Playtesting fixes:
* Constant cell size (~32px) — the board GROWS with the grid instead of shrinking
letters into a fixed box. Fixes Small's oversized spacing; on a narrow phone the
largest grid gently scales to fit (the standard word-search compromise).
* Themes now gather ~28 words (LLM asked for 28; curated fallbacks ~22 each), and
each size samples its OWN subset — so every tier is a distinct puzzle. Large is
now reliably full (14 words on 14×14), fixing the "13 words / 11 listed" mismatch.
* Tiers: small 8×8/6, med 11×11/10, large 14×14/14.
* Word list is now a framed "Find these · n/total" palette panel (pill chips that
take on each found word's colour) instead of loose text under the grid.
* Size chips use qualitative labels (cosy / balanced / a longer sit) so no count
can ever contradict the actual puzzle.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
From playtesting findings:
* Pools nearly doubled (115/104 → 228/201) with calm/neutral everyday words
(claps, dance, drench, beach…), not just strictly-upbeat ones — more variety,
~7-month runway. The post-solve "why" prompt reworded to fit neutral words.
* Word Search now stores one theme + word list per day; the grid is built per
request for three SIZE tiers — Small (8×8, 6 words), Medium (11×11, 9),
Large (14×14, 13). Large packs more words = a longer sit ("too fast" fix).
All sizes share the day's theme; every size still code-placed + solvable.
* Word Search themes can now be neutral everyday scenes ("Around the house",
"At the beach", "In the kitchen", "A walk outdoors", "Making music"…), not
only hopeful — same shape as the articles.
* Each found word gets its own colour from a calm palette, in the grid and its
word-list chip. Per-size local progress + best time.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
A calm second daily game, same philosophy as Daily Word — LLM proposes, code
disposes.
* LLM proposes a hopeful theme + ~8 words; code validates (alpha/length/dedup)
and PLACES every word in a date-seeded grid, so the puzzle is always solvable.
Curated fallback themes if the LLM is thin. Only placed words are returned;
the solution cells (placements) are never sent to the client.
* GET /api/puzzle/wordsearch → {theme, words, grid, size}. No answer to hide:
the grid and word list are meant to be seen — the play is finding them, which
the client validates by reading the selected line off the grid.
* WordSearchGame.svelte: pointer-drag selection snapped to the 8 straight
directions (mouse + touch), found-word highlighting, no-fail, no pressure
timer — time is recorded quietly and shown at the end with a personal best.
Spoiler-free share. localStorage progress (restores found cells + timer).
* Hub's Word Search card is now live with today's status; cycle pre-generates
both games with the LLM.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Per Codex's v2 hardening. The GET /api/puzzle/word response no longer carries
the answer at all — guesses POST to /api/puzzle/word/guess and the server
returns the colour pattern, computed against the day's answer. The answer (and
the "why") are revealed only once solved or the guesses are spent. This removes
the "open DevTools, read the answer" issue without pretending to be a fortress
(a deliberate crafted request can still peek; there's no leaderboard or prize,
so that's fine). Client keeps local progress/stats; dict validation stays
client-side. Trade-off accepted: each guess needs the API (the site already
depends on it for today's content).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
A calm /play space — "after the brief, a small thing to enjoy." Framework-ready
for more games (Word Search next; zen/coloring later).
* Daily Word (5 letters / 6 guesses) + Long Word (6 / 7) — same Wordle mechanic,
Upbeat Bytes flavor (no "Wordle" in the UI). Hopeful answers; after solving, a
one-line "why this word matters."
* LLM proposes, code disposes: answers are picked deterministically by date-seed
from a hand-curated hopeful pool that's pre-validated ⊆ the guess dictionary
(always typeable), avoiding recent repeats; the LLM only adds the optional
"why" (with fallback). daily_puzzles(date, game, variant, payload) stores them
so everyone gets the same daily; the cycle pre-generates with the "why".
* Bundled guess dictionaries (words-5/6.json, ~12.6k/22.4k) for client-side guess
validation — never the LLM. Answer lightly obfuscated (base64) in the payload.
* Private, gentle stats (played/solved/streak, guess distribution); spoiler-free
emoji-grid share. No leaderboard, no timer, no streak-loss drama.
* Play in the bottom nav (replacing Browse, still on the lane rail) + the header.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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