| The New York Times Connections | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | The New York Times |
| Publisher(s) | The New York Times Games |
| Writer(s) | Wyna Liu |
| Platform(s) | Web, iOS, Android |
| Release | June 12, 2023 |
| Genre(s) | Word game |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Connections is a word puzzle developed and published by The New York Times as part of The New York Times Games . It was released on June 12, 2023, during its beta phase. It is the second-most-played game that is published by the Times, behind Wordle . [1] [2] [3]
In Connections, the goal is to divide a grid of sixteen words into four groups of four such that the words in each group belong to a specific category (e.g., "dog", "cat", "fish", and "parrot" for the category "Household Pets"). [4] The categories may involve wordplay such as palindromes or homophones, increasing the difficulty. [5] When a player successfully identifies a group, its category is revealed along with a color-coded difficulty level: categories are rated yellow, green, blue, or purple, with yellow being the most straightforward and purple being the most difficult. Each Connections game has one category from each difficulty level. [5]
For April Fools' Day of 2024, the game temporarily used emojis instead of words. [6]
The games department of the Times hosts an annual game jam in which participants suggest ideas for upcoming games to release to the website. [7] Connections had been in development for a year before releasing in its beta phase on June 12, 2023. [1] [8] Wyna Liu, editor of the Times and Connections's puzzles, was inspired by cartoonist Robert Leighton, who made puzzles involving wordplay. [9]
Several people associated with Only Connect , a British television quiz show, have commented on the similarity between Connections and the Connecting Wall segment of the program. [10] [11] [12]
| Connections: Sports Edition | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | The Athletic |
| Publisher(s) | The New York Times Games |
| Writer(s) | Mark Cooper |
| Platform(s) | Web, iOS, Android |
| Release | September 24, 2024 |
| Genre(s) | Word game |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
On September 24, 2024, The Athletic , in partnership with The New York Times Games, launched a sports edition of Connections in beta. The sports edition features the same gameplay as the regular version, with each grouping sports-themed. [13] [14]
The New York Times (NYT) is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. The New York Times covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of the longest-running newspapers in the United States, the Times serves as one of the country's newspapers of record. As of 2023, The New York Times is the second-largest newspaper by print circulation in the United States, with 296,330 print subscribers. The Times has 8.83 million online subscribers, the most of any newspaper in the United States. The New York Times is published by The New York Times Company; since 1896, the company has been chaired by the Ochs-Sulzberger family, whose current chairman and the paper's publisher is A. G. Sulzberger. The Times is headquartered at The New York Times Building in Midtown Manhattan.
The New York Times Company is an American mass-media company that publishes The New York Times and its associated publications and other media properties. Its headquarters are in Manhattan, New York City.
Word games are spoken, board, card or video games often designed to test ability with language or to explore its properties.
A crossword is a word game consisting of a grid of black and white squares, into which solvers enter words or phrases ("entries") crossing each other horizontally ("across") and vertically ("down") according to a set of clues. Each white square is typically filled with one letter, while the black squares are used to separate entries. The first white square in each entry is typically numbered to correspond to its clue.
A cryptic crossword is a crossword puzzle in which each clue is a word puzzle. Cryptic crosswords are particularly popular in the United Kingdom, where they originated, as well as Ireland, the Netherlands, and in several Commonwealth nations, including Australia, Canada, India, Kenya, Malta, New Zealand, and South Africa. Compilers of cryptic crosswords are commonly called setters in the UK and constructors in the US. Particularly in the UK, a distinction may be made between cryptics and quick crosswords, and sometimes two sets of clues are given for a single puzzle grid.
The National Puzzlers' League (NPL) is a nonprofit organization focused on puzzling, primarily in the realm of word play and word games. Founded in 1883, it is the oldest puzzlers' organization in the world. It originally hosted semiannual conventions in February and September of each year, but conventions are now held annually, in July.
William F. Shortz is an American puzzle creator and editor who is the crossword editor for The New York Times. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in the invented field of enigmatology. After starting his career at Penny Press and Games magazine, he was hired by The New York Times in 1993. Shortz's American Crossword Puzzle Tournament is the country's oldest and largest crossword tournament.
Word ladder is a word game invented by Lewis Carroll. A word ladder puzzle begins with two words, and to solve the puzzle one must find a chain of other words to link the two, in which two adjacent words differ by one letter.
The New York Times crossword is a daily American-style crossword puzzle published in The New York Times, syndicated to more than 300 other newspapers and journals, and released online on the newspaper's website and mobile apps as part of The New York Times Games.
Merl Harry Reagle was an American crossword constructor. For 30 years, he constructed a puzzle every Sunday for the San Francisco Chronicle, which he syndicated to more than 50 Sunday newspapers, including the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Seattle Times, The Plain Dealer, the Hartford Courant, the New York Observer, and the Arizona Daily Star. Reagle also produced crossword puzzles for AARP: The Magazine and the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.
The New York TimesSpelling Bee, or simply the Spelling Bee, is a word game distributed in print and electronic format by The New York Times as part of The New York Times Games. Created by Frank Longo, the game debuted in a weekly print format in 2014. A digital daily version with an altered scoring system launched on May 9, 2018.
Wordle is a web-based word game created and developed by Welsh software engineer Josh Wardle. Players have six attempts to guess a five-letter word, with feedback given for each guess in the form of coloured tiles indicating when letters match or occupy the correct position. Wordle has a single daily solution, with all players attempting to guess the same word. During 2023, Wordle was played 4.8 billion times.
Josh Wardle is a Welsh software engineer who developed the viral web-based word game Wordle. The New York Times Company acquired Wordle from Wardle in late January 2022. Wardle lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Quordle is a 2022 word game developed and published by Freddie Meyer. Inspired by Wordle and Dordle, Quordle tasks the player to solve four puzzles at once. In January 2023, the game was acquired by Merriam-Webster.
Wyna Liu is an American puzzle creator and editor of the New York Times game Connections.
Tracy Bennett is an editor and puzzle editor. She edits The New York Times Games products Wordle and Strands.
Letter Boxed is an online word puzzle video game created by Sam Ezersky and published in 2019 on The New York Times Games. It was the third game published in the puzzles section on the New York Times website after the Crossword and Spelling Bee. Originally created as part of an effort to attract new subscribers, Letter Boxed is one of a suite of casual games that has become an important revenue driver for the company, and for which "The New York Times has attained the reputation for having fun, quick and easy daily games."
The online platforms of The New York Times encompass the established applications, websites, and other online services developed by The New York Times for its operations.
The New York Times Games is a collection of casual print and online games published by The New York Times, an American newspaper. Originating with the newspaper's crossword puzzle in 1942, NYT Games was officially established on August 21, 2014, with the addition of the Mini Crossword. Most puzzles of The New York Times Games are published and refreshed daily, mirroring The Times' daily newspaper cadence.
Strands is an online word game created by The New York Times. Released into beta in March 2024, Strands is a part of the New York Times Games library. Strands takes the form of a word search, with new puzzles released once every day. The original pitch for the game was created by Juliette Seive, and puzzles are edited by Tracy Bennett.
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