Ribbit

I’ve sung the praises of Zach Gage and Orta Therox’s daily puzzle site Puzzmo here before. I still play pretty much every day, and recently a new game got added that I’ve really been enjoying: Ribbit. 

It’s simple enough to play: just find all of the words of four characters or more in length. The paths between, and borders around, each letter denote the connections you should be looking at. 

As you find words, those connections disappear as they’re no longer required, making for a puzzle that actually gets easier the more progress you make. This conceit, along with the visual design of the puzzle, was the subject of a recent newsletter by Zach Gage, from which I found this detail really interesting: 

On my wife's recommendation, I kept the walls, but I switched the visual focus from walls to paths. Instead of light paths and solid walls, the final version […] has solid paths and light walls. This minor visual trick worked perfectly.

The most delightful part, however, comes when you’ve found all of the words that use a given letter. The letter then disappears, revealing a little frog in its place. 

Not to boast, but at the time of writing I’ve got a pretty decent Ribbit streak going. You should think about joining me, and if you do, let’s be friends.