Show HN: Updated – A dual crossword puzzle where two crosswords share one grid

8 hours ago (forkle.co.uk)

Thank you to everyone who offered feedback on my Hacker Show post for Forkle last week. I had some fantastic input from a few of you, which I have now integrated into the game.

Major & Minor Improvements:

- Much easier. I was getting a lot of feedback that the puzzle was too difficult, from here, reddit and others. This was for a number of reasons, but I have made best efforts to simplify the puzzles.

- Improved checking : One user advised that common crossword proactive is to have more "checking" where letters intersect. This has been increased, within the possibility of a shared grid.

- Increased number of shared letters - I have attempted to add more shared letters to puzzles which makes them easier, more fun, and more in the spirit of the game.

- Ensured that copy and paste is accessible via keyboard shortcut on main game screen.

- Ensured that rules for vocabulary and grammar logic for clues are more tightly regulated. One comment mentioned plurality of a clue but not an answer. This is poor crossword form, and now improved.

- Addressed enhanced tracking bug in Firefox (still could be an issue)

Thank you to everyone, I want to make the game fun to play. Feel free to check out the new puzzles today and this week, which are improved. I may have to reduce the difficulty once again, but will see!

Original Post :

Forkle (forkle.co.uk) is a daily word game where two thematically linked crosswords occupy the same grid simultaneously. Every tile contains two letters - one belonging to each puzzle - displayed as a diagonal colour split. Where the two puzzles intersect, some tiles share the same letter, giving you a foothold into both crosswords at once. The mechanic has two layers: the shared grid, and the connected themes. Each day's two crosswords are thematically paired around a central idea. For example, a previous puzzle was "Same House, Different Kingdoms" - same home, same humans, entirely different worlds. One crossword is the dog's world, the other is the cat's. The themes are chosen to be related but distinct, which creates an extra layer of satisfaction when the connection clicks.

The constraint of forcing two crosswords into one physical space turns out to create genuinely interesting solving decisions - sometimes the two puzzles help each other, sometimes they fight.

Built solo over a few months using React, Python, Supabase, Fly.io and Resend. Three months of daily puzzles pre-loaded. Launched two weeks ago.