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Fans of New York Times Games may have noticed something missing from their experience: head-to-head competition.
Until now.
The Games team recently launched its first two-player game, Crossplay, on a new app for iOS and Android devices. The gameplay is reminiscent of Scrabble or Bananagrams: Players take turns adding letter tiles on a shared game board to create new words or build off others.
“It’s certainly inspired by classic multiplayer word games,” said Jeff Petriello, a senior producer of digital puzzles on the Games team. “But we have our own unique board layout, points and tiles. If you are familiar with those other games, though, those nuances really do impact your play.”
The Games team spent over a year creating Crossplay. Employees had friends and family test the game before soft launching it in New Zealand, Australia and Canada.
In an interview, Mr. Petriello talked about what went into the creation of Crossplay and how the game’s novelty has inspired future projects. This interview has been condensed and edited.
Aside from the game’s rules, what should people know about Crossplay?
Up until this point, Times games have been social only in terms of how people talk about them and share them. It’s our first-ever two-player game. As a fan and someone who works on Times games, it’s so exciting to be able to interact with friends who play New York Times games in a way I never have before.
There is a chat feature, so players can communicate with their opponent. We had to build out that technology. You can chat with your opponent, maybe have some playful trash talk or congratulate them on a great play.
One of my favorite things about Crossplay is Cross Bot, the newest addition to our little companion bots. People might be familiar with Wordle Bot or Connections Bot. Right now, Cross Bot’s main job is to review games. At the end of the game, you can review your performance and your opponent’s performance to learn about opportunities that you didn’t see. That is a very New York Times-y experience.
Crossplay distinguishes itself from other Times games in a couple of ways. Can you talk about how much work and planning went into it?
This was extremely ambitious for The New York Times, especially because these games are architected and engineered natively. We didn’t build these games using a conventional game engine. We built it all ourselves. And we weren’t just making a new game, we were making a whole new app.
We have been able to get some games from idea to launch in about six months. But with something like Crossplay, it might take triple or quadruple that amount of time. We’ve had employees testing this game for just under a year.
What advice do you have for players?
Do not be afraid to play with strangers! We have a very cool matchmaking algorithm that will work better the more and more you use it. Don’t hesitate to jump in and start a few games!
And while it’s a multiplayer game, it’s asynchronous. You take a turn, and then your opponent takes a turn. You aren’t necessarily staring at the game board at the same time as you take your turns. You can start a bunch of games. One person might get back to you immediately; another person might take a minute or two. If you’re itching to play and finish a game in the moment, you can play with our computer opponents that we created. They come in three modes: easy, medium and hard. But I personally think it’s much more engaging to play with a real person.
What can you tell readers about what the Games team is working on next?
With Crossplay specifically, the team is focused on new features. We want to grow it. We are working on small things, like additional animations and sound effects, to bring a little bit more polish and delight to the app.
And we’re super excited about a beta that’s live right now: Capture, which is a chess-themed logic puzzle that we’re doing in collaboration with Chess.com. That’s currently being play-tested and will be for at least another month. And the New York Times Games team is also always working on new projects. I’m the most excited I’ve ever been about something we’re working on now — but I can’t reveal it yet.
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