Wordle’s desi avatars are taking over the online world

Ever since its launch in December last year, Wordle has been enjoying a massive fan following online. Many Indians too have been engrossed in it and now, the love for the word puzzle has been taken up a notch with some web developers and game enthusiasts having created desi versions of the much-loved word game! Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Kashmiri, Odia and more; are you ready to crack the words, maatras and accents of these new versions?
How about a round of Tamilaadal or Shabdle?
Like Wordle creator Josh Wardle’s background story about the puzzle’s creation, P Sankar, a software architect from Chennai, has an interesting backstory about Tamilaadal.P Sankar got the idea to make the Tamil version to get his daughter more interested in his native language. “As the game became popular in my Twitter circle, I wanted to tweak it and give it a new spin. I developed a Tamil version for my daughter and shared it on Twitter expecting a few friends to join me. But it became a hit,” he says.
Likewise, Aditya Mhatre, a senior software engineer from Maharashtra who is currently based in Dallas, Texas, got the idea of creating a Marathi version of the puzzle after spending a jetlagged, sleepless night playing Wordle. “Many people don’t know a lot of English words. So, I thought, why not create a version in my native language for Marathi-speaking people,” wrote Aditya, who spent around 11 hours in creating Shabdle, in an online post on LinkedIn.
770 versions in 149 languages!
There are about 770 entries in 149 languages that have been created by word game enthusiasts across the world. Besides Indian languages, these versions are based on different languages and dialects from across all continents, thereby celebrating linguistic diversity, exploring playful creativity, and having fun
-As per Wordles of the World, a page on GitHub
Same-same, but different
While these versions are modelled on the lines of Wordle, they have language-specific tweaks and, the much sought-after, more attempts! For instance, Shabdle gives the player seven tries, and, unlike Wordle, it presents a new word every time the page is loaded. Tamilaadal has the word size between five and eight letters. Shabdarasa, the Odia version, offers eight attempts in a day. Another Marathi version, Shabdak, gives only three slots for letters. The Kashmiri version, Accher, developed by Haider Ali Punjabi gives the user eight attempts, in the Urdu font. Besides these, there are also Sanskrit, Punjabi, Telugu, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam and Urdu versions of the word puzzle available.
Fancy a Klingon or Potterverse wordle?
Oh, the desi versions are not the only variants in the Wordle universe. Fictional universes from pop culture have led to some other interesting versions too. There is a Klingon version based on the fictional language spoken by an alien race in the popular Star Trek universe. Likewise, Potterheads get to try their hands at Wizarding or HP Wordle. Lord Of The Rings and Star Wars fans also have a version each. Even Taylor Swift and BTS have a Wordle version related to them and their songs.