Quill Quill
Eight word puzzles. Made fresh on your phone.
Word search, a letter wheel, word ladders, a seven-letter hive, a letter grid, fill-ins, ciphers and a daily five-letter guess. Every puzzle is built on the device, from a dictionary that knows the difference between a word and nonsense, and graded before you see it. No ads. No energy. One purchase.
Android 8.0 and up, iOS 15 and up, from one build, in preparation for both stores. This page is where each listing will be announced.
The eight
One desk, eight kinds of puzzle, and every one of them free to play. Each has its own board, its own rules sheet of four lines, and its own bests.
Made, not served
Quill has no level packs to run out of. Each puzzle is generated on your phone the moment you open it, from a tiered English lexicon — common words for the answers, a wide dictionary for what you find along the way.
- Four levels, Easy to Expert, and the level is graded before you see the board, so Easy is easy and Expert is not.
- The lexicon is tiered by how common a word is: the answers come from words people use, and the wide dictionary only decides what else counts.
- A word search mixes its directions and crosses its words, and every grid is a fresh one.
- The same seed gives the same puzzle on every device, which is what lets the daily be built from the date rather than downloaded.
- A hundred and fifty themed word search packs come along too, each generated fresh every time it is opened.
A Post every day
Every day brings a Post of eight, one puzzle of each kind, built from the date on your device and the same for everyone. Nothing is fetched, and Monday's is the same in every time zone.
- Solve any one of the eight and your streak lives. Solve all eight and you bank a freeze for a day you miss, up to three.
- A freeze is spent for you, automatically, on the day it is needed. There is no way to buy one.
- The streak is counted by the calendar, not the clock, so a day can only ever count once.
- Today's Post is free. The calendar keeps every day, and the archive of past days opens with the unlock.
Nothing you can lose
No ads. No energy, no lives, no coins, and no timer on a puzzle unless you ask for one. Nothing in this game ends a puzzle for you.
Check, Undo, Restart, Shuffle
All unlimited and all free. Restart asks first, and you can turn even that off.
A hint is a button you press
A small bank that refills with time, and nothing is sold by the piece. Nudge makes the hint glow when you have been stuck a while; that can be turned off too.
The clock is yours
Every board keeps a time for your bests, and you can hide it. The only timer that ends anything is the Grid's Timed mode, and you chose it.
Pick up where you stopped
An open puzzle is kept move by move, and the desk offers it back to you. Leave a Cipher half done for a week and it is still half done.
Two looks
Glass, the default: panes over calm, living scenes, in five accents. Study: a rendered desk of oak, ceramic, slate, brass and marble on paper, in four rooms. Switch whenever you like, in Settings.
- Glass has Day, Dusk, Contrast and Midnight, five accents from Ocean to Lilac, a scene or a plain background, and a Solid surfaces switch for anyone who cannot read through a pane.
- The Study has the Studio, the Lamp, the Slate and the Ink, and tiles of oak, ceramic, slate, brass and marble.
- Ambient motion is Full, Calm or Off, and Reduce motion cuts instead of moving.
- Three text sizes, large targets, colour-blind marks that draw a shape rather than only a colour, and a left-handed layout.
- A screen reader reads the board tile by tile, and the app speaks 22 languages.
Inside the app
Screens off a real device, nothing redrawn.
Yours, on your phone
No account, no sign-in, no server. Every puzzle is made on the device, and your progress is written to a database on it. Nothing about your play leaves the phone unless you switch something on.
Offline
The lexicon, the generators, the hints and the save file are all on the device, and so is the daily. Airplane mode changes nothing but the store.
A backup that is a file you keep
Settings › Data › Export backup writes one file, wherever you choose. Import it on another device and it merges, never deletes. The app has no way to send it anywhere.
One switch, yours
Send diagnostics, in Settings › Data: crash reports and which puzzles are hard. No ad id, no user id. It starts switched off in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland.
The whole account is in the privacy policy.
Free, and what the unlock adds
Every type, the Easy and Medium levels, the smaller sizes, today's Post, twelve packs and three of the four rooms are free. No type is behind the price.
Free
Every type, always
- All eight puzzle types
- Easy and Medium, and the smaller sizes of each
- Today's Post, your streak and your freezes
- Unlimited Check, Undo, Restart and Shuffle
- A hint bank of three that refills by waiting
- Twelve of the themed word search packs
- Three of the four rooms, and three of the five tiles
- Your last thirty days of statistics, and 22 languages
Nothing here is a trial.
Quill Unlocked
One payment, once
- Every size and every level, Hard and Expert included
- Every past day of the Post, back through the archive
- All hundred and fifty packs
- The fourth room, and the brass and marble tiles
- All-time statistics
- A hint bank of five that refills in seconds rather than minutes
One purchase, not a subscription. Held by your Google Play or Apple Account, restored with one button on any device you sign into, and it covers what is added to the game later.
What Quill does not do
Seven facts about the build. They are the product rather than decoration on it.
- No adsThere is no ad SDK in the app, and it reads no advertising identifier.
- No energy, no livesNo hearts, no coins, and no waiting to play again.
- No subscriptionOne purchase, once, and it is not required to play any type.
- No type is soldAll eight are free, at Easy and Medium, on the smaller boards.
- No account, no sign-inThere is no server anywhere in this game to hold one.
- No network neededEvery puzzle is made on the device, including the daily Post.
- No timer you did not ask forThe clock is for your bests, and you can hide it.
Questions
Where do the puzzles come from?
From your phone. A generator builds each one from the bundled lexicon when you open it, and grades it against the level you asked for before it is drawn. The daily Post is seeded from the date, so every device builds the same eight with nothing downloaded. The 150 word search packs are lists and a picture; the board is generated fresh every time you open one.
What counts as a word?
A tiered English lexicon. Answers come from the common tier, so a Hive or a Ladder never rests on a word nobody uses; the wide dictionary decides what else you are allowed to find along the way. Slurs and obscenities are kept out of every grid, forwards and reversed. You can choose US or UK spelling in Settings › Play.
How does the streak work?
Solving any one of today's eight keeps it alive. Solving all eight banks a freeze, up to three, and a freeze is spent automatically on a day you miss. Only today's Post moves the streak: a past day solved from the calendar is history, and moving the device clock does nothing.
Is there a move limit or a timer?
No move limit on any type, and no timer unless you pick the Grid's Timed mode. Every board keeps a time for your bests, and Settings › Play › Show clock hides it. Check, Undo, Restart and Shuffle are unlimited.
Does it work offline?
Entirely. The only things that ever want a connection are the store — the purchase, the restore, the update check and the rating sheet — and the optional diagnostics switch.
Do I need an account?
There isn't one. No sign-in, no profile, no leaderboard, and no server of ours for any of them to live on. To move to a new phone, export a backup from Settings › Data and import it there.
What does the unlock cost, and is it a subscription?
It is one purchase, once, priced by the store in your own currency, and it is not a subscription. It adds every size and level, the Post archive, all the packs, the fourth room and two tile faces, all-time statistics and a faster hint bank. No type is behind it.
Which platforms is it on?
Android 8.0 and up and iOS 15 and up, built from one source set. Both are in preparation for their stores, and this page is where each listing will be announced.
Eight puzzles, one desk, your phone.
A calm word game for anyone who likes to think: generated on the device, offline, with nothing at all to lose.
Questions? support@crackoncloud.com