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A word game I built from a childhood road trip memory
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Long time lurker here. My family had a pen-and-paper game we'd play on long drives to visit my great-grandmother. After she passed, I spent the holidays recreating it: https://a26z.funHow it works:Find 15 words from a category (like "Stone Fruits," "US States," or "Dog Breeds") as fast as you can. Once you meet the 15 word minimum, you can play for as long as you want.Each letter shows how many target words start with it (A¹ = one word starts with A, N² = two words start with N)That small ² in the bottom-right? Multi-word answers allowed. For "US States" with N², both "NEW YORK" and "NORTH DAKOTA" countUnlimited guesses, 2 hints, and a shuffle button to reorder by frequency.Example: Category: US States | Letters: A¹ M¹ N² S² Answers: ALABAMA, MONTANA, NEW MEXICO, SOUTH DAKOTAIf you're into Connections or Strands, this scratches a similar itch but with a deduction twist.
HN · launched Jan 7, 2026 · 13 upvotes (top 42%) · 0 views
Niche: browser puzzle games · 310 launches, 26 in the last 7 days ▼ -7% · Explore this niche →
Category and tags
- Media & entertainment
- B2C
- Not AI
- Hobby / open-source project
Visit website ↗ Source listing ↗
More like this: all 310 launches in browser puzzle games →
Could you build this?
Yes It is a casual web word puzzle game with straightforward client-side state, a static category dictionary, and timer logic.
Discussion
8 comments analyzed.
Competitors mentioned: Wordle
Concerns raised: UI relayout when adding answers is jarring, Inconsistent answer acceptance (Ireland excluded but similar cases included), Duplicate/variant countries counted separately (East Timor and Timor-Leste), Spelling variations rejected (mayonnaise vs mayo, ketchup vs catsup), Spellcheck suggests correct answers the player hasn't found yet
Feature requests: Curated exact list of 15 target words instead of subset from larger pool, ASCII comparison support for special characters, Hints that only suggest remaining unanswered words, Accept common spelling/regional variations as correct, Spellcheck should not reveal unanswered correct answers
Competitors
Other products that read as similar to this one : 369 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.
Attention rank: #158 of 370 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).
Launched 70 days after the earliest competitor.
- Jointter · hn · 2026-10-31 · 15 upvotes · similarity 0.53
- Alphabet Soup, a multiplayer game, build the longest word to win · hn · 2026-08-09 · 37 upvotes · similarity 0.52
- Word Search Puzzle Game · ph · 2026-10-02 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.51
- Wordit · hn · 2026-06-23 · 45 upvotes · similarity 0.50
- Words Corner · ph · 2026-11-07 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.50
- US Map Quiz · ph · 2026-10-07 · 2 upvotes · similarity 0.49
- Wordminos · hn · 2026-10-08 · 23 upvotes · similarity 0.49
- USA Patriots Word Game · ph · 2026-10-11 · 2 upvotes · similarity 0.48
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