Show HN: Whittle – A Shrinking Word Game
29 comments
·August 5, 2025jsnell
Nice! You definitely have something there.
I would love a dictionary lookup. I'd expect a big part of the strategy to be working backwards from the possible 1/2 letter words, but there's no way to tell how reasonable the dictionary is without testing, and getting the game into the proper state to test would be just as hard as solving the puzzle in the first place.
Having two separate goals (eliminate all letters, find all the words) seems confusing. Honestly I find the latter to be a fairly tedious prospect, but the game really seems to push you toward it especially with the colors on the calendar depending on the % of words found. "Damn it, I got a perfect score with no undos, and all I have to show for it is a red square showing how bad a job I did!"
The UI (on a desktop) felt kind of broken at the start because nothing has hover effects. Anything clickable would benefit from some kind of an effect, but especially the letters on the words. If you don't want color changes or animations, at least set the cursor style.
jangerhofer
For those who are initially as dense as I am: spaces are also 'whittleable' characters!
busymom0
When I remove "h" from:
rat he
It doesn't accept "rate" as a correct word. What am I doing wrong?
Freeboots
The space counts and has to be removed. Rathe is not a word, nor is e, so youve got to find another way.
Retr0id
Spaces are also whittleable characters. "rat e" is two words, the latter of which is not valid.
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duncancarroll
Fun! I was a bit confused at the end because there's no "victory" state or indication. I think I was expecting it to give me a new word pair once I got to the end, or tell me "come back tomorrow for another round"
Hammershaft
You can always get it down to zero letters! The game should remind you how many letters you have left before you can win to make it clear .
teach
I didn't understand what you were saying at first, but it turns out that you have to click to remove the final, single letter before the "you won" screen shows.
And I agree it would be nice if the game could detect when you've reached a dead end and notify you somehow.
Trufa
I think I've tried every combination herbs possible, you have to whittle to her and the to he, and then there's nothing, what do you mean?
teach
They are saying "the win screen shows up after you click to remove the final letter", not "it is always possible"
spadros
It’s solvable if you whittle down to “a”
frankdenbow
Came here to say it needs a victory state or a score to know if I got to the best possible solution.
onion92
WOW, we had a similar idea: https://www.shrinkle.org
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44714167
Great work!
c22
This is cool, it's kind of the inverse of a game I used to play with my mother: One player says a letter and thinks of a word that starts with that letter, the next player adds a letter (while thinking of a valid word that that could be created with the new prefix). Play continues in this fashion until someone is forced to spell an actual word, then they lose and you can start a new round.
teach
Is it always possible to go all the way down to a single letter? I'm working on August 4, and it's proving challenging
NoboruWataya
Yes, 1 August and 4 August have me stumped. Interestingly it says I have discovered 100% of words on 1 August, but I wasn't able to whittle it down to 0. I'm not sure if that just means I missed an opportunity to remove the space somewhere.
littlekey
Or maybe it depends on the order in which you remove the letters? Just a guess.
z_open
I had the same issue. I went back to the calendar and it said I got 100% of the words. So I guess it's not always possible and I spent all that time trying for no reason.
spadros
I’m stuck on that one too! Got 100% of all possible words but cannot figure out how to reduce to zero. A “show hint” feature would be nice when you’re stuck.
werds
Congrats on your imminent acquisition by the New York times (a'la Wordle)
spadros
Really fun! Could use a hint function though. I got %100 of all words on Aug 4 but still have not found a way to get it down to zero letters. If anyone has figured it out please let me know!
tobr
If you found all the words, surely that means there is no 1-letter word to find? Unless I’m completely misunderstanding the rules.
null
busymom0
I ended at:
rat he
I remove "h" but it doesn't accept "rate" as a correct word. Am I missing something?
fao_
Hey! I absolutely love it! I wanted to share the results with my partner but it looks like the share button doesn't work on the PC? (Firefox 141.0, Linux)
strongpigeon
I had much more fun than anticipated. Nice work! Sharing with some friends
kipukun
This game is awesome. I have no other feedback other than I had a lot of fun.
Whittle is a small word game I've been working on. Each phrase must be whittled down by one letter (or space) each turn. The remaining phrase must still consist of valid words. That's it! There's a daily puzzle, as well as an archive of old puzzles.
The idea for the game came to me in a dream (really) and I built the puzzle generator with my partner, who's also a software engineer. It's a labor of love! Any feedback or suggestions are welcome. Thanks for playing!