The KenKen Plugin for The New York Times

In an effort to assess the viability of games and expand our offerings to a wider audience, the New York Times Games Team set out this summer to rapidly prototype and user test new games. As part of this initiative, we developed a KenKen plugin that is designed to be built specifically for mobile devices.

To achieve this goal, we made several key technical decisions. First, we chose to only support iOS 9 and above, as well as the latest versions of mobile browsers. This allowed us to focus our development efforts on creating a seamless user experience across multiple platforms.

The plugin was built using three files: index.html, main.js, and styles.css. By doing so, we were able to keep our codebase lean and efficient, while still achieving our goal of creating an engaging and challenging game.

One of the key philosophies guiding our development process is 'Live fast, die hard, document.' This means that we prioritize speed and rapid prototyping over perfection, but also make sure to document every step of the way. This approach allows us to quickly test for viability and iterate on our designs based on user feedback.

Our team consists of multidisciplinary members with backgrounds in design, engineering, and game design. This diversity of skillsets enables us to work independently or collaborate as needed, allowing us to tackle multiple projects simultaneously.

The KenKen plugin is just one example of the many prototypes we've developed during this initiative. By building and testing three different games – Spelling Bee, KenKen, and Word Maze – we've learned valuable lessons about what works and what doesn't in terms of user engagement and retention.

Through our research and development process, we've discovered that creating a process for building prototypes that can be released to a large audience is a complex task. However, by embracing experimentation and rapid prototyping, we're able to push the boundaries of what's possible and create innovative games like KenKen.

In conclusion, the KenKen plugin is an exciting new addition to our lineup of games and demonstrates our commitment to exploring new audiences and opportunities through rapid prototyping and user testing.

Nytimes kenken plugin