These days, almost everyone has played the game that frustrates, flusters, and fluctuates, yet brings sincere fulfillment when the four rows align: Connections. There’s an undeniable tension in the New York Times game, which brings together 16 seemingly unrelated words and often gives the player the seemingly impossible task of neatly sorting them into four distinct categories.

An unsolved iteration of Connections, the deeply engaging and thought-evoking New York Times puzzle (September 7th, 2026). 

But behind that frustration, there’s also a person and a process in the game’s construction. The immensely popular logic word game is edited and constructed by Wyna Liu, one of a handful of The New York Times’ “gamemakers.” Furthermore, the methodology in which the game is put together—often from hours of random thoughts and notes—can be described as a distinct sense of whimsy. 

A graduate of Oberlin College, a small liberal arts college in Ohio, Liu first began constructing crossword puzzles in 2018 and joined The New York Times as a puzzle editor in 2020. Apart from her work in puzzle games, Liu is also an artist and jewelry maker. As described by the Museum of Arts and Design, Liu’s jewelry draws inspiration from “the structures and geometry found in nature.”

A collection of Wyna Liu’s jewelry inspired by how nature efficiently packs cells into three-dimensional structures. Source: Museum of Arts and Design

Liu is also a 2014 graduate of NYU Tisch’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP), a two-year Master of Professional Studies program that explores the imaginative use of communication technologies. Her thesis project focused on the infinite possibilities of polyhedra, and she cites her multifaceted critical-thinking abilities as fundamental to her game creation. 

The birth of Connections is also an intriguing story. Contrary to popular opinion, Liu was not the original creator of Connections; in fact, the game was born out of the annual New York Times event called Game Jam, an internal ‘hackathon’ where new game ideas are conceived, and prototypes are created. 

When Connections was green-lit in 2023, the game needed a permanent editor, and Liu stepped into that role. At its core, the game is astonishingly simple: 16 words have to be sorted into four different categories, color-coded by level of difficulty. The yellow category is the most straightforward; the green category is still relatively easy; the blue category leans toward the harder side; and the purple category always leaves the player pondering. 

The purple category’s obscurity is a running gag, and in 2025, Saturday Night Live referenced the category in the skit “Trump Executive Orders Cold Open,” where one of the President’s proposed executive orders aimed to limit the complexity of the category, with a depiction of Trump complaining about categories like “beans minus the concept of love.”

Part of the fun of the game is also how it often deceives the player. Regularly, Liu will throw in some seemingly obvious categories, like the infamous row of “Sponge,” “Bob,” “Square,” and “Pants,” that prove to be nothing more than a red herring. Even more often, a word will appear to be able to fit in two different categories—and it is up to the user to determine which one is more plausible. 

The way Liu approaches categorizing for future games is likewise fascinating. She uses both Google Sheets and her personal notebook, chock-full of ideas. Each week, she types her ideas into a spreadsheet, which she finds great because “it lets [her] move words around and mix and match.” 

Wyna Liu proudly showing off her sketchbook with Connections ideas. Source: NYU Tisch

Liu also has her sketchpad—a giant one, to say the least—consisting of blocks of words and potential groups. Categories in earlier iterations of the puzzle might have been simpler, like palindromes and homophones, but these days, Liu finds herself digging deeper into the trenches of her brain and referencing popular culture. 

Ultimately, the appeal of Connections lies in its peculiar balance between order and chaos. Three things in life will always be true: death, taxes, and the frustration that Connections so often brings. But there’s also an immense satisfaction and a cult-like fanbase for the game, something that Wyna Liu is certainly very appreciative of. In her words, “I’ve learned so much from the people who play this game, and I’m grateful for the chance to keep building and growing it with you.”