The New York Times Connections: As one of the New York Times Games, Connections is a word puzzle that the newspaper created and publishes. During its beta phase, it was made available for PC on June 12, 2023. With Wordle coming in first, it is the Times game that is played the most. The Connecting Wall in the British television quiz game Only Connect has drawn comparisons to it from a number of its associated figures.
The New York Times Connections
As we navigate through the intricate web of connections in The New York Times, it becomes evident that every article, every story, and every opinion piece is linked by a common thread – the pursuit of truth and the commitment to quality journalism. These connections not only bind the vast body of work together but also create a tapestry of information that informs, educates, and inspires readers worldwide. Exploring these connections opens doors to new perspectives, deeper insights, and a greater appreciation for the power of storytelling. Let’s continue unraveling The New York Times Connections, one article at a time.
The New York Times Connections Details
Developer(s) | The New York Times |
Publisher(s) | The New York Times Games |
Writer(s) | Wyna Liu |
Platform(s) | Web, iOS, Android |
Release | June 12, 2023 |
Genre(s) | Word game |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
Gameplay
Using Connections, the objective is to split a grid of sixteen words into four groups of four, with each group’s words representing a different category (e.g., “dog”, “cat”, “fish”, and “parrot” for the category “Household Pets”). To make the categories more challenging, wordplay elements like homophones and palindromes may be used. The category of a group and its color-coded difficulty level are displayed when a player correctly identifies it. The categories are rated yellow, green, blue, or purple, with yellow being the easiest to understand and purple being the hardest. There is one category for every difficulty level in every Connections game. The game temporarily substituted emojis for text on April Fools’ Day in 2024.
Development
Every year, the Times’s games department holds a game jam where players submit ideas for future games that will be posted online. Before becoming live in beta on June 12, 2023, Connections was under development for a full year. Wordplay puzzle creator Robert Leighton, a cartoonist, served as an inspiration for Wyna Liu, the puzzle editor of the Times and Connections.
The Times has enthralled puzzlers with its captivating word and logic games ever since The Crossword debuted in 1942. We debuted The Mini Crossword in 2014, and then we moved on to Spelling Bee, Letter Boxed, Tiles, and Vertex. We are pleased to have included Wordle in our library as of early 2022. We make an effort to provide puzzles that are enjoyable to solve on a daily basis for players of all ability levels. To get limitless access, subscribe now.
The game should be very approachable
You should be able to hand your phone to someone without explanation,” Knight said, “and they should, relatively quickly, after a little bit of trial and error, be able to understand the rules, and how to win or solve it.
The “game should be fun to play, and fun to play with
”Knight says he talks about this aspect — how feedback is given, how reactive buttons are, how it should feel tactile and good to play — with his team all the time.
The game should be “easy to learn, hard to master
The games on offer range in difficulty from the relatively straightforward Wordle (acquired by the Times in 2022) to a themeless Saturday crossword puzzle.
Bots need not apply. A human editor should be behind every day’s puzzle
Knight isn’t ruling out using AI to construct puzzles in the future but, for now, he sees the human-crafted element in NYT Games as “a differentiator” for the Times going forward. “We have a process for rigorously constructing and editing and testing this content before we put it out,” Knight said. “As a player, you’re faced every day with a real puzzle by a real person. There’s this awesome, almost two-person game going on between the constructor and the solver [where] they’re trying to trick you and you’re trying to outwit them.”
The New York Times Connections Images
