There's A New Food Game For Wordle Fans

Whether you're an avid player, or you just encounter the telltale gray, yellow, and green squares all over social media — if you've been online over the past six months or so, you've probably heard of Wordle. And, as one of 2022's most viral phenomena, the game has inspired countless imitators. Now, food lovers have a version of their own: Phoodle.

For anyone who's not familiar, Wordle is a daily word game that gives each player six chances to guess that day's five-letter word. With each guess, correct letters that are in the correct space will turn green, while any correct letters that are in the wrong place will turn yellow. Letters that aren't in the word at all, meanwhile turn gray. 

As Time reported, Wordle creator Josh Wardle initially designed the game for his partner Palak Shah, though it has since been acquired by the New York Times. The viral frenzy surrounding Wordle has since inspired numerous spin-offs, often with a niche interest or theme in mind — as is the case with the food-focused Phoodle. According to the New York Times, over 300,000 were playing Worldle each day in January 2022. If even a fraction of those players consider themselves foodies, this new game should have a lot of fans. 

Phoodle follows the same basic premise as Wordle, but it centers exclusively on food-related words. As a plus, Phoodle gives players facts and tips inspired by that day's answer.

Despite its recent launch, the new game has already attracted some high-profile fans — including Martha Stewart, who posted a picture of her successfully-completed puzzle to Instagram on May 9, 2022. The winning word? Apple.

According to Food & Wine, Phoodle was created by cookbook author Julie Loria. To create the game, Loria combined her love of puzzles with her love of food. "I've been captivated by puzzles since a young age and my passion grew from simple word-search puzzles to more complex crossword puzzles. As the author of two cookbooks, I knew early on that a culinary puzzle was exactly what I wanted to create," she explained in a statement to Food & Wine. "Creating Phoodle was the ultimate puzzle challenge, and I've loved every minute of it."