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Killer Crossword

Killer Crossword

by arwt·Feb 14, 2026·4 points·1 comment
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AI Analysis

●●SolidCozyCrowd Pleaser

Wordle-style daily format for constraint-based crosswords—revives a dead site cleanly.

Strengths
  • •No-clue mechanic creates elegantly pure puzzle logic: deduction via intersection constraints alone.
  • •Self-contained, portable design (saveable HTML) guarantees permanence unlike the original killercrossword.com.
Weaknesses
  • •Core mechanic is not new—the original site established this format years ago; this is a faithful recreation, not an innovation.
  • •Limited long-term engagement hooks beyond daily play; no leaderboards, difficulty progression, or social features beyond score-sharing.
Category
Gaming
Target Audience

Word puzzle enthusiasts, casual gamers, players familiar with constraint-based puzzles like Wordle or traditional crosswords.

Similar To

Wordle · Crosswordle · Spelling Bee

Post Description

I used to play this daily with friends, but the original (killercrossword.com - I found this via a Show HN years ago!) appears to be down nowadays, so I have recreated it with the help of my mate Claude.

It's a crossword with no clues, just a grid with a few pre-filled letters to get you started. You deduce the words from the letter intersections alone. Like Wordle, there's one set of puzzles per day (resets at midnight local time).

The goal is simple: complete the grid in as little time as possible, using as few hints as you can. Then share your score with friends. If the first puzzle is too easy, you can attempt a harder "master" version of it.

The entire thing is self-contained, so feel free to save the page and host it elsewhere if you want to guarantee long-term playability.

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Every word pairs a crossword-style text clue with an image hint generated and linted by an LLM/image pipeline — that's a clever UX twist that forces semantic reasoning instead of guesswork. The creator also built a nontrivial quality pipeline (Swiss-style LLM matches + Wilson lower-bound scoring) to pick good puzzle words, which is an uncommon level of rigor for a hobby game. UI shows thoughtful interactions (hint taps reveal/remove letters, center-letter rule, PWA install), though clarity around image provenance and accessibility could be tighter.

WizardrySlickCrowd Pleaser
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243mo ago