Word Puddle

A native iOS word game built for my own kids. Drag across a puddle of letters to spell words and fill the crossword, while a living watershed grows behind the board: rain pools into a first puddle, the puddle becomes a pond, and herons arrive as you play. Over 4,000 levels across five tiers, from kindergarten first words to eight-letter wheels for grown-ups.

The Challenge

The word games my kids loved were littered with ads and pay-to-play mechanics. I wanted the same satisfying trace-to-spell gameplay with none of that: safe for young kids, honest about money, calm instead of pressuring, and still a real challenge for adults.

The Approach

Built as a SwiftUI app over a pure Swift package that owns the game rules, curated kid-safe dictionaries, and a custom level generator. The watershed renders with a Metal water shader and grows habitat by habitat as levels complete. Monetization is cosmetics-only via StoreKit 2 behind a parental gate, per Apple's Kids Category rules. Everything runs on device: no accounts, no analytics, no data collection.

The Results

Over 4,000 generated levels across five tiers, ten growing habitats, collectible Puddle Pals and stickers, and full VoiceOver and Reduce Motion support. Playtested nightly by the two harshest critics I know: my kids.