I built a dual crossword puzzle where two crosswords share one grid
Details
- External ID
- 47920007
- Source
- HN
- Company
- —
- Product
- I built a dual crossword puzzle where two crosswords share one grid
- Website domain
- forkle.co.uk
- Launched
- April 27, 2026
- Cohort
- —
- Upvotes
- 20
- Upvotes percentile
- 0.7506426735218509
- Tags
- —
- Fetched at
- Sept. 7, 2026, 9:26 p.m.
- Updated at
- Sept. 7, 2026, 9:26 p.m.
Description
Forkle (forkle.co.uk) is a daily word game where two thematically linked crosswords occupy the same grid simultaneously. Every tile contains two letters - one belonging to each puzzle - displayed as a diagonal colour split. Where the two puzzles intersect, some tiles share the same letter, giving you a foothold into both crosswords at once.The mechanic has two layers: the shared grid, and the connected themes. Each day's two crosswords are thematically paired around a central idea. For example, a previous puzzle was "Same House, Different Kingdoms" - same home, same humans, entirely different worlds. One crossword is the dog's world, the other is the cat's. The themes are chosen to be related but distinct, which creates an extra layer of satisfaction when the connection clicks.The constraint of forcing two crosswords into one physical space turns out to create genuinely interesting solving decisions - sometimes the two puzzles help each other, sometimes they fight.Built solo over a few months using React, Python, Supabase, Fly.io and Resend. Three months of daily puzzles pre-loaded. Launched two weeks ago.Would love feedback from anyone willing to try it.
Enrichment
- Theme
- indie puzzle games and learning toys
- Vertical
- Media & entertainment
- Function
- —
- Audience
- B2C
- AI stance
- Not AI
- Project type
- Hobby / open-source project
- Normalized one-liner
- crossword puzzle variant with shared grids
- Manually corrected
- False
Could you build this?
Yes This is an in-browser word puzzle game with a custom grid mechanic, easily implemented in a lightweight front-end framework like React or Svelte with local storage.
Discussion
16 comments analyzed.
Competitors mentioned: Wordglyph.xyz, NYT crosswords, HN Arcade
Concerns raised: Significantly harder to fill grids with thematic words entirely, Lacks checked squares (amateurish feel, too difficult), Feels like solving two separate crosswords rather than one combined puzzle, Too few shared letters between overlapping words to feel interesting, Very difficult even for experienced solvers
Feature requests: Implement NYT/British crossword checking conventions, Increase shared letters between the two puzzle grids, Fix copy/paste functionality for clues, Fix banner covering keyboard on mobile, Follow plural cluing rules (plural clues → plural answers)
Competitors
Other products that read as similar to this one — 123 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.
Attention rank: #21 of 124 (itself plus its competitors, highest first — normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).
Launched 180 days after the earliest competitor.
- Crossle · hn · 2026-03-18 · 11 upvotes · similarity 0.59
- Tiled Words, a daily puzzle inspired by board games and crosswords · hn · 2025-10-29 · 13 upvotes · similarity 0.57
- Twixt · hn · 2026-05-21 · 20 upvotes · similarity 0.52
- Crossword Challenge · ph · 2026-09-23 · 2 upvotes · similarity 0.50
- Wordy · ph · 2026-09-22 · 2 upvotes · similarity 0.49
- Antimatter · hn · 2026-03-24 · 12 upvotes · similarity 0.48
- Flexboxle · hn · 2026-01-31 · 5 upvotes · similarity 0.48
- Daily word puzzle game based on polysemy · hn · 2026-05-21 · 6 upvotes · similarity 0.47
Other launches for this product
- No other launches for this product.