Who is Josh Wardle? Wordle creator earns NOTHING from viral puzzle
Word game 'Wordle', a very short and interesting game that has brought delight to many, is once again in the trending list for its unique yet simple idea that popped up inside the creative mind of a Brooklyn-based software engineer.
But the creator of the game owns literally zero rewards from it.
Josh Wardle, the inventor of this short word game that went viral, has been hailed as one of the most successful creators in the industry. Only one word every 24 hours. No advertising. No registration required. And you can even play it if your internet connection drops, innovative isn't it !
READ MORE :
Violent video games are often blamed for school shootings!
Five-month-old infant drowns in bathtub after father leaves him and goes off to play video game
Back in October, this Brooklyn-based software engineer released Wordle to the world with a simple and elegant interface for guessing a five-letter word every day. And in December the game just went viral, when a new feature was added to share an individual's result in the form of little colored blocks. Josh originally built Wordle last year for his partner, a word puzzle enthusiast, so that they could play it together. Hosting it on a website he’s had for years as a home for his other creative efforts (powerlanguage.co.uk, back from his time in England), Wardle casually shared the game with family and received an unexpected warm feedback. It was in the blink of an eye that all hell broke loose. Over the space of weeks, the game grew from fewer than 1,000 users to 2 million players.
Wardle, is an all rounder in the work front, with his areas of expertise spread across different sectors of entertainment. He is an artist, product manager, and has also worked in Reddit in the past and is currently based in Brooklyn as a software engineer. Josh and his partner were crazy about New York Times crosswords and spelling bees and that had invoked an idea to build something similar, yet unique!
However, all this creativity never had an entrepreneurial outlook, it was just meant to be an artwork out of curiosity. People have suspected, now being confirmed, that Wardle is getting approached by investors who want to take Wordle to the next level. But Wardle isn’t trying to turn a profit on Wordle.
Well, the irony of the present scenario is that Josh is now getting accused of stealing the Wordle concept from others. The host of Lingo, a game show in the UK, has been publicly railing about how he has given Lingo no credit, considering their authority over the game.
Numerous developers have started cloning it, taking advantage of Wordle’s static place on the web and building apps to profit off it. If anything has to be considered by Wardle, it is the authenticity of his work and ways to restrict its piracy. But the reality is, he doesn't seem to care!