Getting the Ball Rolling
Alright, so I was kicking around ideas the other day, you know how it is. Wordle’s been everywhere, and I thought, “Hey, what about a wrestling version?” Sounded like a bit of a laugh, something to get my hands dirty with. Didn’t really map out a big strategy, just sort of jumped in feet first, eager to see if I could actually make this thing work.
First Up: Gathering the Wrestler Names
First thing I knew I needed was a solid list of wrestler names. This part, let me tell you, was a bit of a drag. I could’ve tried to be all clever and scrape some websites, but honestly, that felt like too much faffing about for what I wanted. So, I just went digging online, found a few decent fan-made lists. Spent a good chunk of time just cleaning them up – you know, kicking out duplicates, making sure they were mostly single names or common two-worders people would actually guess. A bit of good old-fashioned manual labor, but it got the job done. Sometimes the simple way is the best way, even if it’s boring.
Building the Game’s Guts
Then came the actual game mechanics. That Wordle brain. How was I gonna stitch this together?
- Getting a random wrestler: That was pretty straightforward. Most coding tools have a way to pick something random from a list. Pointed it at my shiny new wrestler list, job done.
- Dealing with guesses: This was where I had to put my thinking cap on. Someone types in a name, and I’ve got to check it against the secret wrestler. Letter by letter.
- Showing the feedback: You know the score – green for “right letter, right spot,” yellow for “right letter, wrong spot,” and grey for “not in the name at all.” Getting those colors to show up correctly took a fair bit of tinkering. Lots of trial and error, staring at code, and wondering why it wasn’t doing what I told it to.
I basically just took it one step at a time. No fancy stuff, just plain coding. My best friend during this part was printing stuff out to the console to see what on earth was actually happening under the hood.
Trying to Make it ‘Wrestling’
So, it’s called “Wrestling Wordle,” right? Had to have some wrestling flavor beyond just the names. To be honest, I kept it pretty simple. The main thing is that all the answers are wrestlers. I did think about adding little images, or maybe even tiny entrance music snippets, but that felt like a whole other can of worms. Too much scope creep for a quick project. For now, the thrill of nailing “UNDERTAKER” or “MICHAELS” is where the wrestling magic is at.
Hitting Some Snags
Oh, you bet there were snags. Getting the input box for the guesses to behave itself was a real pain in the neck at first. You know, making sure it only took letters, didn’t let you type too many, cleared itself after you guessed – all those little details always seem to eat up more time than you budget for. It’s always the small stuff that trips you up, isn’t it?
I also remember wrestling (pun intended!) with a bug where if the secret wrestler had, say, two ‘S’s, and your guess had one ‘S’ in the wrong place, how to color it. Or if you guessed two ‘S’s and only one was right. That kind of logic needed a bit of scribbling on a notepad to get straight in my head. It’s funny how sometimes you need to go back to pen and paper.
Kicking the Tires
Testing was pretty much just me playing the game. A lot. Over and over. Then I roped in a few mates to give it a whirl. Their general vibe was, “Yep, it’s Wordle. But with wrestlers. Not bad.” Which, honestly, was exactly what I was aiming for! I did end up tweaking the wrestler list a bit based on names they found too obscure or if they suggested some glaring omissions.
So, Where Are We At?
Well, it’s built. It works. It’s a pretty straightforward little game, not going to change the world or anything. But it was a decent project to tinker with. It’s always good to actually build something, from start to finish, even if it’s just a spin on an existing idea. Kind of reminds you that you can get stuff done if you just put your head down and crack on with it. It’s not perfect, I’m sure there are still a few oddities hiding in there, but that’s just part of the game, right? Every little project teaches you something, even the ones you do just for kicks.
