If you’ve been on the Internet in the last decade, you may have noticed how puns have gone from being cringy to cool. Wordplay, once the domain of bored editors and playwrights, now finds pride of place on every blog, billboard and regrettable Instagram caption. But as true puzzleheads would know, one of the first homes for modern wordplay was actually the print crossword, with newspaper grids hiding oodles of drama, satire and questionable humour. Audiences today prefer doing crosswords online, but this style of punny clueing still prevails in most English puzzles. After all, the mischief in the clues is what makes crosswords exciting. For a beginner, this is understandably daunting. That’s where Joggle steps in. A one-player effort, Joggle is a word game that teaches you how to solve crossword clues in the most widely used conventions today. The game works like this: you get a clue, a six-letter word, and 60 seconds. To solve the clue, you have to change two letters in the word to reach the hidden answer. Depending on your experience solving crosswords, there are four game modes to choose from: > FUN: Easy clues and hints, showing which letters to change > WIZ: Easy clues without hints (with an option to reveal) > PRO: Cryptic crossword-type clues, where the clue is a word puzzle > ZEN: Hardest mode, only if 20+ PRO levels solved Easy clues are direct hints you see on crosswords — names, places, definitions — while cryptic clues involve working out anagrams and wordplay to find the answer. To make things simple, Joggle’s clue list is universal in its references. Players in India won’t be expected to know and solve American sports or history, or vice versa. All you have to do is download the app, pick a mode, and start playing. Solving clues quickly earns you coins, which is needed to play each game. The challenge is to earn more than you burn. Erasing the elitism in crosswords A crossword’s need for external knowledge can be tiring— or terrifying — for beginners. Developer Arvind Nangia, who has been a solver for over 40 years, was mindful of this problem while creating Joggle. “Crosswords, even the quick variety, are a bit of a niche pursuit. I thought Joggle would be a fun, more approachable take on them, and could introduce the art of solving to a wider audience.” Joggle was published by App Initio, where Nangia is Founder and Director. Nangia has used his personal experience — including solving The Indian Express crossword for years — to handcraft every clue in the game. To kick things off, the beginner FUN and WIZ modes stick to direct dictionary meanings. The game’s ‘Explain clue’ tool is a good learning aid, something sorely missing from traditional cryptic crosswords. “In PRO mode, 'Explain clue' parses the clue i.e. explains which part is the direct meaning and what's the wordplay (for cryptics). This is a great way for newbies to learn the deception used in British-style crosswords,” he explains. Apart from easing newbies into the mischief of crosswords, Joggle is also easy on the eyes; an artwork is paired with every puzzle. Painters Amrita Sher-Gil and Badri Narayan are some recent additions to Joggle’s little museum. “Every week, we feature ten works — paintings and photographs — by ten renowned as well as up-and-coming artists and photographers, as backdrops to the puzzles,” shares Nangia. What’s next for Joggle? A multiplayer version titled ‘Joggle with Friends’, to boost competition. Until then, this word game can be a useful teaching aid to get better at crosswords, improve your vocabulary, or simply massage your brain. Solver’s choice! Joggle is available on the Google Play Store and the iOS App Store. Pricing for the ad-free version in India begins at Rs 49 per month.
