How to Build a Wordle-Style Word Game Interface Using JavaScript

Word guessing games are a great project for learning JavaScript because they combine user input, arrays, DOM manipulation, keyboard events, and game logic.

In this tutorial, we'll build the basic interface for a Wordle-style word game.

The project will contain:

• A game board
• An on-screen keyboard
• Letter input
• Word checking
• Basic visual feedback

1. Creating the Game Board

Start with the HTML structure.

<div class="game">

  <h1>Word Guess Game</h1>

  <div id="board"></div>

  <div id="keyboard"></div>

</div>

The board element will contain the guessing rows.

The keyboard element will contain the clickable keyboard.

2. Creating the Board with JavaScript

Instead of manually writing every square, JavaScript can generate the board.

const board = document.getElementById("board");

for (let row = 0; row < 6; row++) {

  const rowElement = document.createElement("div");

  rowElement.classList.add("row");

  for (let col = 0; col < 5; col++) {

    const tile = document.createElement("div");

    tile.classList.add("tile");

    rowElement.appendChild(tile);

  }

  board.appendChild(rowElement);
}

The outer loop creates six rows.

The inner loop creates five tiles for each row.

You can change these values if your game uses a different word length.

3. Styling the Tiles

Now let's make the board easier to see.

body {
  margin: 0;
  font-family: Arial, sans-serif;
  background: #111;
  color: white;
}

.game {
  max-width: 500px;
  margin: 30px auto;
  padding: 20px;
  text-align: center;
}

#board {
  display: flex;
  flex-direction: column;
  gap: 6px;
  align-items: center;
}

.row {
  display: flex;
  gap: 6px;
}

.tile {
  width: 55px;
  height: 55px;
  border: 2px solid #555;
  display: flex;
  align-items: center;
  justify-content: center;
  font-size: 24px;
  font-weight: bold;
  text-transform: uppercase;
}

The board is centered and each row contains five tiles.

The border makes empty tiles visible before the player enters a word.

4. Creating the Keyboard

Now let's create an on-screen keyboard.

const keyboard = document.getElementById("keyboard");

const letters = [
  "Q","W","E","R","T","Y","U","I","O","P",
  "A","S","D","F","G","H","J","K","L",
  "Z","X","C","V","B","N","M"
];

letters.forEach(letter => {

  const button = document.createElement("button");

  button.textContent = letter;

  button.addEventListener("click", () => {
    addLetter(letter);
  });

  keyboard.appendChild(button);

});

Each letter becomes a button.

When the player clicks a button, the addLetter() function can process the selected letter.

5. Adding Letters to the Current Guess

Create a variable to store the current guess.

let currentGuess = "";

function addLetter(letter) {

  if (currentGuess.length < 5) {

    currentGuess += letter;

    console.log(currentGuess);

  }

}

The condition prevents the player from entering more than five letters.

A real game would then display each letter inside the corresponding board tile.

6. Checking the Guess

For demonstration purposes, let's use a simple answer.

const answer = "APPLE";

function checkGuess() {

  if (currentGuess.length !== 5) {
    return;
  }

  if (currentGuess === answer) {
    alert("Correct!");
  } else {
    alert("Try again!");
  }

}

The game compares the player's five-letter guess with the answer.

A complete Wordle-style implementation can use more detailed checking to determine whether each letter is correct, exists elsewhere in the word, or is not present.

7. Adding Keyboard Styling

We can also style the keyboard.

#keyboard {
  display: flex;
  flex-wrap: wrap;
  justify-content: center;
  gap: 5px;
  margin-top: 30px;
}

#keyboard button {
  padding: 12px;
  min-width: 38px;
  border: 0;
  border-radius: 5px;
  cursor: pointer;
}

Flexbox automatically moves buttons onto new lines when there isn't enough horizontal space.

This makes the keyboard more suitable for mobile screens.

8. Supporting the Physical Keyboard

A nice improvement is allowing players to type letters using their computer keyboard.

document.addEventListener("keydown", event => {

  const key = event.key.toUpperCase();

  if (/^[A-Z]$/.test(key)) {
    addLetter(key);
  }

});

Now the game can respond to physical keyboard input as well as on-screen buttons.

9. Word Games in Different Languages

The same JavaScript architecture can be adapted for different languages.

For a German word game, the word list can contain German vocabulary and the interface can use German instructions.

The important part is separating the game logic from the word database.

For example:

const words = [
  "APFEL",
  "HAUS",
  "TISCH",
  "STERN"
];

The game can randomly select a word from the available list.

A German Wordle-style game can then provide a daily word puzzle for German-speaking players.

You can see an example of a German Wordle-focused project at:

https://playwordledeutsch.de/

10. Ideas for Improving the Game

Once the basic game works, many features can be added.

Some useful improvements include:

• Daily puzzles
• Statistics
• Guess history
• Multiple word lengths
• Dark mode
• Share results
• German word lists
• Mobile keyboard
• Animations
• Local storage
• Timer

For example, localStorage can save the player's statistics between visits.

Conclusion

A Wordle-style game is an excellent JavaScript project because it teaches several important concepts at once.

You learn how to:

• Create elements dynamically
• Handle keyboard events
• Process user input
• Compare strings
• Update the DOM
• Build responsive interfaces

The basic version is relatively small, but it provides a foundation for creating a much more complete word game.