How Our New Game, Connections, Is Put Together
How Our New Game, Connections, Is Put Together
How Our New Game, Connections, Is Put Together
By Wyna Liu
June 26, 2023
Summary
There would have to be a mix of categories for the game to feel challenging and satisfying.
That's where the puzzle element could come in: Some categories might be defined by their use of wordplay - palindromes, homophones, adding or dropping letters and words - rather than the literal meanings of the words on the cards.
Purple was meant to be the trickiest category, a stand-alone puzzle incorporating a wordplay element.
My task was to construct 60 boards with four categories each for the beta.
What I thought was a challenging category was easier than I expected! Item overlap was a more effective way to make a board challenging than the use of trivia-based elements.
Some categories didn't make the list because I couldn't think of four solid entries, like slang words for "Car," and words that could precede "Sound".
An early board included a category based on trading card games.
Reference
Liu, W. (2023a, June 26). How our new game, connections, is put together. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/26/crosswords/new-game-connections.html