THE creator of a global sensation word puzzle has launched a new game – four years on from selling Wordle to The New York Times for a seven-figure sum.

Farmer’s son Josh Wardle, 43, from Llandewi Rhydderch near Llanarth, created Wordle for his New York girlfriend Palak Shah to play during the Covid pandemic.

And asked after selling it whether he would create another word puzzle game, the software engineer said: "Why would I do that to myself?"

But now he‘s back, launching Parseword, a wordplay game inspired by cryptic crossword puzzles, where like Wordle, players solve one clue a day, with the game becoming progressively tougher.

Telling The Sunday Times this week that he hasn’t played Wordle since selling it, he revealed about the inspiration for Parseword: “I remember looking at (crossword) clues and feeling utterly flummoxed. Like it was completely impenetrable.

"They've become my favourite format, because hidden under all this complexity is this amazingly elegant puzzle."

Hoping he can help "folks who haven't been able to break into cryptic crosswords, to teach them the rules", he added: "I love language, this tool we all have access to, we use every day.

"I think I'm just trying to make games that I would want to play."

The original Wordle – a play on his own name which includes the likes of Countdown's Suzie Dent among its fans – involves guessing a five-letter word in six guesses.

Parseword and Wordle can only be played once a day and players can share their score with friends, family or on social media.

Wordle became the most Googled word of 2022, and its creator was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people of the year.

It even helped end a 17-hour hostage ordeal when a Chicago grandmother failed to file a solution to the day's Wordle challenge, and her daughter in Seattle raised the alarm, with police finding an intruder in her mum’s house.

Brooklyn-based inventor Josh described the success of his game as “a little overwhelming”, and said it had become “bigger than I ever imagined”.

The London University media arts graduate said at the time of the sale: “It ‘s been incredible to watch a game bring so much joy to so many, and I feel so grateful for the personal stories some of you have shared with me – from Wordle uniting distant family members, to provoking friendly rivalries, to supporting medical recoveries.

“On the flip side, I’d be lying if I said this hasn’t been a little overwhelming. After all, I’m just one person, and it is important to me that, as Wordle grows, it continues to provide a great experience to everyone.”

Back in his small home village, most well known for an ancient yew tree, farmer dad Chris reacted to his son’s success by telling The Guardian: “He’s not interested in the money side of things. He just likes creating. This all got so big so quickly.

“Josh had no idea it would take off like this. I think it’s come as a bit of a shock. He’s a very private kind of person.”