So, I’ve made a new game: Lexicle. In this post, I’m going to talk about how I designed it. This post will have quite a few spoilers, so if you haven’t finished Lexicle yet, go play it now.

Pre-production

The initial design document for Lexicle.

The design for Lexicle began after I was showing my previous Wordle-like, Penguin Monster’s Wordle, to a few friends. One of them pointed out that the colours in that version were difficult to tell apart, and I agreed. So I designed a new Wordle-like. I initially had an idea of making the game have some kind of “unfolding” mechanic, where the game becomes more interesting as it progresses, similar to how incremental games work.

The idea of adding keys to a keyboard was a natural way to introduce an unfolding mechanic. Initially, I had the idea of new mechanics coming in after a certain number of solves, but I found that it made more sense to have new mechanics arrive after the player types certain words that they can find by investigating the dubious dictionary.

It is worth noting that the original design, as written on paper, is quite different from the final product, as uploaded to itch.io. Sometimes, as a designer, you come up with better ideas during production, and you discard the lesser ideas from pre-production.

Programming

Using emoji can be a good way of annotating console logs.

Lexicle was programmed using p5.js, a Javascript library that makes it easy to draw graphics and make browser games. I use it because it’s a tool that I’ve used for a lot of things.

Visual Design

Multiple visual cues are used to communicate key information.

As I mentioned earlier, my previous Wordle-like had an accessibility problem: players had difficulty distinguishing between the yellow and green, which lessened their enjoyment of the game. So in this Wordle-like, I decided to put more thought into the accessibility of my design.

A lot of accessible design is about communicating information to players in multiple ways. For example, to indicate a letter is in the correct position, I put a green background behind the letter, put a tick icon in the corner of the letter’s background, and trigger the sound “check_correct.mp3”. The colours were chosen using WebAIM’s Contrast Checker so that they contrast well.

Xyzyzyx’s animation in GIMP.

I used GIMP to make the images and animations for Lexicle. As with p5.js, it’s a useful and powerful tool that I have a lot of experience with.

Sound Design

Xyzyzyx’s theme in JummBox.

Lexicle is the first game where I’ve more deeply considered the sound design as an aspect of the game, rather than just an afterthought. For the sound design of Lexicle, I used JummBox, an online tool for making chiptune melodies. In my opinion, it’s a pretty good tool, and I’ll probably use it more in the future.

The Dictionary

Writing thousands of definitions takes a while.

Writing the dictionary was the longest part of creating Lexicle. Whereas pretty much all of the programming was done by June 30th, it wasn’t until July 12th that I had finished the dictionary. It turns out writing a bunch of one-line definitions for thousands of seven-letter words is a tedious and time-consuming task. There’s a reason why so many of the definitions are of the form “(n.) More than one noun” or “(v.) Gerund form of verb”. I did have some fun occasionally, writing silly words like “SIX+144: (num.) 100 and fifty”, absurd symbols (which are never the solution to the Lexicle, don’t worry), and funny definitions like “PRIVACY: (n.) This dictionary does not steal your data”. I also had a little bit of fun constructing a narrative of the dubious dictionary Writer having a pseudo-hostile relationship with his Editor.

Easter Eggs

Lexicle has a number of easter eggs.

Some of the features of Lexicle are quite hidden. And there are some that I wouldn’t expect a player to find without deliberately looking for them. Some of these easter eggs require following oblique and lateral clues, like constructing the architect.

Conclusions

Sleep is important, even for dictionaries and game designers.

One of the key things I learnt from making Lexicle is that a flawed game can still be something you’re proud of. Throughout the design process, corners were cut, and some things aren’t quite perfect. Nonetheless, I worked on Lexicle until I thought it was good enough to share, rather than let it rot in my “games in progress” folder.