Instructions
Glyph Ladder
Turn COLD into WARM one letter at a time, every rung a real word. Eight puzzles, one burning clock, and a par that rewards the shortest ladder.
- Year
- 1995
- Era
- 16-Bit
- Genre
- Word / Word ladder
Free, no sign-up. Keyboard, touch or gamepad.
How to play
- Tap a tile then a letter on the on-screen keyboard.
- Keys: Left/Right pick a tile, Up/Down change its letter, Space confirms, B undoes.
- P to pause.
On touch
- Tap a tile, then tap a letter.
- Undo and Hint (costs 8 seconds) are on-screen buttons.
Every run starts on the title screen. Pause any time with P or the pause button; calm mode removes flashes and screen shake.
Maker’s note
The word ladder is a Victorian pastime and a perfect arcade loop: a goal, a constraint and the small shock of seeing the move you missed. Ladders get longer and the words get longer, par is always the true shortest path, and the daily seed deals everyone the same eight puzzles. The word list is written for this game, so if it refuses a perfectly good word, that is our bug.
The Eracade workshop
Target scores
- 1500
- 21,000
- 31,600
- 42,200
- 52,900
- 63,600
- 74,200
- 84,800
Each target is a step up. Beat them all and you have outplayed the workshop.
The 16-Bit era, 1990–1996
Dithered sunsets, parallax hills and more colours than anyone knew what to do with.
High scores
The top ten runs are saved in this browser with your three initials. Nothing is uploaded unless you submit a ranked run, so clearing site data clears the table.
