Skip to main content
Wandering Whys

Every Masterpiece Has Its Own Copy and I Made One

• 3 min • 549 words
Coding

You familiar with Spelling Bee? That daily brain tease from The New York Times.

The one where you get seven letters, and you have to make as many words as you can using them, but always with that one mandatory letter? People swear by it. Some even build morning routines around it. And to be honest, it’s kind of genius.

So I copied Spelling Bee. Kind of. The idea first came to mind in 2023. I started building a simplified Indonesian version of the word game and called it Tebak Kata.

It wasn’t smooth sailing. There was trial and error, long pauses, half-finished code, and a few moments where I nearly gave up, mostly because I didn’t have much experience building web apps.

But recently, as my son is getting ready for a weekend workshop to learn how to build games with Scratch, I feel a spark again. Watching his curiosity brought me back to the simple joy of creating.

So I picked the project back up and finally finished it. It’s not flashy. There’s no leaderboard. No subscription.

But what’s important is that it works. It scratches that same itch. It gives you a quiet, satisfying little challenge each day.

So, What Is Tebak Kata?

You open up the game and see 9 letters arranged in a little grid. One of them, the green one in the middle, is mandatory. Every word you guess has to use that letter. You can only use the letters in the grid. And every word has to be at least 3 letters long.

Sound familiar? Good. That means it’s doing its job.

You earn points based on word length. You can shuffle the letters if you’re stuck. And if you totally give up (no shame in that), the app will show you all the possible words with handy links to KBBI if you want to check their meanings.

Simple? Yup. Fun? More than you’d expect. Useful? Especially if you’re learning Indonesian or just want to grow your vocabulary.
What is Behind Tebak Kata?
Tebak Kata is built with Streamlit, an open-source Python framework for rapidly building and sharing interactive web app. Under the hood, it’s just:

  • A bunch of shuffled letters based on the current date

  • A dictionary of real Indonesian words

  • Some logic to check if your guess is valid

That’s it. No AI. No complex backend. Just a word list, a bit of logic, and a love for language. Still, I hope to keep making Tebak Kata better with a cleaner UI, smoother UX, and maybe even some of the features Spelling Bee has.
The Joy of a Daily Challenge
Here’s the thing: you don’t need fancy graphics or global scoreboards to make a game feel good.

There’s something quietly satisfying about sitting down, seeing those 9 letters, and hunting for words. It’s like a tiny puzzle your brain gets to chew on while your coffee brews.

And because the letters change every day, there’s always something new to untangle.
Want to Try It?
You can play it right now, or even clone the repository and make your own version. Want to turn it into a Javanese or Sundanese version? Go for it. Swap the dictionary file and tweak a few things, and boom, you’ve got a regional language game.