'I haven't played Wordle since the day I sold it' says game's Welsh creator

The creator of the game Wordle has created another word puzzle despite struggling after the success of his first.

Josh Wardle from Monmouthshire created Wordle for his girlfriend to play during the Covid-19 lockdowns.

The game was sold to The New York Times in February 2022.

Wardle told The Sunday Times: "I haven't played since the day I sold it."

Wardle, 43, created the puzzle game, originally called "Mr Bugs' Wordy Nugz" in 2020 to entertain himself and girlfriend Palak Shah during the pandemic. The name later changed to Wordle, a play on his surname.

When asked if he thought he'd create another word puzzle game, he previously said: "Why would I do that to myself?"

Despite this, Wardle and a team of collaborators recently launched Parseword, a wordplay game inspired by Wardle's attempts to get to grips with cryptic crossword puzzles.

Much like Wordle, the player gets to solve one cryptic crossword clue a day, the game becomes progressively harder as the week goes on.

Wardle said: "I remember looking at clues and feeling utterly flummoxed. Like it was completely impenetrable.

"They've become my favourite format, because hidden under all this complexity is this amazingly elegant puzzle."

Wardle said he wants to help "folks who haven't been able to break into cryptic crosswords, to teach them the rules".

"I love language, this tool we all have access to, we use every day," he said.

"I think I'm just trying to make games that I would want to play."

The original Wordle game involves guessing a five letter word in six guesses. When the player puts in the first word, the tiles will turn green if the letter is in the correct spot, yellow if the letter is in the word but not in the right spot and grey if its not included at all.

Parseword and Wordle can only be played once a day and players have the option of sharing their score with friends, family or on social media.

After the success of Wordle, other games with similar concepts started to emerge and Countdown's Susie Dent expressed a love for Wordle on breakfast television.

Wordle even helped to end a 17-hour hostage ordeal and became the most Googled word of 2022.

So with all the success, why did Wardle sell the iconic game? He told The Sunday Times that viral fame was "dizzying".

"People would send me messages that Wordle had reinvigorated their family group chat. At the same time, that level of scrutiny and pressure was deeply stressful," said Wardle.

The game was never created to make Wardle any money, it was subscription and ad free, the point was to make something fun - but the puzzle game ended up making Wardle a "low" seven-figure sum when he sold it.