Personal Project · 2026
+Cinco
A free, ad-free daily word game in European Portuguese. Most Wordle-style games are played alone, so I created +Cinco, adding scoring, leaderboards and private groups, so the daily puzzle becomes a competition with family and friends.
I designed and shipped it end to end in a couple of hours, with AI as my pair programmer.
- Role
- Solo: product, design and build
- Type
- Personal Project
- Timeline
- Oct 2026
~ 3 hours, idea to launch - Platform
- Responsive web app, Portuguese (pt-PT)
- Stack
- Claude, Figma, Supabase, Netlify, PostHog and Resend
- Built with
- Claude as an AI pair programmer
Context
Playing a daily word game has long been a small ritual between my dad and me. But there was never a way to settle who was actually better. So I built one in European Portuguese, with the twist we’d always wanted: a scoreboard for our friendly competition! Every word earns points, and private groups let family and friends join the (healthy) rivalry.
Why +Cinco? The name comes from a Portuguese way of saying “high-five”. Every puzzle is a five-letter word, so it felt like a natural fit (the .pt domain being available sealed the deal).
Goals
- A real, public site anyone can play instantly, with optional sign-up and no ads.
- Competition that feels fair and motivating: points, streaks, leaderboards and private groups.
- A product built properly: accounts, data and privacy handled from day one, not as an afterthought.
- No “AI slop”.
Challenge
I took +Cinco from idea to live product on my own in a couple of hours: defining the scope and scoring rules, designing the experience and interface, and building the frontend and the backend, deployed on Netlify under its own domain.
I worked with Claude as an AI pair programmer throughout. It let me spend my time on product and design decisions, and move from an idea to a public, working product in a couple of hours.
I used Supabase for the whole backend, PostHog for analytics and Resend for email.
What’s in the game
Guess the day’s five-letter word in six tries. Every guess must be a valid word, and tile colours show whether each letter is in the right spot, elsewhere in the word, or absent.
- Points by attempts100, 80, 60, 45, 30 or 20 points for solving on the first to sixth try.
- Hint bonusOn the first guess, +2 per green and +1 per yellow tile (up to +10), even if you don’t solve the word.
- Streak bonus+5 per consecutive solved day from the second day, up to +25, for registered players.
- LeaderboardsRankings: daily, weekly, monthly and all time.
- Private groupsCompete with family, friends or coworkers, and invite others to join.
- AvatarsColours and animals to choose from, with special options unlocked by playing.
- StatsGames played, win rate, current and best streak, and total points.
- SharingShare your result on social networks.
Key design decisions
- 01
Play first, sign up later
Anyone can play straight away as a guest. An optional account (player name, email and password) unlocks what needs identity: leaderboards, groups and the streak bonus.
- 02
Designed for Portuguese
Word lists come from a European Portuguese dictionary, the keyboard includes Ç, and accents and ç are filled in automatically, so players never get stuck on diacritics.
- 03
Reward progress, not just wins
Points drop gradually with each attempt, and the hint bonus rewards a good first guess even on a tough day. Everyone has something to show on the leaderboard.
- 04
Competition that brings people back
Streak bonuses, private groups and leaderboards by day, week, month and all time give players a reason to return tomorrow, and someone to beat.
- 05
Privacy by default
Analytics only run with consent, on EU servers. Accounts are for ages 13 and over, and players can access, correct or delete their data.
Outcome
Started as me vs. my dad. Now it’s the whole family! 🏆
+Cinco is live at maiscinco.pt: one word a day, made for playing with family and friends.
Reflections
At work, I’ve been exploring how AI is changing the way we design and build products. I wanted to test what I was learning on something of my own, so +Cinco started as a proof of concept and grew into a real product.
Building with an AI pair programmer changed the shape of the work: the bottleneck moved from writing code to making good product decisions. Scope, scoring rules, edge cases and privacy needed the same rigour as any client project, just at a much faster pace.
Got questions?
I’m always excited to collaborate on innovative and exciting projects.