Chain's on animals, then shifts to foods mid-word — the last letters carry over (two of them in Expert mode), but the category doesn't.
▶ Play Chain GangThe hook
Shiritori is a lovely idea that gets stale fast because any word ending in the right letter will do. Chain Gang tightens the screw two ways: you need the last two letters, not one, and the category silently shifts every few links, so the word that saved you last round won't save you this one. Layer a talking countdown on top — the timer starts the second the phone lands in your hands — and a simple word game turns into the thing that actually gets loud in the back seat.
A sample round
Hand the phone to Kabir — say a word before the buzzer
1 · Phone lands on Kabir; the timer starts instantly
2 · The talking timer doesn't slow down for hesitation
3 · Elimination lands; the chain moves on without him
How a round plays
- The app shows a starting category and a starting word.
- On your turn, say a word in the current category that starts with the last two letters of the previous word.
- A talking timer starts the instant the phone reaches you and counts down out loud — hesitate past zero and you're out.
- Every few links, the category silently shifts (animals to foods, foods to countries); the required letters carry over, but what counts as valid doesn't.
- Last player still in the chain wins the round.
Why it's sticky
The shifting category is the whole trick: veterans who've built a mental list of "safe" ending words get punished the moment the topic changes under them, which keeps a 13-year-old and a parent on genuinely even footing. The out-loud countdown does the work a silent timer can't — it's the sound of the pressure, not just a number, and it makes eliminations feel like a live event rather than a rules check. Five minutes is exactly enough for one loud, chaotic round before someone demands a rematch.
Modes
- Classic elimination — last player standing in the chain wins.
- Team relay — teams alternate turns; a team is out only when every member has failed.
- Kids mode — chains on the last single letter instead of two, gentler category shifts.
Build notes
Size: S. The shared shell provides the pass-the-phone handoff, the elimination scorebar, the how-to-play screen, and the countdown-timer component wired to Web Speech so it counts down aloud. Game-specific work is a chain-validity checker (word-list membership plus a two-letter prefix match against the previous word) and the shifting-category deck, which has to know which category is active at any given link without telegraphing the switch. Round state lives in a plain JS module (current word, active category, players remaining) so a future "race the clock solo" or link-based turn mode can reuse the same validator.