I Built My First Daily Guessing Game with Replit & So Can You
Z
Zack Saadioui
8/11/2025
I Built My First Daily Guessing Game with Replit & So Can You
Okay, so you know those daily guessing games that EVERYONE was obsessed with? Like Wordle, and then suddenly a million other versions like Heardle for music or Framed for movies. I got super into them. Like, it was part of my morning routine: coffee, check emails, & guess the daily word.
At some point, the little programmer voice in my head started whispering, "You could probably build this." The problem? I didn't want to deal with setting up a whole coding environment, installing a bunch of stuff, & figuring out how to host it online. Honestly, it just sounded like a hassle.
Then a friend mentioned Replit. They described it as "Google Docs for code," & that pretty much sealed the deal. An online, collaborative code editor that lets you write & run code in your browser without any setup? Sign me up.
This is the story of how I went from a casual game player to a game builder using Replit, & honestly, if I can do it, you DEFINITELY can.
So, What's the Big Deal with Replit?
Before we dive into the game-making, let's talk about why Replit is a game-changer, especially for beginners. For starters, it's an online IDE (Integrated Development Environment). Think of it as your entire coding setup, but it lives in a browser tab.
Here’s why it’s pretty cool:
Zero Setup: This is the big one. You don't need to install Python, a text editor, or mess with your computer's configuration. You just go to the website, create a new project (called a "Repl"), & start typing code. It removes that first huge hurdle that stops a lot of people from starting.
Works Everywhere: Since it's in the cloud, you can code on a laptop, a Chromebook, even a tablet. Your project is just there, waiting for you.
Instant Sharing: When you're done (or just want to show off what you have so far), you just send a link. People can run your code, see your project, & you don't have to explain how to get it working on their machine.
All-in-One: You have your file tree, your code editor, & your output console all in one clean interface. No juggling multiple windows.
Basically, Replit democratizes coding by tearing down the barriers to entry. You can go from idea to a working, shareable project in a ridiculously short amount of time.
The Game Plan: A Daily Number Guessing Game
I decided to start simple. A number guessing game. The twist? I wanted it to be a daily game. Just like Wordle, everyone who plays on the same day should be trying to guess the exact same number.
Here were the core requirements I mapped out:
The game picks a secret number between 1 & 100.
The secret number is the SAME for everyone for that entire day.
The player gets a certain number of attempts (let's say, 7).
After each guess, the game tells the player if their guess is "too high" or "too low."
The game ends if they guess the number or run out of attempts.
It should run in the terminal (the black-box-looking thing), keeping it simple.
This seemed manageable. The trickiest part, I figured, would be making the number "daily."
Part 1: Building the Basic Guessing Logic
First things first, I needed to build the core game loop. This part has nothing to do with the "daily" aspect yet; it's just the basic mechanics of guessing a number.
I created a new Python Repl, which gives you a
1
main.py
file to work in.
The logic flows like this:
Import
1
random
: Python's built-in library for generating random numbers.
Pick a secret number: For now,
1
secret_number = random.randint(1, 100)
works perfectly.
Set up a loop: A
1
while
loop that keeps running as long as the player has attempts left is perfect for this.
Get user input: The
1
input()
function in Python prompts the user to type something & press Enter. One important thing here is that
1
input()
always gives you a string, so I had to convert it to an integer using
1
int()
.
Compare & give feedback: A simple
1
if/elif/else
block checks if the guess is equal to, less than, or greater than the secret number & prints the right feedback.
Track attempts: I used a variable that counts down from 7. If it hits 0, the loop stops & the player loses.
After a bit of tinkering & a few error messages (mostly from forgetting to convert the input to an integer), I had a working game! You could run it, guess a number, & it would tell you if you were hot or cold. It was a great start, but it wasn't a daily game yet. Every time you hit "Run," it would pick a new random number.
Part 2: The "Daily" Secret Sauce
This was the part that I thought would be complicated, but it turns out to be a really elegant & simple trick. How do you make a "random" choice that's the same for everyone on a specific day, but different the next day?
You use the date as a seed for the random number generator.
Here's the lowdown on how
1
random
works in most programming languages. It's not truly random; it's "pseudo-random." It uses a mathematical algorithm to generate a sequence of numbers that looks random. This sequence is always the same if you start it from the same initial value, which is called a seed.
Usually, if you don't provide a seed, Python uses the current system time (down to the microsecond) to start the sequence. That's why you get a different random number every time you run the program.
But what if we manually give it a seed? And what if that seed is derived from the current date?
Let's say today is August 11th, 2025. We can create a simple number from that, like
1
20250811
. If we use THIS number as the seed, the
1
random
module will produce the exact same sequence of "random" numbers for anyone who runs the code on August 11th, 2025. The first "random" number it generates will be the same for me, for you, for everyone.
Tomorrow, on August 12th, the seed will be
1
20250812
, which will produce a completely different sequence, giving us a new daily number. It's so simple & so clever.