Today, the Daily Emerald launched Waddle, a duck-themed version of the popular The New York Times puzzle, Wordle.

The Waddle was created by Daily Emerald Puzzles Editor Nate Wong and Web Designer Alex Herbaugh.  

“We were looking for an easy, but still kind of challenging word game to bring to the website. We looked at The New York Times Wordle, how successful that is, and wanted to bring that level of thought to the Daily Emerald,” Wong said.

Daily Emerald Publisher Eric Henry, who initially proposed the idea of the Waddle, explained that several college newspapers are creating daily puzzles and that he was inspired by the University of Illinois newspaper’s version of the Wordle, the Illordle.

Henry said that the Illordle is the Daily Illini’s most returned-to page and wanted to recreate that at the Emerald.

The New York Times Wordle was created during the COVID-19 pandemic by University of Oregon alumnus Josh Wardle, who graduated in 2011 with a Master of Fine Arts in digital arts. The name of the puzzle, which he created for his partner, is a play on his last name. 

In an interview with The New York Times, Wardle talked about the convenience and ease of the daily puzzle. 

“It’s something that encourages you to spend three minutes a day, and that’s it. It doesn’t want any more of your time than that,” Wardle said in the interview.

Staff at the Emerald are hopeful the Waddle can recreate the same buzz on campus. 

“I think the Waddle is going to be so much fun (to have) in our daily routines,” Henry said. “Nate and the Emerald staff have created something really fun.” 

The New York Times purchased the Wordle in January 2022, according to a UO article. Wong thought it was “pretty cool” that Wardle was a UO alumnus. 

In order to perfect the Waddle, Wong and Herbaugh ran several tests and gathered feedback from students.

“I’ve been working on the code pretty much on and off for the last two months or so. We’re finishing up a lot of the bugs and (getting) a lot of feedback from the students who (were) testing it,” Wong said. 

Wong and Herbaugh also worked on an accessible version of the puzzle, which launched at the same time as the Waddle.

“(We’ve) been working on a color-blind mode. For people who can’t see colors like green and yellow, it’ll be helpful,” Wong said. 

The Waddle word of the day connects back to an article published by the Emerald that week with the hopes of having viewers click on the articles after completing the game.

According to Henry, the Waddle is being promoted on the Emerald website, socials and around campus to readers of the Daily Emerald site.

According to both Wong and Henry, the Waddle is the first puzzle launched by the Emerald but hopefully not the last, with plans to create a crossword in the future.