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Love Taylor Swift? Swiftle might be everything you have ever dreamed of in a game. It offers the best platform for fans to flex their impressive expertise in the pop icon's illustrious discography. After all, loving Ms. Swift is "as easy as knowing all the words to your old favorite (TS) song" for Swifties worldwide.
With an unfettered spew of Wordle spin-offs almost every week since the game went viral this year, it wasn't long before a Taylor Swift version (Taylordle) came out. However, Taylordle was a word-guessing game, much like its inspiration. It simply wasn't enough to satiate music lovers who yearned for a TS music edition of Wordle.
After a Swiftie's hunt for a 'Taylor's Version' music Wordle unearthed nothing, he took it upon himself to develop one of the first Heardles for his favorite artist.
22-year-old New Delhi-based Sparsh Tyagi, aka Techyonic, is a software engineering student, currently completing his undergraduate degree in Germany. He cites creating and playing puzzle games while blasting Taylor Swift to be his guilty pleasure.
In an exclusive interview with SK POP's Aayushmita Bhattacharjee, Sparsh Tyagi delved into the conceptualization of and inspiration behind Swiftle, the role of social media in magnifying the reach of such games, his initial goals for the creation, and more.
Sparsh Tyagi on developing Swiftle, incorporating user feedback, and more
Q: Can you take us through your conceptualization of the idea of Swiftle? What was your inspiration behind it?
Sparsh: I would often play a game with my brother or my best friend where one of us plays an intro of a song and the other one has to guess it. Fond of such song-guessing games, I was looking for a music Wordle one day while trying out other Wordle-spinoffs but couldn't find any.
My friend and I talked, and jokingly discussed creating a music Wordle. We thought that guessing a totally random song from any artist or album would become a game of either you know it or you don't. So I decided to focus on only one artist that I knew the most about, and that was Taylor Swift.
Q: How did you go about developing the game? Did you already have prior experience in game and software development?
Sparsh: I wasn't aware of Heardle at that time, and no Heardle cloning templates existed a month ago. So, I started off the development from scratch.
I put together a list of all the Taylor Swift songs, built a basic Wordle-like layout, and polished the user experience. It took hardly 4 to 5 hours to build the first draft of the website as it was only a one-page game that didn't require any special expertise outside usual web development.
I do come from a software background so I am quite familiar with creating websites, apps, and even mobile games.
Q: What is the current reach of Swiftle and how would you describe users’ initial response to it?
Sparsh: Currently, Swiftle garners around 30-40K users daily and over 350,000 users have played it so far.
I first posted about the game on Reddit and it received an overwhelmingly positive response. Users loved the ingenuity of the idea, concept, and design. Slowly, the discussions spread to Twitter, Facebook, and even Discord. The number of daily active users has been on the rise ever since, as more and more people find out about it.
Q: How big a role does social media play in magnifying the reach of such games, according to you?
Sparsh: Social media platforms make all the difference to such games. You could make something totally feature-packed and unique, but if it doesn't get acknowledged by social media, it'll forever struggle to gain an audience.
Q: Why do you think these Heardle variants and other Wordle spinoffs enjoy the immense popularity they do, in today’s day and age?
Sparsh: The reason I feel why Wordle or Wordle spinoffs succeed way more than other web games is because of their distinctive feature of only one game per day, every day.
This intrigues the user enough to try it without fulfilling their desire for more. It allows the user to come back every day to consume their daily dose of puzzle-solving, while also giving them a sense of progress with streaks. It binds you to come back every day to maintain something you have been working for. You also get your share of bragging rights when you do well in such games.
Q: Can you give us an insight into your choice of UI/UX for Swiftle?
Sparsh: I followed the all-so-familiar layout of Wordle but changed the design elements to better match Taylor Swift. For example, I chose a shade of red as the primary color as it's often associated with her.
I also wanted a circular music bar that would animate as the clip unlocks after every wrong guess. This depicts the increased clip length in a minimal way, that also goes well with the play button.
I also made sure that all the relevant information (album, year, video) about the song was present to the user.
Q: What has been your primary motivation behind adding new updates like the ‘Skip’ function, hard mode, and the ability to play past Swiftles? Do you have any upcoming updates in mind for implementation in the near future?
Sparsh: I love listening to user feedback. I had never planned to simply release Swiftle and not develop it any further. When users asked me for a skip button inspired by Heardle, I had to implement it as it's a good feature that improves the UX. The hard mode was a result of die-hard Swifties finding the default game too easy.
I recently also added Gomezle, which is Heardle for Taylor's friend Selena Gomez. I have a couple more updates in mind for Swiftle, such as an instant/rapid mode, but it heavily depends on the user engagement the game continues to receive.
Q: Do you think these features give Swiftle an edge over the other Taylor Swift Heardle clones out there?
Sparsh: I believe so. Since Swiftle was released way before the other new Heardle clones, it has a different design and set of features. Do they want to try a hard mode? Would they like to play the past games? These requests can be fulfilled by Swiftle, which usually aren't present in other Heardle variants.
Q: It’s been just over a month since Swiftle was released. What were your initial goals for the game and do you think you’ve met them?
Sparsh: I made Swiftle quite spontaneously and released it the same day with almost no expectations. Back then, I think I would have settled with a couple of hundred users playing it once, but the initial response was huge enough to make me realize its potential.
With that said, it has surely surpassed my initial goal. However, I feel many more Swifties around the world would love to find out about Swiftle and add it to their daily routine.
Q: Why did you choose to create a Heardle for Taylor Swift specifically?
Sparsh: Well, firstly, Taylor Swift is the music industry. When I decided on a music Wordle based on an artist, there was no sign of doubt that it had to be Taylor Swift.
Taylor has released 9 studio albums so far, with more than 200 songs in total. She has been in the industry for 15+ years and has created music in several different genres. She has a rich discography which is perfect for a game like Swiftle.
There are also millions of Taylor Swift fans around the world that I knew would want to play such a game. Creating the game with good song choices and also interacting well with the community wouldn't have been possible if it was some other artist.
Q: What has been the best part of this entire experience for you?
Sparsh: The best part is always when you see your idea become a reality that users around the world can interact with. The initial response from users on Reddit caught me off guard in a positive way and made my time spent developing the website worthwhile.
Q: Have you faced any challenges with the game so far?
Sparsh: I would be lying if I said no. Apart from a couple of UI issues to website crashes, one of the biggest user-based challenges has been to find the right balance in the difficulty.
Hardcore fans find it easy, while casual listeners find it impracticable. Song choices, difficulty modes, and different clip lengths all factor into how easy or hard the Swiftle is going to be.
Q: Finally, what do you envision for the future of Swiftle?
Sparsh: Every time I ask myself this question, the answer is always slightly different.
If the user engagement continues to grow well, I would love to implement multiple modes and build it into something more than just a Wordle or Heardle spinoff. Otherwise, I would shift my focus to a newer venture. But in any case, the daily Swiftle will continue for as long as I can think of!
