And you can be the first on your block to play it. It’s free. Click here to see today’s game.

Over the next week, I’m going to do a few bonus posts to explain how we thought about the creation and game design and marketing of this new project. The last eighteen months of development have been delightful, and I hope you get a chance to try it out.

For today, a little history:

My first game design was on a mainframe in 1977. My first commercial games were at Spinnaker in 1983, working with personal heroes like Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke and a brilliant team of game designers and engineers.

In 1989, I developed GUTS for Prodigy and Robert Gehorsam. It had millions of players, making it the most popular online game of its time. And in the 1990s, Yoyodyne used games to make email marketing work.

Bongo, I have no doubt, is the most fun of all the games I’ve been a part of. Zach, Jack, Orta and the team at Puzzmo are the world’s best puzzle collaborators and we’re thrilled to share this with you now.

More on this as we go, but for now, the simple rules of Bongo:

  • There is a new puzzle every day
  • You need to find five horizontal words given the letters in the tray. When you begin, multiples of a letter are stacked in the tray, and you don’t have to use all of them.
  • Words can be three, four or five letters in length. Common words are given bonus points once played.
  • The points on the letter are multiplied in squares with a 2x or 3x.
  • The pastel asterisk is a blank and you can make it any letter you choose.
  • And the vertical grey snake is a bonus word, it reads from top to bottom.

The SHARE button makes it easy to copy your best word to your social media account so friends can join in.

It’s easier to play than it is to explain, give it a try.

Here’s a video if you want to watch me doing my best to solve a Bongo (some people are way better at this than I am…)

Next time: Thoughts on media, systems and business models…