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Create a New Variant

Designing a bespoke ruleset boils down to assembling a config object that describes the board, tiles, dictionary, and rule plug-ins. The easiest way to iterate is to tweak the WASM playground while exporting snapshots for regression tests.

  1. Copy a config stub. Start from the minimal JSON template below or export one via the playground's Snapshot tab.
variant.json
{
  "tileset": {
    "tile_kinds": [
      {"id":"A","symbol":"A","score":1,"count":10},
      {"id":"SUN","symbol":"☀","score":5,"count":1}
    ]
  },
  "rack_size": 7,
  "board_layout": {"type":"rect","width":11,"height":11},
  "ruleset_id": "crossword_classic",
  "dictionary_id": "en_demo",
  "rng_seed": 7
}
  1. Fill in geometry. Switch between rectangular, graph, or 3D layouts depending on the adjacency you want. Bonus tiles can be embedded inline or supplied as separate metadata.
  2. Tune tiles and counts. Add emoji, blanks, or stacked pieces, and remember to keep the bag balanced so racks refresh well.
  3. Choose lexicon support. Small wordlists can be inlined; larger ones should be shipped as external assets and referenced by ID.
  4. Script special rules. Register custom validators or scoring hooks through the rule plug-in system when classic crossword rules are not enough.
  5. Lock determinism. Use named seeds in configs and fixtures so tests reproduce the exact rack order.