How games are checked and listed

How Today's Dailies decides which daily games to list, what it checks on each one, how often it looks again, and where the facts on its pages come from. Who runs the site is on the About page.

What a game needs to be listed

Four things, all checked on the game itself: it is free to play, it runs in a web browser with nothing to install, it has a puzzle that changes every day (a few games with unlimited rounds are marked as such), and the day’s puzzle plays without creating an account. A game that later moves behind a paywall, starts requiring a sign-in or stops changing comes off the list.

Today the index holds 2,413 games. Most were found by reading public lists of daily games and the games’ own sites, then opened one by one; new ones arrive through the suggestion form, where each is opened by a person before it is added. A suggestion from a game’s own maker gets the same checks as any other.

What is checked, and how often

Before a game goes on the list it is opened twice: once as a plain web request (does it answer, over HTTPS, at the address given) and once in a phone-sized browser that runs its script, to see that a puzzle actually appears. 560 games have also had the fuller check that game pages show under "What we checked": whether the page sets a mobile viewport and fits a phone screen without sideways scrolling, whether it can be shown inside another site, and whether the link from here loads the same page.

Every night at 06:30 UTC every listed link is requested again, and a seventh of the games are opened in a browser in turn, so each one is seen rendered at least once a week. That run looks for dead or parked domains, games that moved to another site, blank pages, error messages, a puzzle date that has stopped moving and icons that broke. It never removes a game by itself: anything it flags goes to a person, who opens the game and decides.

How the descriptions are written

Every description on this site is written for it, in its own words, from what the game shows when you play it. None is copied from the game’s own pages or from another directory: a script checks each line against the game’s site and against other public listings for runs of five or more words in common, and a line that shares them is rewritten.

258 games have a full page here with how a round works, when it resets, games close to it and who makes it. Those facts come only from the game’s own site and from the checks above. A fact that was not seen is left out rather than guessed, so some pages say less than others. No page gives a rating or a score, and none claims how many people play.

Reset times

A reset time is shown only where the game’s own site states when the next puzzle appears or shows a countdown to it: 159 games so far. The time is worked out from that rule for New York in winter and in summer, and the page shows it in your own time zone once it loads. Games that do not publish one say so instead of showing a guess. The full table is on the reset times page.

No answers, no spoilers

This site never publishes the answer to a daily puzzle, hints toward it or a list of past solutions. Pages describe how a game works and leave the puzzle to the game.

Order, labels and links

The order of every list, and labels such as "Editor’s pick", "Featured" and "Popular", are set by the people who run the site. Shelves open with a few featured games before the rest, and "games like" lists keep the games that share the most with the original near the top. Where the site sells a placement, the card says Sponsored on its face and its link is marked as sponsored; paying never changes a listing, its place in a list or its words, and a badge or a link back never buys anything.

Play links go straight to the game’s own site, with a short tag naming this directory as the source wherever the game’s address allows one, so each maker can see the visits sent from here. Links in the lists are ordinary followed links: listing a game is a recommendation, not an advertisement.

Icons and corrections

Each game appears with its own icon, saved from its site and shown on the same plate as every other game; no game is screenshotted, and a game without an icon gets a plain tile with its initials. Names and icons belong to their owners. If a description, reset time or link is wrong, or a maker wants a listing changed or removed, write to hello@todaysdailies.com and it is fixed. Makers can also claim their listing.