The Wordtallyo notebook
Strategy measured rather than guessed, and notes on how the game is built.
- GAME DESIGN5 min
How many guesses is fair? Measure it, don’t copy it
Six is inherited, not reasoned. The method we used instead, the three solvers it needs, and the kill criterion this game passed by a wide margin.
Read → - UNDER THE HOOD5 min
Where the answers come from, and what can never be one
Two frequency corpora, a base-form test, and one filter that has nothing to do with words at all. Why the pools came in under target and stayed there.
Read → - THE MATHS4 min
The one tally this game can never show you
Four hits and one near cannot happen, on any board, with any word. A short proof, a property test, and what to do with it mid-puzzle.
Read → - STRATEGY6 min
What to guess second, and the rule that decides it
Every branch of the opening guess, walked. Probe or play a live answer? The averages say one thing and one group of outcomes says the opposite.
Read → - HISTORY6 min
This game is Bulls and Cows, played with words
Jotto, Bulls and Cows, Mastermind: where the two-number tally comes from, and what each rule is actually worth on the same dictionary.
Read → - TWO PLAYER5 min
Three ways to play this with other people
Share cards, seed links, and the original two-player format that needs no software at all — plus the counting rule that settles arguments.
Read → - ACCESSIBILITY5 min
Why this word game isn’t green and yellow
Green and yellow fails for one man in twelve. The palette we used instead, the actual contrast ratios, and the shapes that carry the meaning when colour cannot.
Read → - THE RULES4 min
How to play Wordtallyo
The complete rules in two minutes — what the two numbers mean, how the three boards differ, and what actually scores.
Read → - STRATEGY6 min
The best opening guess in Wordtallyo, measured
Every legal opener, scored against every possible answer. The winners, the losers, and the surprise: anagrams are not interchangeable.
Read → - COMPARISON5 min
Wordle tells you where. This game doesn’t — and we measured what that costs
Same dictionary, same answers, two different feedback rules — run head to head. The gap is wider than we expected, and it grows with every letter.
Read → - DESIGN NOTE5 min
The four-letter board is the hardest board, and we can prove it
Shorter words, a smaller answer pool — and a solver that needs more guesses than on either longer board. Length is not difficulty here.
Read →