How Wordle inspired Kiwi two-player spinoff Word Fight

Business Reporter·NZ Herald·

20 Jun, 2022 05:00 PM2 mins to read

Locally developed game Word Fight was inspired by popular web-based word game Wordle. Photo / Supplied

A regular Wordle player loves the game so much he has developed his own two-player version.

Auckland-based Kiwi tech entrepreneur Gavin Wong says his version - a fun alternative to the popular word guessing game - allows people to challenge a player to guess the word.

Wong, who used to play the game with his partner every morning, said his version - Word Fight - had been growing in popularity since its launch six weeks ago.

The information technology engineer runs the app-based game, developed both for Apple and Android, out of his Auckland-based IT consultancy Percolatorly.

Wong started working on his iteration of the game in February and launched it in April.

Keep up to date with the day's biggest stories

By signing up for this newsletter, you agree to NZME’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

So far, Word Fight has around 300 active players at present.

"The inspiration for me was I would play with my partner every morning over coffee and we'd try to guess the word before each other, doing it in the least number of turns as the other person - it was a nice little competition to start the day, and so instead of doing it with just one word I created a game where we could just play each other."

Word Fight was a "fun project" for now, but Wong said there was the potential to monetise the app and create an income through in-app advertising.

"It is more of a fun project and seeing if it is something that can really grow and become quite big. That would be the main aim at the moment," Wong tells the Herald.

"Success, somewhere between tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of players would be fantastic. It is a platform that can scale and I've engineered it because I work in IT and I built systems for the finance industry in the past, and so it's been a nice little side project to get off the ground."

Gavin Wong, developer of local game Word Fight. Photo / Supplied

Wong is currently in Britain participating in climate-tech accelerator programme Carbon13, working on a start-up that aims to take 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide out of the air.

His early-stage venture aims to help manage energy usage and optimise the way battery operations charge. It is hoping to secure funding to develop the idea into a business.

Asked what Wong thinks Wordle will think of his spinoff, he said: “The world has sprung a number of different Wordle alternatives and I hope this one is just a little bit different.”