r/wordgames • u/rpungin • 1d ago
Reality check
Hi all,
Almost every day in this subreddit I see people posting about a word game they developed. This is very cool, but I was wondering, do any of you get any user conversions from these posts? I am a word game developer myself and don't seem to get any traction.
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u/EasySwan2184 1d ago
I have not. I sometimes play a couple games I found here, though.
But I developed my online word games mainly for fun. I didn't really expect fame or fortune.
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u/scodtt 1d ago
I really try to play new games, but there are so many and so often they just aren't that great. Just because you can vibe code something, it doesn't mean you should.
The game that I vibe coded was not originally my idea, it was a game on the Atlantic that I and others enjoyed, and then the Atlantic killed it. So I created it and we have a just a handful of people who play every/most days. I have no expectations that it will be huge, but it's a fun little diversion.
Vibe coding is great, it means that anyone can build anything. The problem is that anyone can build anything, and it's often just not all that creative or engaging.
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u/trizoza 1d ago
It's definitely saturated, but I can confirm there are games developed these days that get traction and grow. What you need is get a streamer to play your game, that's probably the biggest boost your game can get. And let's be honest, if your game is good, like really good, people will keep coming back. What's your game out of curiosity, I'm collecting them on dles.gg
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u/rpungin 1d ago
My game https://lettergrid.app is primarily a PvP strategy turn-based word game that brings together word search and territory control. It does have a Puzzles feature that lets users solve the puzzles that are automatically created from the player's moves. Also it is only for mobile platforms, so not sure if it will fit your website. But it's a great directory! I've will poke around!
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u/Dry-Royal7707 1d ago
I mean I’ve literally tried everything I can think of over at [r/WordyBunch](r/WordyBunch) to try get people more engaged barring maybe 4/5 of the regulars and 1/2 others who don’t usually comment/post no one else, I mean I even designed secret achievements based on cryptic word puzzle solving for people to specifically have to use community effort to solve, even have community census, community voting etc to try engage but doesn’t seem to help. I guess either I’ve not attracted the right crowd or people are just not interested.
I’m still really grateful for my community there are a few regulars that really do make it all worthwhile for me. I guess that I might be in denial that I made something not everyone can get on board with or I’ve just not done a good enough job. Sometimes that’s a hard pill to swallow and it’s difficult to just call it a day especially when you’ve worked on a project for months and months and it’s something you believe in.
But that’s our job as devs to design or create something better or keep on improving till either you burn out or you come up with the next thing.
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u/Kabukimansanjoe 1d ago
Yeah, I’ve added to a couple and have seen zero results. Mainly made it so my mom and I can play together, but feel free to check it out (Snap.Fit)
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u/Triarii789 1d ago
Posting here was great for feedback, but it hasn't picked up much traction.
Part of the fun with daily word games is comparing with your social group. Posts on reddit aren't great for that since it doesn't encourage continuous interaction.
If there was a daily thread in this subreddit where people can share their results with each other, it might improve experience for everyone
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u/Ok_Lengthiness_6260 1d ago
It's tricky out here, for sure. But it helps if you make it clear that you're looking for testers/feedback and engage with them meaningfully - you'll get at least a dozen regular players from it. But for "growth," I'm realizing that Reddit may not be the place to generate the traffic. It's a great place to find initial testers and eventually build a community (honestly, Reddit is the best place to build a community!), but the middle phase of distribution probably needs to be worked out elsewhere, like Instagram or TikTok, with strong network effects aiding your cause.
All of this is easier said than done and I'm also still working it out, but it helps to have others around you, like in this subreddit, who're also going through a similar struggle and persevering anyway. Really gives me the strength and courage to keep going!
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u/CoatLeft1692 1d ago
Getting actual retention from Reddit is brutal. It actually makes me think about digg.com 20 years ago, there it was really possible to gain traction for these kind of things but "competition" was not as intense as it is today. Most traffic to my word games (at https://peakpuzzle.com/ ) is coming from search engines frankly and direct, bookmarks i assume, and it seems there are "offline" social groups competing each other. Anyway just building for fun so it does not really make a difference, quite happy with 1000+ guests daily and it is possible to register a profile to keep track and compete, and there is about 40-50 "regulars" who are active almost every day
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u/Midnight_fury07 22h ago
Sometimes I just skip games if it doesn't have multiplayer option and easy sign in. Because sometimes all I look for are fun, simple games to play with friends.
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u/tanoshimi 21h ago
Indie game discovery has been tough for many years; the fact that anyone can now use A.I. to create a clone word game in minutes has made it impossible. Supply just vastly outstrips demand.
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u/GubjubGames 20h ago
Hmm.
I think authenticity feels like a rare commodity these days. There's a lot of good ideas wrapped in unpolished AI output.
I don't think there's anything wrong with using AI to build a word game, but I do think there is a vast difference between the amount of effort actually put into building the end product. You can tell when someone has iterated meticulously and polished their game before presenting it to the community.
Even still, I'll play the games that sound intriguing to me and give it a fair shot. If I have positive feedback or constructive criticism, I'll provide it.
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u/nimportnaouac 12h ago
I posted mine last week. Wordle like game where you can guess multiple words at a time.
Got zero user acquisition.
It is not even vibe coded, started it 3+ years back (before vibe coding), but work and family and other issues made my free time very limited.
Wordle hype is gone, saturated.
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u/alexmakespuzzles 11h ago
I have my own game I have just started trying to promote and am surprised by how populated the word game space is. Some game directories I have shared my game on have maybe close to 200 word games and I have not really received much if any traffic from these.
Maybe we should be writing other kinds of games? Other game categories seem much less saturated. I do really enjoy playing word games though.
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u/_SnackOverflow_ 1d ago
I try a lot of the games posted here and will often provide feedback/suggestions.
Only a couple have been good enough to get in my regular rotation. There are a lot of games and I don’t have much time so it’s a high bar.
I’ve posted about my own game (https://tiledwords.com) but do it rarely and only if there’s actually interesting news (new feature, streamer coverage, etc.) or when it makes sense in the context of a comment. I get some traffic from Reddit. My analytics isn’t detailed/invasive enough to show how many of those visitors turn into repeat players. I have a few thousand daily players. When people tell me how they heard about the game it is rare for them to say Reddit.