ABOUT WORDIF

Who am I?

I’m Chris Dalmau, a dad, husband and electronics engineer from Gloucestershire. I like reading, writing, design and making things.

Recently, most of my spare time has gone into designing Wordif, which started as a small idea and gradually turned into a daily word game.

Thanks to my wife for supporting me, being my first player, providing invaluable feedback and putting up with the many evenings of “just one more tweak!”.

Stats & streaks

Stats are stored locally on your device/browser, so they may not follow you if you change device, browser or clear site data.

Trivia

Inspired by Wordle, Wordif started life back in March 2022. It began as an Excel project, with the game logic written in Visual Basic. That early version proved the core idea: a hidden word, a grid of letters, guessed words, discovery and rewards.

I’m not a software developer by trade, and after designing the initial concept, I quickly realised the scale of the challenge involved in turning the idea into a fully fledged online game. At that point, Wordif came to a halt. But it was not forgotten.

Later that year, ChatGPT was launched. I was a slow adopter of AI, and it was not until late 2024 that I really started exploring what it could do. Around mid-2025, I tried using AI to help develop Wordif through vibe coding. At the time, I found the process clunky and prone to errors, so once again the project went back on hold.

By early 2026, AI had moved on meaningfully. The tools were better, the reasoning was stronger, and the development process became much more workable. That was the point where I was able to restart Wordif and keep pushing it towards a launch-ready state.

My approach was to use AI as a kind of surrogate development team. I played the role of architect: shaping the game mechanics, questioning the structure, testing the logic, refining the UI and pushing the overall direction. I did not need to write the code, but I did need to understand how the game should hang together. The more I questioned the AI, the more I learned about software structure, testing, edge cases and the difference between code that works once and code that can be trusted.

That process has left me with a great respect for developers, and also a real respect for AI. Using AI did not mean pressing a button and getting a finished product. I still had to apply myself. It needed patience, curiosity and a willingness to keep iterating. Wordif exists because AI made the project possible, but it only became a real game through persistence, judgement, testing and a lot of tweaking. Finally, a big thanks to the dedicated few who helped me iterate through several weeks of beta testing.

Data & privacy

Local game data

Wordif uses browser local storage to remember your current game, completed games, game score, win streak, statistics, rating information and anonymous player token. This is needed so your progress and stats work on the same device/browser.

You can remove this information by clearing browser data for Wordif in your browser settings.

Anonymous usage data

The server may record your anonymous player ID and the dates that player ID has played. This helps count players and understand basic game usage.

The player-usage record does not store any personal details.

Cookies and analytics

Wordif does not currently use advertising cookies, tracking cookies or third-party analytics in the game.

Hosting and technical data

Like most websites, the hosting provider may process normal technical information needed to deliver the site, such as request details, device/browser information and IP address. This is handled as part of standard web hosting, security and operation.

Sharing

If you use the share feature, Wordif creates a share image or share text from your result. Sharing is controlled by your device/browser. Wordif does not post your result automatically.

Changes

This section may be updated as Wordif develops, especially if new features are added.