Dear crosswords community, I'm a beginner and am looking for any apps you can recommend to start learning cryptic crosswords. I know a little bit, but would like to learn more.

(10)

Less savoury version: Gave a hand to the German next to decapitated Disney (5)

day 185 of an experiment in which i press the "random word" button on onelook and make a cryptic clue out of it.

day 184, day 183

day 182, day 181, day 180, day 179, day 178, day 177, day 176

day 175, day 174, day 173, day 172, day 171, day 170, day 169

weeks 21 to 24 (days 141 to 168)

weeks 17 to 20 (days 113 to 140)

weeks 13 to 16 (days 85 to 112)

weeks 9 to 12 (days 57 to 84)

weeks 5 to 8 (days 29 to 56)

weeks 1 to 4 (days 1 to 28)

I’m open to being told I’m breaking rules with this one lol

Hi r/crosswords!

I'm a product and graphic designer and for the past few months I've been building Críptico, a daily game of Spanish cryptic clues, available on iOS and on the web.

I thought this community might find it interesting because, while cryptic crosswords are well established in English, there aren't many resources—or games—for solving them in Spanish.

What are Spanish cryptics?

The principles are the same as English cryptics: every clue contains both a straight definition and wordplay (anagrams, hidden words, reversals, homophones, charades, etc.) that independently lead to the same answer.

The main difference is that the clues are written in Spanish, so the wordplay relies on Spanish vocabulary, spelling, pronunciation, and idioms. If you're learning Spanish or you're simply curious about how cryptic conventions translate to another language, it can be a fun challenge.

For example:

"Hecha un lío" indicates an anagram. Rearranging the letters of TOGA (Toga is a gown, hecha un lío means tangled) gives GATO, which matches the definition "es mascota" ("it's a pet"), .

Hand-crafted clues

Every clue is written by me by hand, so far, no AI model has been able to demonstrate lateral thinking. The goal is for it to feel like opening the newspaper to solve the daily cryptic rather than playing another mobile puzzle game. AI models have helped me a lot in developing the app and web though!

• Send your Crípticos: I've built a form so players can submit their own Crípticos creations

Where to play

• iOS: Available for free on the App Store.
• Web: You can play the daily puzzle directly in your browser at criptico.es—no download required.
• Android: Currently in beta while I look for testers before release, at least 12 are needed so Google greenlights the app!

I'd love to hear what experienced cryptic solvers think, especially if you've never seen cryptics in Spanish before. Feedback on clue quality, fairness, and the overall experience is more than welcome!