itch.io

It might be a privacy setting; I've got a Firefox fork and it's not getting access to the clipboard (to copy & paste), but Chrome doesn't give me the issue.

I personally like to have a two-word starter -- broad heist -- rather than try to use a 3rd guess (which usually doesn't go according to plan in hard mode).

What's your definition of faux-hard?

Personally, any variant does indeed make Dordle much harder (especially if four letters are locked by guess 3).

Anecdotally I tried "(d)[o]ily" > "c[o]re(d)" > "p[o][u][n][d]" > "s[ound]" > "[mound]"... and was lucky the correct guess wasn't "hound" or "wound" because that would leave me with nothing for the other column (in this case, "do[i]ly", "co(r)(e)d", "(s)ound" gave me just enough to guess "(ar)[ise]" > "[raise]".

If any kind of "letter lock" is implemented, an extra guess slot should be added.

Also, what's with that white block with legs?

I would have liked the RAR download. But as a desktop browser game, I will ditto that it is clean, the controls are responsive (there's even an odd "cling" mechanic not described).

The lighting is neat, but in the ultimate/penultimate puzzle it does play a trick with the right-most square (with a spike sticking out) - at least with my eyes, the square looked orange enough, but when lit looked yellow. (If that was an intentional "look-carefully" trap, it was very subtly done.)

One critique I have is that rebounding from spikes/damage feels inconsistent. Sometimes I get trapped bouncing vertically on the spikes in the left wall and have to move left/toward the wall to get bounced out.

Also, what's up with the ending? It feels like a "missing asset/under construction" terminus. Is there just the one?