Palingo

gerwindekruijf

Spanish Word Guesser Lingo app written in Svelte

Palingo

A Spanish word game app with two games built on the same word engine.

Games

Palabra del Día

A Wordle-style game. Guess a Spanish word in 6 tries. Choose a word length of 4, 5, 6, or 7 letters. Tiles reveal after each guess:

Green — correct letter, correct position
Orange — correct letter, wrong position
Gray — letter not in the word

Lingo

A TV-show inspired game built on top of the same word engine. A full game consists of 5 rounds.

Rules:

The first letter of the target word is always shown
You have 15 seconds per guess attempt (enforced server-side)
Guess correctly → a random number on your bingo card is pre-filled, then you pick one ball from the ball pit
Fail a word → move directly to the next round, no ball phase

Ball pit — 16 balls total:

11 blue — nothing
4 green — automatically mark one random card number
1 gold — you choose which card number to mark

Bingo card — classic 5×5 B-I-N-G-O with center FREE square. Complete a row, column, or diagonal to win.

After all 5 rounds, the final bingo card result is shown with an option to start a new game.

Languages

The UI is available in Spanish (default) and English. Toggle between them using the language button in the header. All words in play are always Spanish.

Tech Stack

SvelteKit 2.x with Svelte 5 Runes
TypeScript
Tailwind CSS v4
PostgreSQL + Drizzle ORM
Better Auth — email + password authentication
PWA — installable, requires internet connection

Setup

Prerequisites

Node.js 20+
PostgreSQL (or Docker)

1. Install dependencies

npm install

2. Configure environment

Copy .env.example to .env and fill in the values:

cp .env.example .env

DATABASE_URL="postgres://root:mysecretpassword@localhost:5432/local"
ORIGIN="http://localhost:5173"
BETTER_AUTH_SECRET="your-32-char-secret-here"

Generate a secure secret:

openssl rand -base64 32

3. Start PostgreSQL

Using Docker:

docker run -d \
  --name palingo-db \
  -e POSTGRES_USER=root \
  -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=mysecretpassword \
  -e POSTGRES_DB=local \
  -p 5432:5432 \
  postgres:16

4. Run migrations

npm run db:migrate

5. Seed words

npm run db:seed

This loads the Spanish word list into the words table.

6. Start the dev server

npm run dev

Open http://localhost:5173.

Production Build

npm run build
npm run preview

For deployment, install the appropriate SvelteKit adapter for your target environment (Node, Vercel, Cloudflare, etc.).

Authentication

Authentication is optional — all games are playable without an account.

Creating an account enables:

Win/loss/streak tracking for Palabra del Día
Win tracking for Lingo

PWA

The app includes a service worker and web manifest. It can be installed on mobile and desktop via the browser's "Add to Home Screen" / install prompt.

The app requires an internet connection. Attempting to play offline shows an error message.

Project Structure

src/
  app.css                         # Tailwind v4 theme tokens
  lib/
    game/
      word-engine.ts              # Shared Wordle logic (evaluateGuess, applyGuess)
      lingo-engine.ts             # Lingo-specific logic (bingo card, ball pit, timer)
    components/
      word/                       # Shared tile/row/board/keyboard components
      lingo/                      # CountdownTimer, BallPit, BingoCard
      LangToggle.svelte           # Language switcher
    i18n/
      translations.ts             # ES + EN strings
      lang.svelte.ts              # Reactive language store
    server/
      db/
        schema.ts                 # Drizzle schema (words, scores, auth tables)
  routes/
    +layout.svelte                # Root layout with offline banner
    +page.svelte                  # Home page
    login/                        # Auth pages
    palabra-del-dia/              # Wordle game
    lingo/                        # Lingo game
static/
  manifest.json                   # PWA manifest
  sw.js                           # Service worker

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