Guess a daily word with only clues as to its position in the alphabet to guide you

I am on a personal mission to sabotage your productivity. Yesterday, I introduced you to Scrambled Maps, which can easily distract you for fifteen minutes from work.

Today, I present Alphaguess, a daily browser puzzle game where you have to guess a word. For every wrong guess you make, the game will tell you if the correct answer comes before or after it alphabetically.

It took me 26 guesses and eight minutes to find today’s answer, which is not a result I am proud of. You can try your luck and see if you can do better by heading here, and I bet you can.

My initial guess today was “muddle” because I thought it would be wise to start with a word somewhere in the middle of the alphabet to narrow down the possibilities. Usually, my struggles arise when I correctly identify the first few letters and then lose track of what could be the answer. But sometimes, I am both addled and dotty.

I often refer to games like Alphaguess, Wordle, and Scrambled Maps as puzzle games, but I am not sure if that fully captures their appeal. Alphaguess does not require lateral thinking or a deep understanding of rules to complete a round. It is relatively easy, your success is inevitable, and the challenge lies in the initial obscurity due to numerous possible answers. It is akin to a friend asking you to guess a number between 1 and a thousand, which we wouldn’t consider a puzzle.

However, I still find the process of finding the correct word incredibly engaging, similar to playing the number plate game on a long car journey without leaving your home.

Credit goes to Caroline Cramptom’s newsletter, which featured both Alphaguess and Scrambled Maps this past week.