Wordfern
A five-minute anagram hunt: one long word, and a race against the clock to dig out every smaller word hiding inside it.
Most word games sit at one of two extremes. Either they are a slow, sit-down puzzle you need a free evening for, or they are punishing: one wrong guess and the round is over. Both share the same gap. When you finish, you learn what you got, never what you missed, so the word you couldn't see today is still invisible tomorrow.
Wordfern gives you one long word and five minutes. Type whatever you can pull out of it, and score Scrabble-style, so rare letters and longer finds pay more. Everyone gets the same word each day and lands on the same board, which is what makes a score worth comparing. Then the important part: when the clock stops, the round shows you every word you didn't find, and any of them can be tapped for a definition. A bad round still leaves you with something.
Wordfern started in an interview. Not as the coding problem: as the warm-up. One long word, a few minutes, everyone in the room digging smaller words out of it, and a group of adults getting quietly, unreasonably competitive about it.
The exercise ended and I was still turning the word over on the way home. That felt like enough of a signal to go and build the thing properly.
Word of the Day
The same word for everybody, one shot only, and the score posts itself to a shared board. No replaying it for a better run.
Length Ladder
Four rounds back to back (3 → 4 → 5 → 6+ letters) that resolve into a single combined score.
Scrabble scoring
Rare letters are worth the most, longer words carry bonuses, and using every tile lands a pangram jackpot.
Words you missed
Practice rounds end with the full list of what you didn't find. Tap any word to read what it actually means.
Streaks & profile
The daily drives your streak; skip a day and it resets. Your best word ever and every round played live in the profile.
Leaderboards
Separate Word of the Day and Practice boards, each pinning your own standing to the top so you can find yourself.
No accounts. An anonymous player id is minted on first open, so the game starts in one tap. Nothing to sign up for is one less reason to close the tab.
Offline-first. The puzzles, the answer sets and a bundled definitions file ship inside the app, with the dictionary API layered on top when there's signal. A round never waits on the network.
The share loop is the growth channel. Results render a score card built on a canvas, and every round has a challenge link that drops a friend onto the identical word: the only fair way to argue about a score.
Give it five minutes.
One word, one clock, and every word you missed at the end of it.