I’m a database consultant by day, and like a lot of people, my mornings start with a daily puzzle or two. But I kept running out. Once you’ve done Wordle and Connections, you’re done, and most other options are either full of ads, want you to sign up, or try to keep you playing for an hour. I wanted the opposite: small games you can finish in a couple of minutes that still make you think.
Guzhi is personal. It’s the seed game [I grew up watching / my grandmother played] in Tamil Nadu, and I wanted a version of it that people could actually play today.
--
Most daily puzzles test the same thing: vocabulary. I wanted each game to use a different part of your brain:
Uh·Loud: words, but by sound. You have to say the tiles out loud.
Layers: spatial and color reasoning.
Can You Ballpark?: number sense and estimation.
Since When?: your feel for history and time.
Due North: geography and mental maps.
So it’s a small collection where you can build a five-minute morning routine, free, with no account needed.
--
It started as one game, Layers. Building it taught me that the hard part isn’t the code. It’s tuning a puzzle so it’s easy to start but satisfying to solve. Every game went through a lot of “too hard, nobody gets it” and “too easy, no aha moment” rounds.
Along the way I also learned that each game needs a one-line hook you can grasp in five seconds. If I couldn’t explain it in a sentence, I changed the game, not the sentence. That’s why every game now has a tiny tagline and a short trailer.
The other shift was from “one game” to “a family of games.” Once I had two, it was clear that people who like one kind of puzzle usually want a different flavor tomorrow.
I’d love feedback: which one hooked you, and which one confused you?
