Show notes
Bryan Chen joins Nate Kadlac and Aaron Kardell on Hey, Good Game to unravel how a simple coding side project exploded into Duotrigordle, the 32-Wordle brain buster beloved by millions.A computer science student at the University of Waterloo, Bryan walks us through his programming journey from C# exercises in grade school to building viral games during online college lockdowns. The episode explores how Duotrigordle evolved from a dorm-room Discord link into one of the most beloved—and chaotic—Wordle spinoffs online.The trio discusses Bryan’s inspirations (from Waffle to Magic: The Gathering), why he values intuitive UX over flashy features, and how he’s balancing indie game maintenance with his academic and career goals. Bryan also opens up about monetization, treating side projects as portfolio pieces, and the emotional payoff of seeing friends unknowingly become fans of his work.Favorite Games Mentioned by Bryan ChenMagic: The Gathering – His all-time favoriteWordle – Foundational inspirationOctordle / Quordle – Multi-board Wordle influencesWaffle – Admired for clean design and visual polishLeague of Legends – Used its API as a test projectTetris (AI bot project) – As a personal dev exercise🔗 Find Bryan Chen onlineGame: https://duotrigordle.org/Website: https://thesilican.com/GitHub & side projects linked on his website--(00:00) - Introduction and Welcome
(00:00) - Going Viral: The Unexpected Success
(00:29) - Meet Bryan Chen: Creator of Duotrigordle
(01:31) - Bryan's Gaming Journey
(01:49) - Magic: The Gathering and Board Games
(06:31) - Early Interest in Software Development
(08:49) - The Birth of Duotrigordle
(16:35) - Iterating and Improving the Game
(22:50) - Monetization and Motivations
(38:33) - Future Projects and Advice for Creators
(42:14) - Conclusion and Farewell--Check out our brainy games:Sumplete - https://sumplete.comSqueezy - https://imsqueezy.com/Kakuro Conquest - https://kakuroconquest.comMathler - https://mathler.comCrosswordle - https://crosswordle.comSudoku Conquest - https://sudokuconquest.comHitori Conquest - https://hitoriconquest.comWordga - https://wordga.com