A Review of the ``Whittle'' Video Game by Isabel Lee

Under review is a simple but fun game available under the following website: https://playwhittle.com
Provided under an informational link therein is the creator's personal website: https://isabellee.me

I learned of this game from one ``link aggregator'' website and decided to play.  The idea is simple
to play and explain, but fun.  The goal is to take the words provided for the day and, by removal of
individual letters or spaces, reduce the word to naught; the words must be valid after every change,
however.  There's no timer, no punishment for bad guesses, and therefore no way to lose.  The game's
complexity makes it fun for man, but too trivial for a machine's playing to be of any interest.  The
game has the concept of a perfect score, whittling a word with no unnecessary steps, which is fun to
get the very first time, and less fun otherwise.  Lastly, the creation of all possible words for the
day's puzzle is an extra, occasionally frustrating goal; the game tells players the percentage left.

Follows is an example of today's game:
skins user
sins user
sin user
sin use
sin us
sinus
sins
ins
in
i

It's clear that each game always ends in a word of one letter, which is a very limited set including
not the letter O; this provides a heavy-handed hint to players which possible words provide paths to
the solution.  My main criticism of this game is related to its dictionary, which I find lacking.  I
occasionally try to use a word I know to be, but which is unknown to the game, which makes getting a
perfect score for the day unnecessarily frustrating.  Still, like violence and sports, I suppose one
mark of a fun game is the frustration it's able to inflict on players.  The only other source of ire
is discovering all possible words, and I often bother not to do this; finishing the day's puzzle and
returning much later is sometimes the best strategy; I often feel silly for not finding them sooner.

As this is a small game provided by an individual, the game makes no effort to force people to play,
as other word games by larger providers do.  The newer puzzles are gated by time, but not restricted
in any other way; one may play the entire catalog of puzzles at his leisure, which is pleasant.  The
infinite space of simple, even computationally uninteresting games is neat, and I expect to give the
creator's other games a look at some time in the future.  The game is a fun way to waste one's time.

As I think about the game more, I suspect the puzzle producer to be that most interesting component.
It should be simple enough to clone the game at some later point in time once that matter's settled.
.