Help me out here, folks
10I’ve always enjoyed puzzles and games. I got it from my mom who could spend hours every night playing Tetris on my original Gameboy. I raised my kids to enjoy them as well, but they’re not really into the stuff I like because…well, kids, right?
Back in March of 2023, I convinced my mom to share her Wordle score with me and since then (almost 2 years now without missing a single day) we text each other once a day with our Wordle scores. No real conversation needed, but it does turn into a chance to chat from time to time. Most importantly, it lets me know she’s ok. We’re not getting any younger and she lives 2000 miles away so I can’t just pop by her house to check in. She’s extremely independent and would never want/allow someone to do daily checks, but that little game is fun for both of us and works out great.
Now the part I need your help with. What daily games are out there that you enjoy the most? The reason I ask is because my youngest just moved into their first apartment at the beginning of the month. Don’t get me wrong, I am absolutely loving the empty nest situation, but I’m struggling to keep communication open. I think if I can find a game that we are both interested in, a daily competition on the score would allow them to check on me, and me to check on them without making me feel any older or them feeling less independent. I don’t really want to install any new apps or have to sit through a lot of ads just to play for 1-5 minutes a day, but if it’s the right game I’m sure I’d give it a shot.
So, please share any suggestions or just list your favorites. The only requirements are that it changes daily but has a universal goal and provides a score. That removes stuff like racing games or fighting/shooting games since everyone gets a random setup. Best if it’s just a web-based game or loads on a webpage as well, but I might be able to make an app work for them if the game is enjoyable enough.
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If you are in the Apple universe and pay for One+, you get Apple Arcade games which are included and guaranteed to be ad-free with no add-on purchases. I think some of them are co-operative or competitive.
The “family” membership isn’t cheap but you can have up to 5 people (relation not required) share the service.
@pmarin We’re all Androids in the family, but the Play Store has something similar. I’ll look into that, but really I just need a single game so access to a library would only be needed to find the one standout that ticks all the boxes.
I’ve got one of those extremely independent moms too and since she’s now alone in her huge home I do tend to worry something is going to happen to her. Well, let’s face it, someday it will, it’s inevitable.
https://fb.gg/play/416587040563227
We play solitaire daily in Facebook’s messenger app. I know you didn’t want an app but maybe you already have FB. I’ll include a link to the game we’re playing, you can play with several friends, or against the computer. I’m not sure if the link will work since we’re not FB friends.
My mom always has a real life puzzle going but sometimes we do them online. Those can be played in the browser and you can play against the clock. That’s not as fun as solitaire, it’s more of a solo type game.
In addition to the good NYT games (Wordle, Crossword, Connections, Spelling Bee), I like:
This poker game https://madgameslab.com/ps
Puckdoku (niche appeal only)
Really Bad Chess
…and a fun daily game @dave recently made, which he can share if he wants!
My daily list includes the NYT games (Wordle, Strands, Connections), as well as Squaredle , WaffleGame . I did the Nerdle for a while, which is fun if you’re into math…
Ha, thanks @matthew.
If you want to try out that game I made for fun, it’s WikiDates, at:
https://dates.wiki
It’s events from today’s date, challenging you to put them in the right order.
@dave I just checked that out and I think it’s neat. Kinda like … umm … Chronophoto. (and apparently there are now multiple games like Chronophoto, some including location on the world map) Except your WikiDates rewards actual history knowledge more. (In games like Chronophoto, knowledge of photography and clothing styles can often cheat you down to a decade to guess from. But that might actually be the point?)
My only suggestion would be to place an “older” and “newer” (or “more recent”) placeholder at the top/bottom of the timeline, since it was not obvious to me (as a first-time user) that older was at the top. (While it might seem obvious that time flows in the direction we read and naturally scroll… there are many situations that place newer items at the top, e.g. Gmail.)
I suppose running it left-to-right would also work (and would feel more natural for a timeline), but that’s less consistent with standard computer and phone experience.
Oh noes! While I was about to submit this reply, I remembered another game I’ve played that’s actually a lot more similar to WikiDates. Apparently it’s called Chrono (although I thought I remembered it being slightly different…). But while I was searching for that (because why would I have a bookmark or anything?) I found that there are actually several in that category, like Chronoline and Wikitrivia — but yours is the only one I’ve seen that is “today in history” (which I think is really cool).
@xobzoo Thanks for trying it out! I definitely have plans to add an older / newer label, at least as the game begins.
I’m happy to try these others out, but yeah, I think the key for mine is that it’s daily and it’s about today. I’m looking forward to seeing what it’s like playing year two.
A further vote for Connections, though sometimes it seems like they get pushy about wanting a subscription. IDK, I don’t remember to play it daily.
Also an idea for an offline option: you can get something like the Jeopardy Page a Day calendar and ask the answer by text every day. I got hooked on that one when a lady at work brought it in and started an email Jeopardy game in the office. At 9am each day she would email out the answer to a group of us and we’d send back the questions, first come first served.
This is an awesome idea.
POPSOCKETS! COURT DOCKETS! FOLK ROCK HITS! AWESOME!
How about Cody Cross? It’s pretty fun while being as challenging as you’d like it to be…You can set difficulty levels from Easy to Moderate to Difficult…and best part is that it’s free, though in-app purchases are allowed & you can buy up (I think it was ~$10 to skip the commercials). My sister & I are on over two year streaks each (competition is ON!) of solving at least one puzzle per day.
We have a subscription to the NYT games. It gives time scores for the crossword puzzles and you can skip Fridays and do old Tuesdays instead.
Also from NYT games is the mini crossword. It times you and you can share your times.
My Mom and I both play Onnect, it’s a match type game and we’re competitive in comparing what level we’re on, she’s retired so she has a lot more time to play but I’m just glad she’s interested in playing games and keeping her mind occupied.
I got into Puzzmo and paid for a lifetime membership when they were getting started, but I think now it’s $40 a year that gets you two players so you could share. Some stuff can be played for free if you want to check it out, but it also lets you add friends so you can compare scores.
Didn’t we have this talk?
https://meh.com/forum/topics/what-daily-games-and-puzzles-do-you-play-online
https://meh.com/forum/topics/important-best-mindless-online-games
My info dump
I did not mention I had open-sourced (ad-free, free-to-download&modify) puzzle games as well
Simon Tatham’s Puzzles
Simple Solitaire Collection
LEXICA (Boggle-like)
I also have a few paid games that can be played offline (Carcassonne, a tile-laying boardgame of corrupt city planning; Rebuild 3, Civilization with zombies; Draw with Friends, ad-heavy Pictionary-by-mail clone – online-browser game Drawception has a better long-chain game, but lacks the daily/speedy neediness; Quick!Draw with Google is a shallow version where you have to draw stuff so an AI can understand)
Tightropeis a daily quiz and a link on that page to Blossom, like Spelling Bee, but you can only make twelve words.