Cue Daily Word Game

Overview

Cue is a personal side project: a daily word game you can play in the browser. The premise is simple. One word connects three tiles. Find all four groups and clear the board of twelve.

I designed and built Cue end to end, from the interaction model and visual system to the live product at cue-words.com.

The idea

Word games work best when the rule fits in one sentence and the difficulty lives in the puzzle, not the interface. Cue’s pitch is exactly that: one connecting word, three linked tiles, twelve tiles total.

Players can jump into the shared daily puzzle or start a quick play round. The title screen stays minimal so the game can get out of the way.

How it plays

Each round presents a 3×4 grid of word tiles. Select three tiles that share a connection, then submit the connecting keyword. Correct groups clear from the board. Misses cost a mistake.

Supporting actions stay close to the grid: shuffle the board, deselect tiles, or submit when a group is ready. Mistakes remaining stay visible without competing with the puzzle.

Design approach

Cue uses a high-contrast black interface with white type and soft grey tiles. That keeps attention on the words, works well on phones, and makes selection states obvious without extra chrome.

• One primary interaction: pick three, name the link
• Clear selected vs resting tile states
• Short feedback for wrong guesses and cleared groups
• Daily and quick-play modes from the same core loop

Outcome

Cue is live as a mobile-first web game. It was a chance to ship a complete product alone: concept, interaction design, visual system, and implementation in one loop.