Hangman letter guessing

What it does

createHangman picks an answer from a seed, from the english-words lexicon within a range of lengths or from a list of your own, or takes one you set. A list may hold phrases: spaces, hyphens and other characters that are not letters show from the start and are never guessed, and accents are taken off, so "jack-in-the-box" and "café" just work.

Each guess is checked first, and refused with a reason a player can be shown: not a letter, guessed already, the game over. A right letter uncovers every place it appears, and the result says which, so a game can turn just those tiles over. A wrong letter costs a life; a wrong whole-answer guess costs what you choose. Hints show the hidden letter that uncovers the most places, for a price, and never spend the last life.

The advice is a candidate list: every answer in the word source with the same shape that agrees with every letter shown and missed. suggest picks the letter most of them hold, which makes a fair hint button and a solver that wins nearly every long word with six lives. A game is a seed and a list of guesses on the kernel history, so undo, saves and replays come with it.

Features

• Seeded or set answers — a daily word from a seed, or a puzzle you wrote.
• Words or phrases — the English lexicon by length, or themed lists with spaces and punctuation shown.
• Exact reveals — a hit uncovers every place its letter appears, and the result lists them.
• Lives your way — any number, or Infinity for a game with no gallows.
• Letters given — each word's first letter, its first and last, or every vowel.
• Whole-answer guesses — on or off, with the lives a wrong one costs.
• Hints at a price — the letter that uncovers most, for hintCost lives, or free.
• A keyboard — every letter marked hit, miss or unused.
• Advice and a solver — the candidates left, the best next letter, and autoStep to play it.
• Undo, saves and replays — a seed and a list of moves on the kernel history.

Good for

• The classic game, a 5 to 9 letter word and six lives.
• Spelling and vocabulary practice, short words with the vowels given.
• Quiz games, themed phrases such as animals, films or places.
• Party and family games, no lives and free hints.
• Daily puzzles, one seed for every player.

Make it yours

A game takes its words (a WordList or an array of words and phrases), min and max letters, a set answer, lives, a reveal, wordGuess with its wordPenalty, and a hintCost. The pack draws nothing, so the gallows, tiles and keyboard are yours.

Two different games from the same pack: short three and four letter words with four lives and no help, a quick challenge; and a quiz of animal phrases with the first and last letter of each word shown and no limit on lives. A third gives the vowels and free hints, for a child learning to spell.

A quick look

A game, a guess and the advice:

const game = createHangman({ seed, lives: 6 });
game.letter('e');                  // a hit uncovers every E
game.word('kettle');               // or guess the whole answer
const view = game.observation();   // slots, hits, misses, lives left, keyboard, phase
game.suggest();                    // the best next letter

Works with

• english-words — required: the default answers, and the lists for themed games.
• letter-tiles — draws the answer as tiles that turn over and the keyboard as tap tiles.
• word-guess — for guessing a whole word at a time, each letter marked in place.

Good to know

• It is the rules only: no gallows, tiles or keyboard.
• Letters are a to z; any other character is shown, never guessed.
• The English lexicon includes some uncommon words; a themed list keeps answers familiar.
• The advice knows only the answers in its word source, and is good rather than perfect.