Wordle took an express ride from a breezy daily distraction to a seven-figure payday for its creator. No wonder everyone is copying it. But manyâand there are so manyâof its variants are similar exercises in wordplay. Far rarer is the Wordle clone that doesnât feature any words at all.
Enter Subwaydle, a Wordle-inspired browser game based on the maddeningly byzantine New York City subway system. Itâs the brainchild of Sunny Ng, a software engineer whoâs previously created other transit-themed projects, including a real-time map of the subway replete with indicators about every lineâs current quality of service. (The most common one these days? âNot good.â) Subwaydle isnât the first non-word Wordle variant, but it has quickly garnered a lot of buzz, particularly among a certain subset of extremely plugged-in transit fans. It even received a nod from the popular transit blog Second Ave. Sagas
âI came across a few fun Wordle variants last week, like Chengyu Wordle, which by the way made me realize how bad I am in regurgitating Chinese idioms, and Nerdle, a variant that requires you to come up with math equations, and I wanted to make something transit-related,â Ng told Kotaku
Subwaydle is in part inspired by the trivia nights, held before the covid-19 pandemic ruined everything, at the New York City Transit Museum. Most nights would conclude with participants conjuring a hypothetical train ride through the city, taking turns rattling off the next station the train would hit. When the train hit interchange stations, players would have the option to hop onto a different train from a connecting line.
âIt was so much fun and itâs probably one of the things I miss the most from before the pandemic,â Ng said.
Subwaydle came together faster than an A train ride from Columbus Circle to 125th St. Ng told Kotaku he started the project on Friday evening. It was live by Sunday.
Subwaydle shares a lot of its ruleset with Wordle. Every day, thereâs a specific route connecting two of the subwayâs 472 stations. Using two transfers, you have to design a three-train ride that would get you from one to the next. It doesnât necessarily have to be the most efficient route, but it does have to physically work within the confines of the subway systemâno out-of-station transfers or bus connections or anything like that. Lines that arenât part of the route are reflected in gray, so you can rule those out. Lines that show up as yellow are part of the route but in the wrong spot, so you know theyâre part of the solution. Those that show up as green are both part of the route and in the correct place. You get six tries.
During the week, Subwaydle can feature one of 6,835 possible combinations, Ng said. On weekends, there are 4,188 combos, because Subwaydle makes use of the cityâs uniquely fucked up weekend scheduling. (Yes, the NYC subway switches up its service on weekends. Itâs not always predictable, and is certainly not the sort of service youâd regularly see in other supposedly world-class subway systems.) Flying blind is tough, so Subwaydle features a hint button thatâll tell you where to start and where to end without actually giving away any of the lines involved in the dayâs route. Still, pinpointing a solution can be bracingly difficult.
Take todayâs challenge. After clocking three gray squares right out of the gate, Iâa proud NUMTOTâcaved and opened the hint. I learned that Iâd need to create a route from Borough Hall, in downtown Brooklyn, to Grand Centralâ42nd St., in midtown Manhattan. Okay, soâŠI could start with the 2, 3, 4, or 5 trains. My second guess ruled out the 3 and the 5 trains, and my third guess correctly placed the 4 trains and the 42nd St. shuttle as the first and third rides, so all Iâd need to do is figure out a transfer between those. Easy, right?
I failed three times in a row. The correct solution? 4 to the A to the shuttle. (In life and in Subwaydle, I constantly forget about the underground walking transfer between Port Authority and Times Squareâ42nd St.!)
Even Ng, who admittedly doesnât use the hint system, is sometimes stumped. âI have done these every day, and I havenât even been able to get the puzzles of the last 2 days,â he said
Ng recognizes the geographical limit of Subwaydle, that it may only appeal to those who live in the New York City metropolitan area, currently home to 20.1 million citizens, according to the latest census data. But heâs received a wave of positive feedback from folks who donât live in the region: tourists, global transit fans, and, of course, those of the âwhy I left New Yorkâ set.
âIt reminded them of New York,â he said.
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