The newish New York Times game, Connections, has a few interesting features that I'd love to discuss with its creator, Wyna Liu. But tonight I wanted to focus on a quirk of its design it shares with Wordle: the “Phew.”
The art of reward is a neglected part of game design that I’ve discussed before. That earlier note was about Waffle’s spectacular appreciation for players who win with style.
The “Phew” response is more of a joke, reserved for those wins that are just barely wins at all. The implication is that the game was really convinced you were going to lose, then relieved when you eked out a victory almost despite yourself. This was an improvisation from Wordle’s creator, Josh Wardle, that the NYT retained as it took over Wordle and is now applying to other games.
Is this better or worse than modest but straightforward praise, e.g., “You won!” Hard to say. It might amuse some players and ruffle others’ feathers. But it’s definitely got more character.