Most word puzzles are generous about what counts as a win. Find a word, score the word, move on. The board waits patiently for whatever you decide to play next. Wordeex is not going to let you off the hook that easily.

Wordeex, a brand-new free-to-play puzzle game on iOS and Android, works from a far more demanding premise: Every correct answer changes the problem. When you find a word and play it, those letters vanish from the board. The puzzle has shifted, and what remains is a narrower set of possibilities than the one you started with. Moves you considered a moment ago may no longer exist. The question is no longer just “what word can I make” but “what word should I make given where this board needs to end up.”

The endgame is maddeningly specific: The board has to be completely empty. Every letter must be used. And there is only one combination of words that accomplishes it.

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Logic Over Vocabulary

That constraint produces a type of challenge most vocabulary-based games sidestep entirely.…