Words Are Snake

How to Play

  1. Type a word

    Spell any English word using the keyboard. In the daily challenge you get exactly 20 words, and no word can be reused.

  2. Steer with your spelling

    Each letter moves the snake one step. The letters U, D, L, R also turn it: up, down, left or right.

  3. Every word scores points

    Longer, rarer words earn more. Word score = word length × rarity (1.0 to 5.0 multiplier).

  4. Eat fruit for bonus points

    Apples appear on the grid and add fixed bonus points on top of your word score. Clever word choices can spawn rarer, higher-value fruit.

A direction letter pointing opposite to the snake's current heading is ignored; the snake keeps going straight.

Unlock secret fruit

  • Apple: 10 pts

    Appears randomly. The reliable staple.

  • Golden Apple: 50 pts

    Triple turn: one word causes three direction changes. Four or more turns upgrade it to a Starred Golden Apple worth 75.

  • Cherry: 75 pts

    Palindrome: a word that reads the same forwards and backwards (e.g. racecar, level).

  • Melon: 100 pts

    Long word: submit a word of nine or more letters.

  • Star Fruit: 150 pts

    Antonyms: submit a word that is the antonym of your previous word (e.g. hot after cold).

  • Banana: 200 pts

    Alphabetical streak: submit three words in a row starting with consecutive letters (e.g. A, then B, then C). Keep the streak alive for ten words and the Bananas turn starred, worth 300.

  • Grape: 250 pts

    Reverse alphabetical streak: three words in a row starting with descending letters (e.g. C, then B, then A). Ten in a row turns the Grapes starred, worth 375.

  • Carrot: 300 pts

    No-turn streak: three words of four or more letters without a single turn.

Duel lives (friend duels only)

In a friend duel each player starts with 2 lives. A collision costs one life and your snake stops where it crashed; the game goes on. A player who reaches zero lives loses, whatever the score. Score still decides bragging rights and the leaderboard.

Hearts appear on the board when a player is first to pass each 2000-point mark. Eating a heart gives one life back, with no cap, and awards no points.

Playing with an AI assistant

If your browser or AI assistant supports WebMCP, an early web standard that is still being tested, the assistant can use tools built into the game. It can read the rules, move you between pages, and look at the board in the Daily Challenge and when you duel the computer. When you duel the computer, it can also check what a word would do before you play it. The assistant never types or submits a word for you: every word is still yours.

The tools follow the game's fairness rules. In the Daily Challenge the assistant can read the board but can't test words, because no player can. In a duel against a friend it can only read the rules and move you between pages, and it can never join a friend's game for you.

What the assistant can do

get_rules
Explains the rules in the language you play in: the direction letters, what makes the snake crash, scoring, and every fruit combo.
navigate
Takes you to the main menu, the Daily Challenge, a duel against the computer, help, the leaderboard or settings. In the middle of a game you're still asked before you leave.
get_game_state
In the Daily Challenge and duels against the computer: describes the board as a grid of text, with your snake, the scores, the fruit and whose turn it is.
preview_word
Only in duels against the computer: tries a word without playing it. It says whether the word is allowed, whether the snake would crash and where, or what the word would score and which combos it would trigger.

Try it yourself

WebMCP is still an experiment, so for now it only works in Chrome on a computer, with a test setting turned on.

  1. Use Chrome 146 or newer. Go to chrome://flags/#enable-webmcp-testing, turn on “WebMCP for testing”, and relaunch Chrome.
  2. Pick a way to use the tools:
    • Chrome's developer tools, with no code (Chrome 149 or newer): also turn on chrome://flags/#devtools-webmcp-support and relaunch. Open DevTools, then Application, then WebMCP. Pick a tool, fill in its fields and run it.
    • The Model Context Tool Inspector extension for Chrome: it lists and runs the tools, and can let Gemini use them with your own API key.
    • An AI agent that can control Chrome, such as Claude Code with the chrome-devtools-mcp server and its experimental WebMCP option. Then you just ask in your own words.
  3. Open Words Are Snake. The tools change as you move around: two on every page, and more once a game is on the board.

For example, ask an agent: “Start a duel against the computer, check five words for me, and tell me the best one that doesn’t crash.” Then type the word yourself.