The Unofficial Wordle Trainer: My Motivation for Creating FirstWord

Building FirstWord: How a Simple Tool for a Word Game Became a Hit Web App

Building web applications can be a rewarding pastime. For one thing, it’s always fun to create something that people will use. For example, take a simple tool like FirstWord. Designed as a kind of trainer to help improve your Wordle game, FirstWord grades your first guess and acts like a “word grader.” The following provides further insight into the creation and success of FirstWord.

The Wordle Game

Before delving into the development of FirstWord, let’s take a moment to discuss Wordle, the simple but popular web-based word game. Wordle is designed to test one’s skill to guess a word in six attempts. In doing so, the game provides hints or clues based on the previous guesses given.

The Origin of FirstWord

FirstWord was hacked together over a weekend as a tool to help improve people’s Wordle play. The idea was to build an app that graded the player’s first guess, giving the user insights into their performance. Even though its purpose was relatively modest, FirstWord quickly took off, with over 200,000 words submitted on its first week alone. As of today, the app is still being used by over a thousand players daily.

The Reason for Building FirstWord

On the surface, the question of why someone would spend hours building a tool for a game like Wordle seems a reasonable one. After all, FirstWord was built in just a couple of hours on a Saturday. But the answer is both simple and multifaceted.

For starters, building apps is an enjoyable pastime that adds value to the lives of others. Additionally, the act of building the app helped with learning vital programming skills. For instance, one’s child was taking a Python programming class but found some of the code tricky to use fully. Building FirstWord became an opportunity to appreciate how best to utilize boolean logic, functions, and math fundamentals to create a simple 2D geometry racing game.

What the Developer Learned

The entire process of building FirstWord was a valuable learning experience. For example, the developer had to gain insights into different areas relevant to building web applications. These included skills such as serverless functions, web frameworks like Flask, and using tools like Vercel to deploy serverless web apps with ease. Furthermore, the developer widened their knowledge scope by learning about DeSo login—an aspect of the web3 social network with its own blockchain.

Conclusion

Building FirstWord turned out to be a fun and satisfying experience. Beyond being a simple tool to improve players’ Wordle game, it has carved out a dedicated audience who find value in what it does. The experience of building FirstWord also provided a chance to learn valuable programming skills around web app deployment and serverless functions, among other technical concepts. In conclusion, building web applications can be an excellent way to continue learning, build neat things and provide value to others!