Since we launched FIVES, the single most common message in our inbox has been some version of the same request: let me play more than one. People finish the day's puzzle, enjoy it, and want another. It is the nicest possible complaint, and we are not going to act on it. We think the reason is worth explaining, because it says something about how we are trying to build The Meridian.
A puzzle you can play infinitely is a different product from a puzzle you can play once a day. The first is a time sink; the second is an appointment. We are deliberately building the second. One puzzle, the same for everyone, released at your local midnight — that constraint is not a limitation we have not gotten around to removing. It is the feature.
Scarcity does three quiet jobs. It makes each puzzle feel like an event rather than an item on a conveyor belt. It keeps the daily habit small enough to actually keep — two minutes, not two hours. And it means the game never outstays its welcome; you finish while you still want more, which is the only good time to stop.
There is a version of a games company that optimizes for minutes played, and it builds bottomless, refilling, notification-heavy products designed to be hard to put down. We are trying to build the opposite: a product that respects that you have a life, gives you a small good thing, and then, gently, tells you to go live it. Come back tomorrow. There will be a new one.
So no infinite mode. If you finish today's FIVES and want more, that want is the product working exactly as intended. We will see you at midnight.
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