Have you ever played the addictive word game Wordle and thought, “I wish I could make my own version”? Maybe you want to challenge friends with a custom word, create a themed puzzle for a special occasion, or just enjoy the process of building something fun. The good news is that you don’t need to be a professional programmer or spend any money to create your very own Wordle clone. Thanks to a fantastic free and open-source tool called Reactle, you can have a personalized word game up and running online in minutes. This step-by-step guide will walk you through the entire process, from finding the right tools to sharing your finished game with the world.
What You’ll Need: Introducing Reactle
Before we dive into the steps, let’s talk about the magic behind this project. We’ll be using a project called Reactle. Reactle is an open-source clone of Wordle built with React, a popular JavaScript framework. The brilliant part is that the developers have made it incredibly easy to fork (which means to make your own copy) and deploy directly to a free hosting platform called Vercel. You don’t need to install any software on your computer or understand complex code. All you need is a GitHub account, which is also free to create. GitHub is a website where developers store and manage their code, and we’ll use it to host our game’s code.
Step 1: Forking the Reactle Repository on GitHub
The first step is to get your own copy of the Reactle code.
- Go to the Reactle GitHub page. You can find it by searching for “reactle github” in your favorite search engine. The repository is created by cwackerfuss.
- On the top-right corner of the page, you will see a button labeled “Fork”. Click this button.
- GitHub will ask you where to fork the repository. Simply select your own personal account. After a moment, you will have a complete copy of the entire Reactle project in your own GitHub account. This copy is yours to customize.
Step 2: Customizing Your Wordle Game
Now for the most fun part: making the game your own. This involves changing the source code directly on GitHub to modify the secret words and the game’s appearance.
Changing the Word List
The game’s secret words are stored in a single file. In your forked repository, navigate to the src/constants/wordlist.ts file. Click on this file, and then click the small pencil icon (or “Edit” button) to begin editing. You will see a long list of words. You can delete these and replace them with your own words. Each word must be in uppercase and enclosed in quotes, with a comma separating each one. For example: “HELLO”, “WORLD”, “GREAT”, “PIZZA”. Remember, all words must be the same length (typically 5 letters).
Changing the Game’s Title and Appearance
You can also personalize the title that appears in the browser tab and the header of your game. To do this, edit the public/index.html file. Change the text inside the <title></title> tags to whatever you’d like, for example, “Sarah’s Wordle”. You can also explore other files, like src/constants/status.ts, to change the colors used for correct and incorrect letters, making your game truly unique.
After making any changes, remember to scroll to the bottom of the page and click the “Commit changes” button. This saves your edits to your repository.
Step 3: Deploying Your Game to Vercel for Free
With your game customized, it’s time to put it on the internet for everyone to play. We’ll use Vercel for free hosting.
- Go to the website for Vercel and sign up for a free account. You can conveniently sign up using your GitHub account.
- Once logged in, click on “Add New…” and select “Project”.
- You will see a list of your GitHub repositories. Find and select the forked Reactle repository you just created.
- Vercel will automatically detect that it’s a React project. You don’t need to change any settings. Simply click the “Deploy” button.
Vercel will now work its magic. In a minute or two, it will build your project and provide you with a unique URL (usually something like my-app.vercel.app). Your custom Wordle game is now live on the internet! You can visit the URL to play it yourself.
Sharing Your Custom Wordle with the World
The final step is to share your creation. You can send the Vercel URL to anyone, and they can play your game instantly in their web browser. No downloads or installations are required. Challenge your friends to solve your custom word list or create a special puzzle for a birthday or holiday. Since you own the forked repository on GitHub, you can always go back and edit the word list again. Once you commit the new changes, Vercel will automatically redeploy your game with the updated words.
Conclusion
Creating your own version of a popular game like Wordle is an incredibly rewarding and surprisingly accessible project. By leveraging the power of open-source software and free cloud platforms like GitHub and Vercel, you can go from an idea to a published web game in under ten minutes. This process not only gives you a fun tool to share with friends and family but also provides a gentle, hands-on introduction to concepts like version control with GitHub and web deployment. So what are you waiting for? Fork that repository, pick your words, and deploy your very own piece of the internet today.
