Play Centennial Rowdle: a daily word game for proud Profs

Note: Our Rowdle game is so popular, it's now experiencing technical difficulties. If it's not working for you, try back again later! 

Computer science majors Anthony “AJ” Marinelli and Julius Leone are people of few words.

Even so, as members of Rowan’s student-led Computer Science Web Team, they know how to quickly learn new coding languages and create software solutions for their customers, typically requesters within the College of Science & Mathematics. 

And, now, the team knows how to create a Rowan-themed word puzzle for players to solve.

On Feb. 1, 100 days before the semester’s end, Rowan University released Rowdle, a game commissioned in honor of the institution’s 100th anniversary. Featuring Rowan’s classic brown-and-gold colors, the game is a riff on the New York Times’ popular Wordle puzzle, which gives users six chances to guess each day’s five-letter word. 

Be sure to look at your stats page after solving the puzzle each day. All 100 solutions include a link to a website for more information about how the word is related to Rowan's history. 

Based on an open-source model, the game took Marinelli about 30 hours or so to create after receiving the assignment from the team’s former leader, Chris Lange, who has since graduated.

“Everybody and their mother has their own spin on it,” said Marinelli, a senior who is also in the John H. Martinson Honors College and Rowan’s ROTC program. “I had to dig through the code and understand how it works. Then we worked with it and built it into a Rowan spinoff. I also got to dive into the Rowan brand standards to give it that Rowan feel.”

The open-source model Marinelli found was written in TypeScript, a free and open-source programming language developed by Microsoft; JavaScript, a programming language used to make interactive webpages; as well as specific JavaScript packages. 

Rowan computer science classes primarily use Java, a popular programming language, but the department teaches students how to quickly adapt to unfamiliar computer languages. 

“It was all new to me,” Marinelli said. “I had to learn that to be able to read this code.”  

Emily Gizzi and Madison Laganella, former public relations interns in Rowan’s Office of Media & Public Relations, built the five-letter word list tailored for the game. Morgan Murnane, also a public relations intern, edited the list, wrote descriptions for the words and found related links. 

Leone, the CS Web Team leader, offered some words of advice for the game’s players. 

“Brush up on your Rowan history, maybe,” said Leone, a junior who is also in the Martinson Honors College. “I’m not the greatest Wordle player, but I think if you study your Rowan history, you’ll be better prepared for it.”