Building Numal: A Daily Puzzle Companion
A Morning Ritual, Reimagined
There’s something comforting about a daily ritual. When so much of our lives are hustle and bustle, it’s nice to have some things that remain constant and allow us to slow down.
I watched my partner complete daily Wordle and Connections puzzles for months. It was always a joy to see her face go from confusion to “aha!” This was a feeling I wanted to replicate when building Numal.
Eight Puzzles, One Minimal Package
Numal launched with seven minigames, adding an eighth shortly after. Each minigame was selected to provide a slightly unique experience to the daily games I had seen elsewhere. Instead of just word games, I wanted to add a few number puzzles. I started referring to these as “alphanumeric games.” This was the inspiration for the name Numal [(al)pha (num)eric].
Some of my personal favorites include:
- Lattice - A solo scrabble-like game
- Babble - An homage to Mad Gab
- Ladder - One of the more puzzling minigames
The Design Philosophy
As one of the first projects for Amulet Games, I spent a lot of time reflecting on what kind of tone I wanted to set for the studio. I want the player’s time to feel respected. There are a lot of hyper-casual games that aim to be as flashy as possible, trying to get player to stick around as long as possible.
With Numal, I wanted to trim all of the fat away. The UI design aims to mimic a newspaper aesthetic, using Serif fonts and a navy blue color scheme. The app loads in directly to your “front page” that immediately tells you your progress for the day. The header shows you a simple daily streak and your gem count, while the footer gives you tabs for past puzzles and stats.
Numal will always be ad-free and every day played will give you a healthy amount of gems to use to play past puzzles. Cutting down on ad space and micro-transactions was a driving factor for me.
Giving Back
I didn’t and still don’t expect much revenue from Numal. Inspired by Prose & Codes, I wanted what little was gained to be given back. That’s why 10% of all proceeds go to Project Gutenberg, a volunteer organization devoted to digitizing and archiving cultural works. It is the oldest digital library.
What’s Next
For now, work on Numal is put on the backburner. Each minigame has enough puzzles created to last the next couple of years, which allows us to work on our next projects. If you have ideas or wishes for Numal, please reach out. I’m all ears!
And if you haven’t tried it yet — your morning puzzle is waiting.