How I Built Foursquared: A Word Puzzle Game from Scratch
I’ve always loved Wordle. There’s something satisfying about cracking a word puzzle with just the right amount of challenge—simple in concept, but engaging enough to keep you coming back. One day, I found myself staring at a grid of cells in excel and wondered if it’s possible to have a puzzle where all four words connect. That idea sparked the beginning of what eventually became Foursquared.
From that initial thought, the development process followed a few key stages:
- Idea and prototyping – brainstorming how four interconnected words could work as a puzzle.
- Excel MVP – creating a simple version in Excel to test the concept.
- Rapid test and learn – iterating the game with friends and workmates.
- Web development – building the game in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
- Daily feature releases – refining the experience based on continuous feedback.
- Automating puzzle generation – scaling up from a manual list to 5,000+ puzzles.
Prototyping in My Happy Place: Excel
From working in finance, my natural instinct when testing logic for an idea is to turn to Excel. Spreadsheets are my happy place, and they gave me an easy way to lay out words in a grid, tweak mechanics, and see if the concept worked. I made a test word list and built a basic grid with formulas that pulled from the list and conditional formatting for the UX/UI – this gave me a playable version that I could test with friends and workmates, making adjustments based on their feedback.
From Spreadsheet to Web App
Once the core gameplay felt solid, I started translating it into a real game using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The first version had a simple interface, no colourful UI and I manually built a small list of puzzles. Testing was a fun process where I’d add features, tweak them, and get feedback from friends and workmates who were honest about what worked and what didn’t.
Daily Feature Releases: Continuous Refinement
One of the most fun parts of developing Foursquared was the iteration process and being able to make small tweaks to bring something to life so quickly. I’d make a change, release it to my test group, get feedback, and tweak things again. Some of the most important improvements came from this rapid test-and-learn approach:
- Colour changes and dark mode – Adjusting the UI to improve readability and user experience.
- History of unsolved boxes – Letting players track what letters they’d already attempted.
- Scoring mechanics – Tweaking point systems to make the scoring system more simple to understand and share.
- Clear box on focus – Small quality improvements to streamline gameplay.
This quick feedback loop helped turn Foursquared into a more polished and engaging experience.
Automating the Puzzle Creation
Manually creating puzzles was fun at first, but it quickly became clear that I needed a better solution. I spent a bit of time tweaking the code to automatically generate valid Foursquared puzzles. After refining the algorithm and curating a solid word list of around 2,000 words, I ended up with at least 5,000 playable puzzles (I haven’t modelled how many more combinations exist as I’m sure this is more than enough for now).
Finding the Right Name
Originally, I called the game Square Words, which felt like a natural fit—after all, the goal is to complete a square of four words. But as I looked around, I realised that several other games had similar names, and I wanted something more unique. That’s when Foursquared was born.
It’s also fun that the name ties into the core mechanics of the game in multiple ways:
- You need to find four words to complete the puzzle.
- The game is played on a square grid.
- And as a fun mathematical twist, 4² (four squared) equals 16, which is the exact number of spaces you need to fill to solve the puzzle!
It felt like the perfect blend of wordplay, logic, and structure — just like the game itself.
What’s Next for Foursquared?
It’s been an exciting journey building Foursquared from a simple idea into a full-fledged game. There’s always room for improvement and ways to make the experience even more engaging. If you enjoy word challenges, I’d love for you to give it a try and see if you can solve the squares!
Let me know what you think—feedback has been a huge part of shaping Foursquared, and I’m always keen to hear new ideas.
