Dear Reader,
You’re reading the monthly newsletter from Amuse Labs, covering the world of puzzles, publishing, and updates to PuzzleMe™, the most advanced digital platform for smart games.
Introducing Cross-Check: An AI Editor for Your Crosswords
Creating crosswords of the highest quality requires, among other things, great attention to detail. Crossword clues follow many well-known conventions, and breaking them can frustrate solvers. To help crossword constructors write better clues, PuzzleMe now has a Cross-Check feature which checks your grid and clues for common errors. Whether the error is factual, grammatical or simply going against crossword norms, Cross-Check will flag them.
For example, if you clue the word PELE as “Argentinian soccer legend”, Cross-Check can point out that Pele was in-fact Brazilian. Or if the clue for the word DOGS is “A loyal pet”, Cross-Check can point out that the answer is plural while the clue is singular. Cross-Check is informed by the frequent errors we see people making on PuzzleMe. We hope that Cross-Check can empower more people to create flawless crosswords.
Can Waffle Still Become The Next Wordle?
The same year that Wordle was released, another somewhat similar puzzle, Waffle, was also gaining ground. Like Wordle, Waffle is easy, strangely addictive and immensely satisfying when you get it right. You have to swap letters on a grid until all the letters spell legitimate words. The game borrows the color-based hints for letter placement from Wordle, but the goal with Waffles is to solve the grid in 10 moves.
A few publishers are now experimenting with their own takes on Waffle. Merriam-Webster’s Reunion puzzle adds two blank cells to the grid, giving the format its own twist. The Boston Globe‘s take on Waffle is called Align and has a dense 5×5 grid. To make it even more interesting, it sometimes has tiles with multiple letters in the same cell. These new variants make it clear that the Waffle format is here to stay, and remains a compelling option for players looking to add another Wordle-like format to their daily puzzle fix.
AL.com Creates Local News Quizzes with PuzzleMe AI
AL.com, Alabama’s largest news website, is now publishing quizzes based on its articles using PuzzleMe AI. The publisher has put out a few quizzes, including one on fun facts about FRIENDS superstar Courtney Cox and another based more generally on celebrities from Alabama.
Each question in the quiz is accompanied by an explanation of the answer and includes a link to an AL.com article where readers can click to learn more. The quizzes are generated using PuzzleMe’s chat interface, and then reviewed by an editor before publication. Quizzes help AL.com engage its readers in a fun new way. If you’d like to do the same for your audience, get in touch with us today.
From the Crossworld
The New York Times has added a daily Midi crossword to its puzzle lineup, providing a medium-length crossword to sit between the Mini and its full-sized grid. The Midi is between 9×9 and 11×11 in size.
This Q&A
with editor Ian Livengood has interesting insights into how they’re modernizing crossword conventions with this launch.
Reddit Games has launched its own mini crossword called
Pocket Grids
with a fun community angle. The grid comes with a default set of clues, but Reddit users are invited to clue the grid themselves and share it with their friends. Solvers can even follow specific creators whose clues they prefer.
PuzzleMe Spotlight
A selection of updates from PuzzleMe, the most advanced digital platform for word and logic games
1. Create Deciphers with PuzzleMe Agent
PuzzleMe Agent just got more powerful with another puzzle format added to its repertoire. Now, you can create Decipher puzzles by simply chatting with PuzzleMe Agent. Try telling it to “Create a Decipher from one of Barack Obama’s famous quotes”, and it’ll find a quote and return with a Decipher puzzle you can share with your friends and family.
With PuzzleMe Agent, we hope to give users a way to create feature-rich puzzles without having to navigate complex interfaces. We’ve seen people use the Agent to create a variety of games, including Crosswords, Word Flowers, Word Searches, Quizzes and more. If you’d like to try this new way of creating Decipher puzzles, you can do so here.
2. Publish Your Quiz in 40+ Languages
With all the advancements in translation technology, we believe that language barriers when it comes to puzzles should be a thing of the past. Now, when you create a quiz on PuzzleMe, you can simply click “Translate Quiz” to get versions of the quiz in all 43 languages supported by PuzzleMe.
For companies with employees across the world, this could mean creating a single quiz on company policy and disseminating it in local languages with one click. We’re excited to see the kinds of use-cases Quiz translations can enable for our users. Professional and Enterprise plan users can now access translations on the Preview screen of any quiz created on PuzzleMe.
3. Free Trials for PuzzleMe Plans
If you’ve been on the fence about PuzzleMe paid plans, fret not. We’ve just launched a 7-day free trial for Plus and Pro plans. This means that you can try out PuzzleMe’s most powerful features for a whole week without being charged. You can unlock full theming capabilities or upload your own fonts, or generate a Jigsaw with PuzzleMe AI while in your trial.
We hope that this trial will help you experience the full extent of the PuzzleMe Platform before you make up your mind about a plan. It can also help personal users get access to that one advanced feature they need for a birthday or anniversary puzzle. You can start your 7-day free trial here.
About Us
Amuse Labs is the creator of PuzzleMe™, the leading digital platform for Smart Games. It is a B2B SaaS company trusted globally by brands and publishers, powering Crosswords, Sudokus, Jigsaws, Quizzes, Word Searches and more. Explore opportunities to partner by sending a note or applying if you’d like to work with us!
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- Danish Media Outlet Creates Science-Based Games For Readers - May 22, 2026
- B Square Bulletin Engages Local Audience with Local Puzzles - May 22, 2026
