‘Absurd, delightful’: chaotic coder makes password game that makes you want to quit with every step

I can’t believe people are actually beating the password game, the human spirit is strong

— Neal Agarwal (@nealagarwal) June 28, 2023

How do you play the password game?

Live on neal.fun, ‘The Password Game’ is a riff on the many rules—often silly—that come with setting a strong password in this age of identity theft and data leaks. Rule 1 is simple: you type in any word to start. After that, a few standard steps: include a number, something uppercase, a special character.

Beyond this is when things start getting weird: include Roman numerals that multiply to 35 (“V*VII”), the URL of an exactly timed YouTube video, the current moon phase in emoji form (it’s waxing gibbous, by the way) and so on, every rule more unpredictable than the next. My chest did puff up on passing the Google Earth stage, where you guess the country from a picture:

These are Japanese macaques, famed for their migration to relax in the Jigokudani hot springs each winter.

Rule 16 is what stumped me. I’m not much of a chess player, and it didn’t feel right to cheat on something that requires actual smarts: figuring out the next best chess move from a given arrangement.

Rule 16 on ‘The Password Game’, where you must enter the algebraic notation for the next best chess move.

If you can’t unlock certain stages but are curious about what’s next, there are now websites that list all 35 rules in ‘The Password Game’. My personal favorite is when Agarwal hands you his chicken, Paul, who must be fed three worms every minute for you to stay alive.

‘The Password Game’ is a fun way to kill time or test your ingenuity. Not to be confused with NBC’s game show ‘Password’, featuring Jimmy Fallon and Keke Palmer, which is also quite engaging, and works somewhat like the cult puzzle Codenames:

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