that was added to the instructions after the fact or if I never read them because the basic gameplay was obvious.
posted by jacquilynne at 11:24 AM on March 5

That was a fun little break, but I don't know that I'm going to find it more compelling than Big Ben for word search purposes (the BONG! is possibly morvrewarding for me than solving clues)
posted by EvaDestruction at 1:06 PM on March 5

I am sure it’s a minority of Connections puzzles where I actually agree with the full difficulty coding of categories - a lot comes down to your personal knowledge and strengths. But it seems that there is a maximum of one wordplay/word association based category per puzzle and it will always be purple. Usually it’s the “there’s a word that pairs with all of these” formula, sometimes it’s something more clever or more infuriating, occasionally it’s just a regular category.
posted by atoxyl at 10:11 PM on March 5