I Should be Writing is a game that I wrote over the holidays when I should have been writing.

The basic idea is to combine word-game elements from games like Wordle and Scrabble with spacial-reasoning elements of games like Go. You are given 100 random letters (50 on mobile) that you place on the board to make words, and you use those words to enclose territory. The goal is to use as many letters as possible to enclose as much territory as possible.

To start playing, click here:

Major updates over the last couple of days -- a complete rewrite of the main code. Touch and mouse usage should now be the same. And, if you're on a computer, try selecting a cell and typing a letter. So many changes, that I'm calling this Version 2.0.

The score is calculated by multiplying the number of letters used to make words by the amount of territory captured. The theoretical maximum score on the desktop board is 34200.

Today's current top board is below. To see today's leaderboard, click here

A couple of notes:

You should be able to place letters either by dragging or tapping on them.
If you type a letter, all instances of that letter will be highlighted.
I have developed this to be played on a computer browser, but it seems to work OK on my tablet and phone.
There may be some bugs. Sorry! I'm a professor, not a programmer.

The board should be automatically saved to your computer between moves. So, if you reload the tab nothing should be lost.
The first time you play, you'll be assigned a random username.
If you want to change your username, click on the button with your username in it.
If you want to claim your username, you need to provide an e-mail address, but it can be fake.
Bug note: The interface does not currently alert you if you have chosen a username that is alreadytaken.

This uses the wamerican-larger dictionary standard on Unix systems. That might change.
Soon, you'll be able to play any day's board.
Soon, you'll be able to play a random board.

Enter your username and e-mail