DEcoDLE

01At a glance

02In a sentence50 words

DEcoDLE isn't a word game and isn't a rhythm game — it's both. Every guess must be earned by clearing an Acoustic Cypher, a beat-matching round before the row unlocks. Six attempts, five-symbol sequence drawn from an 8-symbol alphabet. Daily, Endless, Challenge modes. Free with $2.99 PRO. iOS + Android.

03In a paragraph150 words

DEcoDLE isn't a word game and isn't a rhythm game — it's both. Before every guess attempt, players clear an Acoustic Cypher — a beat-matching round where they tap symbols in time with a generated rhythm track. Get the rhythm right, the guess unlocks. Six attempts. Five-symbol sequence drawn from an 8-symbol alphabet.

Three modes: a Daily puzzle shared by all players, an Endless mode for continuous play, and a Challenge mode where players encrypt their own five-symbol sequence and share a DC-XXX code. Three difficulty tiers — Casual, Hard, Expert — including a Casual mode that makes the rhythm gate accessible to non-rhythm-game players without taking away puzzle rewards. The Diamond-tier FLAWLESS.EXE grade is reachable on any difficulty through a perfect-timing run.

Built in React Native by Ad Astra Vanguard Studios LLC. The Acoustic Cypher mechanic is patent-pending (USPTO #64/037,214 and #64/061,463, both filed 2026). Free with optional $2.99 PRO upgrade. iOS + Android. Live since April 24, 2026.

04The longer story500 words

DEcoDLE isn't a word game and isn't a rhythm game — it's both. The Wordle-likes of the post-2022 daily-puzzle shelf are almost entirely re-skinned word lists; DEcoDLE takes the format in a direction the daily-puzzle space hasn't seen: every guess attempt must be earned, not just typed.

The result is a hybrid that hasn't existed before. Each guess attempt is gated by an Acoustic Cypher — a quick beat-matching round where the player taps symbols in time with a generated rhythm track. Players have unlimited attempts to complete the Cypher; a clean run unlocks powerful bonus rewards, while a sloppy completion still advances the puzzle — just without the Perfect Sync bonuses on the line.

The puzzle keeps Wordle's structural clarity: six attempts, a five-symbol sequence drawn from an eight-symbol alphabet, color-coded feedback after each guess. The rhythm layer adds a second skill dimension and an entirely different texture to the daily run. Players who like Wordle for the deduction puzzle still get it; players who like rhythm games for the embodied timing get an additional reward loop. Players who like both — a smaller but genuinely served audience — finally have a game built for them.

DEcoDLE ships with three modes. Daily mode is a single shared puzzle that resets at midnight UTC. Endless mode runs continuous puzzles for skill-building and grinding the in-game grade system. Challenge mode lets players encrypt their own five-symbol sequence into a shareable DC-XXX code and send it to a friend — a social vector that turns the game into a creator surface as well as a consumer one.

The game offers three difficulty tiers. Casual mode keeps the Cypher gate forgiving — rhythm-game novices and players who prefer the puzzle over the timing still get full puzzle rewards, full Perfect Sync availability, and full access to the in-game economy. Hard mode tightens both the puzzle and the rhythm window. Expert mode is reserved for the highest-skill runs — human completions are rare. The Diamond-tier grade — FLAWLESS.EXE — is reachable on any difficulty through a perfect-timing run.

DEcoDLE is the first release from Ad Astra Vanguard Studios LLC, a California indie studio founded in 2026. The Acoustic Cypher mechanic is patent-pending under two USPTO filings — #64/037,214 and #64/061,463, both filed in 2026. The game is built on React Native and Expo, a deliberate technology choice the studio is happy to discuss with developer-press outlets.

Around the game runs DEcoDLE: The Journal Logs, a six-week serialized narrative campaign told as a back-and-forth correspondence between two in-game AI characters, :/AI+> and :/System>. The drip runs 120 episodes on X (@DEcoDLE_app) and culminates in a print companion of the same name, released June 12, 2026.

DEcoDLE is free with an optional $2.99 PRO upgrade, available worldwide on the App Store and Google Play.

05The mechanic — one-page explainer

DEcoDLE's central innovation is the Acoustic Cypher, the patent-pending mechanic that gates every guess attempt behind a rhythm round.

06The studio

Ad Astra Vanguard Studios LLC is a California-based indie game studio founded in 2026. The studio operates as a lean, mechanics-focused shop with selective collaborator work for music, art, and editorial — a deliberate scale designed to keep mechanics-first development possible. DEcoDLE is its debut release. Studio interests include daily-puzzle design, rhythm/timing mechanics, transmedia narrative, and AI-as-character storytelling.

07Around the game — DEcoDLE: The Journal Logs

Surrounding DEcoDLE is DEcoDLE: The Journal Logs, a six-week serialized narrative campaign told entirely as a back-and-forth correspondence between two in-game AI characters — :/AI+> and :/System> — who exist in the game's universe and emerge through the campaign's 120 episodes. The drip runs on X at @DEcoDLE_app and culminates in a print companion of the same name, available June 12, 2026 via Goodreads / Amazon. The print edition functions as both a standalone artifact and as a machine-legible archival surface for the campaign.

08Screenshots

All screenshots are from the current shipped v1.0.x — keyboard UI. The radial Pinwheel UI ships with the upcoming v1.1.0 Acoustic Cypher Evolved.

Hero

Cypher mid-round

Perfect Sync

Puzzleboard mid-solve

FLAWLESS.EXE end card

Challenge share

09Contact

• Pressadmin@adastravanguard.com
• Studio siteadastravanguardstudios.com
• Game sitedecodle.app
• X (game)@DEcoDLE_app
• App Storeapps.apple.com/us/app/decodle/id6762175972
• Google Playplay.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kallogic.decodle