Puzzle game Waffle released last year and in that time has managed to achieve 170 million+ Waffles completed to date. The game targets the daily content format where each day players rearrange letters to create the correct words. We’ve seen other big name games make a return with the daily format such as Cut The Rope Daily.
We caught up with the creator of Waffle, James Robinson to discuss where the idea for the game originated from, gaining the interest of Amazon Prime and future goals.
Pocketgamer.biz: Where did the idea for Waffle come from? Is this something created just from yourself or are there others involved?
James Robinson: The idea came to me while I was washing dishes back in January 2022. I often like to think about new puzzle game ideas, so I wondered if you could have a puzzle where you have to fit letters into a 4x4 grid to make eight words vertically and horizontally.
I immediately went to my computer and wrote some quick code to see if it was possible to fit many combinations of eight words in that way. It seemed like there wasn’t much possibility there, so I tried using six 5-letter words in a grid-like shape, as it seemed like there would be more chance of finding some valid combinations that way. And there were! I quickly drew a couple of them out in my notebook (as I hadn’t created any sort of graphics for it yet) and showed it to my wife. She said it looked like a waffle, so we very quickly had the name sorted, and I just took it from there. After two weeks, I managed to get it online, producing a new puzzle each day.
What are some of the biggest challenges of being an Indie Dev?
I would say the biggest challenge is having the motivation to get through the latter half of development. I get excited about coming up with ideas, I enjoy designing it and trying to make it look half decent, and I enjoy crafting the core, interesting bit of the code, but then by the time I have to make all of the smaller decisions and write all the code that goes around it, I’ve already come up with something else that feels a lot more exciting, and I lose interest.
I’ve also spent far too much time trying to realise my ideas using mobile game frameworks such as Unity, Cocos2D, Phaser and GameMaker which meant that I never got to see them come to life. Wordle showed that it’s possible to create something compelling with web dev, which I use day-in-day-out, then I thought I’d finally just stick to that. It didn’t have fancy graphics, but it worked, it took me far less time, and it’s been the most successful thing I’ve ever done.
Waffle has managed to reach millions of users, what do you think is the key behind the title's success?
I think because it’s so simple, there are very few rules. You can see the whole game on your screen and quickly get some positive feedback from it. Plus, word games just fit with how our brains have been trained from an early age, so they have universal appeal. We are taught in school to recognise the order of letters and the patterns of words, so our minds are already solving them every day.
Everyone can play it, young and old, so it has broad appeal and can be shared among families, not just between 'gamers'. I get a lot of positive feedback from people who share the fun of this game with all members of their family, and it brightens up the family WhatsApp conversation that we all have.
How do you find most players are engaging? Via browser or downloading the mobile app?
The browser is where it started, so that’s where most of our players are. Currently, the app isn’t any different from the website, but we are working on creating a more in-depth experience for those who want to download something more substantial.
The game has become so popular you’ve had interest from Amazon Prime, how did this come about and what does it entail?
Yes, I have been in talks with Amazon, who approached me after noticing Waffle’s popularity. We currently have a new game mode called "Waffle Royale", which is exclusively available to Amazon Prime members in the USA and Canada. We hope to be able to share more regarding Waffle and Amazon Prime shortly but suffice it to say it’s a really exciting time for us.
How do you intend to continue to support Waffle?
Well, I have quit my day job! So I have time to dedicate to it. I have supporters who help cover the costs of running it, and I can devote more time to keeping it going, coming up with nonsensical example sentences for the word definitions, and making sure it’s still fun to play while at the same time coming up with new games that this audience might enjoy.
Waffle marks your first debut game but what plans do you have in the future? Anything we should be on the lookout for in regards to new games?
I plan to keep making more games. I have a lot of old game ideas in notebooks that I’ve never had the time to build, and now I haven’t got any excuse, so I’m hoping to keep iterating quickly and try things out with the help of my Waffle audience.
I recently launched another daily game called Giffle which is focussed around GIFs from TV shows (giffle.com), and I’ve just been working on a new word game which I’m pretty excited about. Plus, we have the new Waffle app coming out later this year. That’s been in development for a few months now, and it is a beautiful, new Waffle experience, so I am looking forward to the world seeing that soon.
