If you were wondering when this would become a real game, here’s the moment. I’m loath to spoil too much because some people will most enjoy the sense that there is some malevolent spirit inside the HTML input box, constantly tightening the screws on your skills and patience. You’ll have to wield math, Roman numerals, emoji, Geoguessr, chess, and—that’s it, no more hints.
You should go play it. I got past the chess question, then I had to stop and write this, and I may or may not have been glad for the break.
I dashed off a few questions to Agarwal, creator of The Password Game and many more intriguing web games.
Ars: Were you inspired by previous password requirements, or did this game format just occur to you?
Agarwal: This idea has been brewing in my head for a while, but I think the final straw was when a password box told me my password was too long. Like apparently it’s possible for a password to be too secure?
Ars: How challenging was the backend of this game? Is this a RegEx thesis project?
Agarwal: This game is a mess of RegEx, and I’m surprised it works at all. I had a bug where the phase of the moon messed up a completely unrelated rule. It also slowly morphed into a full-blown text editor with different fonts and the ability to bold/italicize, which made everything way more complicated. On the plus side, I think I kinda understand RegEx now. (Ed. note: Agarwal added a text :) smile after this, and it’s important to recognize the potential irony of that.)
Ars: Do you feel bad about making people ask their friends for today’s Wordle answer?
Agarwal: Honestly, I think every game should start by making you do today’s Wordle.