Crosswordfish is a haven for crossword enthusiasts. Here, you can play (ostensibly) random and unique crossword puzzles generated by AI. The puzzles are not stored on any server somewhere, they're made as soon as you hit Play.

The app features most of the UX features you'd expect from a digital crossword gameboard. You can reset the grid, reveal errors, and show solutions when you get stuck. And importantly, you can navigate the grid using your just your keyboard.

However, Crosswordfish is still very much an MVP and has a few limitations. The most obvious limitations are in how it generates crossword puzzles. Currently, the app is only able to generate freeform grid layouts due to the much greater complexity of generating American-style grid layouts. And by the same token, the app is only able to generate straight crossword clues, due to the creative complexity of generating cryptic (UK-style) clues.

If you're not sure what I mean by that, this Wikipedia article explains the different styles of crossword grids and clues and why certain types of grid/clue constraints might be challenging to work with.

Where else can you play crossword puzzles online without being bombarded by ads, on a puzzle grid that actually takes up more than a fifth of your viewport, and with new puzzles on-demand?

These are the main technologies used to build Crosswordfish. Have a look at the package.json file for a full list of dependencies.

• React
• Next.js 14 (App router)
• Zustand
• shadcn/ui
• OpenAI (GPT-3.5-turbo-1106)

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First, get the things you'll need:

• Install Node.js
• Install pnpm

  npm i -g pnpm

• Obtain a valid OpenAI API key

  You may need to fund your account if you've run out of API tokens.

Now, complete these steps:

1. Clone the repo

   git clone https://github.com/peterjunpark/crosswordfish.git

2. Install dependencies via pnpm

   cd crosswordfish
   pnpm i

3. Create a .env file in the root directory and add your OpenAI API key.

   OPEN_AI_API_KEY= ...
   

4. Start the development server

   pnpm dev

You should now be able to navigate to http://localhost:3001 and play some crosswords 😁.

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A running list of the main features to be added to Crosswordfish.

• Add crossword grid generation
  • Support for American-style grids
  • Support for freeform crossword grids
• Add crossword clues generation using GPT-3.5
  • Support for American-style crossword clues
  • Support for cryptic (British-style) crossword clues
• Add keyboard controls
• Add grid reset, word reveal, dark mode, and confetti.
• Add ability to save, share, download, and print crosswords
• Add crossword creation and publishing
• Improve responsive design for mobile
• Add PWA features
• Improve performance (AI completion fetching, data parsing, grid generation)

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This project will likely not be updated. I intend to rebuild Crosswordfish using the lessons learned here.

The best way to build something is to build it twice. --- Someone

Feel free to fork the project for your own purposes.

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Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE.txt for more information.

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