Josh Wardle: Difference between revisions
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In January 2021, he returned to his 2013 prototype to create a word game for his partner, Palak Shah. During the [[COVID-19 pandemic]], he and Shah had played many ''[[The New York Times|New York Times]]'' games including [[The New York Times Spelling Bee|Spelling Bee]], and he wanted to make a new word game that they could play together. Shah played a vital role in the game's development before it went public. She reviewed the English language's 12,000 five-letter words and narrowed them down to 2,500 commonly-known words that could be used in the daily puzzle.<ref name="auto" /> |
In January 2021, he returned to his 2013 prototype to create a word game for his partner, Palak Shah. During the [[COVID-19 pandemic]], he and Shah had played many ''[[The New York Times|New York Times]]'' games including [[The New York Times Spelling Bee|Spelling Bee]], and he wanted to make a new word game that they could play together. Shah played a vital role in the game's development before it went public. She reviewed the English language's 12,000 five-letter words and narrowed them down to 2,500 commonly-known words that could be used in the daily puzzle.<ref name="auto" /> |
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From January to June 2021, Wardle and Shah played the game and didn't tell anyone else about it.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Statt |first=Nick |title=GDC 2022: Wordle creator Josh Wardle on his game's success - Protocol |url=https://www.protocol.com/bulletins/josh-wardle-wordle-gdc-2022 |access-date=2023-01-21 |website=www.protocol.com |language=en}}</ref> Wardle shared the game with his family members next, before he made it widely available in October 2021 by posting it on his own website, <u>[https://powerlanguage.co.uk powerlanguage.co.uk]</u>.<ref name=":1" /> ''Wordle'' had no advertisements and Wardle's goal was not to make money. Despite ''Wordle''<nowiki/>'s success, Wardle did not want it to become his full-time job.<ref name=":3" /> |
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The game had 90 players by 1 November, within a month of Wardle making it public. One month later the game had 300,000 daily players, which rose to two million by the following week.<ref>{{cite web|title=Infographic: Wordle: Much Ado About Nothing?|url=https://www.statista.com/chart/26667/usage-of-wordle-and-other-online-games-in-the-us/|access-date=2022-02-06|website=Statista Infographics|language=en}}</ref> |
The game had 90 players by 1 November, within a month of Wardle making it public. One month later the game had 300,000 daily players, which rose to two million by the following week.<ref>{{cite web|title=Infographic: Wordle: Much Ado About Nothing?|url=https://www.statista.com/chart/26667/usage-of-wordle-and-other-online-games-in-the-us/|access-date=2022-02-06|website=Statista Infographics|language=en}}</ref> |
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Revision as of 22:21, 21 January 2023
Josh Wardle | |
|---|---|
| Education | Royal Holloway, University of London University of Oregon |
| Occupation(s) | Software engineer, artist, product manager |
| Known for | Wordle |
| Partner | Palak Shah |
| Website | powerlanguage |
Josh Wardle is a Welsh software engineer who developed the viral web-based word game Wordle. The New York Times Company acquired Wordle from Wardle in late January 2022.[1] Wardle lives in Brooklyn, New York.[2][3]
Early life and education
Wardle is from South Wales, and was brought up on an organic livestock farm in Llanddewi Rhydderch, a small village near Abergavenny.[4][5][6][7]
He attended university at Royal Holloway, University of London and earned a degree in Media Arts.[5] A few years later, he moved to the United States to attend the University of Oregon, where he earned a Master of Fine Arts in Digital Art.[7]
He has three brothers, one of whom is documentary film maker Tim Wardle, director of the 2018 film Three Identical Strangers.[8][9]
Career
Since December 2021, he has been a software engineer at Brooklyn-based art collective MSCHF, which created Lil Nas X's Satan Shoes.[10][11]
After completing graduate school, Wardle moved to Oakland, California, and started as an artist at Reddit in 2011. He later became one of Reddit's first product managers, serving as a product manager for the community engineering team. In this position, he created popular collaborative experimental games such as The Button in 2015 and Place in 2017.[2] He left Reddit for almost two years to work as a software engineer at Pinterest, before returning to Reddit also as a software engineer.[12]
Wordle
In 2013, while working at Reddit, Wardle made a prototype of word game Wordle, a play on his last name.[3]
In January 2021, he returned to his 2013 prototype to create a word game for his partner, Palak Shah. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he and Shah had played many New York Times games including Spelling Bee, and he wanted to make a new word game that they could play together. Shah played a vital role in the game's development before it went public. She reviewed the English language's 12,000 five-letter words and narrowed them down to 2,500 commonly-known words that could be used in the daily puzzle.[3]
From January to June 2021, Wardle and Shah played the game and didn't tell anyone else about it.[13] Wardle shared the game with his family members next, before he made it widely available in October 2021 by posting it on his own website, powerlanguage.co.uk.[7] Wordle had no advertisements and Wardle's goal was not to make money. Despite Wordle's success, Wardle did not want it to become his full-time job.[10]
The game had 90 players by 1 November, within a month of Wardle making it public. One month later the game had 300,000 daily players, which rose to two million by the following week.[14]
In January 2022, The New York Times Company announced that it had acquired Wordle "for an undisclosed price in the low-seven figures."[1]
References
- ^ a b Tracy, Marc (31 January 2022). "The New York Times Buys Wordle". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
- ^ a b "Josh Wardle - Artist, Product Manager, Engineer". powerlanguage.co.uk. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
- ^ a b c Victor, Daniel (3 January 2022). "Wordle Is a Love Story". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
- ^ Hill, Jonathon (12 January 2022). "The Welsh software engineer who created Wordle for his partner". WalesOnline.
- ^ a b "'Incredible': from Wordle's Welsh beginnings to the New York Times". the Guardian. 1 February 2022. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
- ^ Bannerman, Lucy; Pavia, Will (2 February 2022). "$1m inventor has Wordle at his feet". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 6 February 2022.
- ^ a b c "How Wordle's Creator Feels About Selling His Viral Game". Time. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
- ^ Carey, Matthew (8 August 2019). "'Three Identical Strangers' Director Tim Wardle On His Emmy-Nominated Doc, And Status Of Scripted Version: "It's In Development"". Deadline. Retrieved 6 February 2022.
- ^ Wardle, Tim (3 January 2022). "@ttwardle Fun seeing my brother's #Wordle game blow up. Ironically, he decided NOT to do all the things you're supposed to do to make a viral hit- like allowing people to play for hours or putting a hyperlink in the sharing function. It works because it's atypical". Twitter. Retrieved 6 February 2022.
- ^ a b "A conversation with Josh Wardle, creator of viral hit Wordle". TechCrunch. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
- ^ Pietsch, Bryan (28 March 2021). "Nike Sues Over Unauthorized 'Satan Shoes'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 6 February 2022.
- ^ "Josh Wardle | LinkedIn". LinkedIn.
- ^ Statt, Nick. "GDC 2022: Wordle creator Josh Wardle on his game's success - Protocol". www.protocol.com. Retrieved 21 January 2023.
- ^ "Infographic: Wordle: Much Ado About Nothing?". Statista Infographics. Retrieved 6 February 2022.