Daily Word Finder — Steven Espinal

Project Overview:

Daily Word Finder is an engaging iOS puzzle game designed to provide users with a fresh word search challenge every day. This project highlights the ability to develop native mobile applications, implement intuitive touch based interactions (specifically drag gestures for word selection), and manage the full lifecycle from concept to App Store deployment. Key features include three daily difficulty levels (Easy, Pro, Sweat), progress tracking, and a clean, user friendly interface incorporating smooth animations and subtle sound design for an immersive experience. The game emphasizes relaxed play, allowing users to solve puzzles at their own pace without timers.

Goals & Objectives:

The main objective was to design, build, and launch a polished mobile application for the iOS App Store. This involved focusing on creating an enjoyable and relaxing user experience, understanding mobile specific UI/UX patterns (particularly gesture controls for word selection), and successfully navigating the App Store submission and release process. Additionally, the project served as a practical application of mobile development skills and iterative refinement based on user feedback.

Approach & Process:

Discovery & Research: Initiated the project with research focused on iOS gesture controls and user interface best practices prevalent in popular mobile puzzle games to ensure intuitive gameplay.
Design Phase: Defined the visual direction by outsourcing the creation of the app's visual identity, including the logo, splash screen, and detailed Figma designs, which served as a blueprint for development.
Development & Iteration: Developed the application iteratively through focused development sprints. Translated the Figma designs into a functional native iOS application using React Native, implementing core game logic, gesture recognition, UI elements, and state management for progress tracking.
Launch & Deployment: Successfully prepared and submitted the application to the App Store, ensuring compliance with Apple's guidelines. Established a workflow for managing builds and streamlining future updates.

Outcome & Impact:

Successfully launched on the App Store, Daily Word Finder has demonstrated consistent user engagement, maintaining an average of over 10 downloads per week since its release. This indicates steady user interest and validates the focus on a polished, user friendly experience.

Questions I get a lot.

Why go back for a CS degree if you were already at $170k?

Because the work had already outrun the paperwork, and I was tired of that gap. I’d walked away from two schools already — Baruch didn’t even offer a CS degree, and by BMCC I was already writing production code, so sitting through intro classes for a piece of paper felt backwards. I enrolled at WGU in 2024, kept the full-time engineering job, and finished the B.S. in August 2026. Third school. First degree, eight years later than the “normal” path. I wanted the foundation, and I wanted to close a loop I’d left open twice.

How did you get hired without a degree?

I showed work. The first scripts were for my dad’s business in 2017, automating the data entry that was eating his week. Columbia’s coding bootcamp gave me three months of full-stack JavaScript and a cohort in 2019 — a program that doesn’t even exist anymore. PLNETWORKS hired me in 2020 on a portfolio, not a diploma. After that, each role was about what I’d already shipped: production bugs, HIPAA software, storefronts. The degree came eight years later. It didn’t open the first door.

What actually moved compensation from $75k to $170k?

Two years of shipping at PLNETWORKS, then a move to Cazton that roughly doubled it, then BrightInsight in 2022 — HIPAA-regulated software at $170k. Same skills, different rooms. The market paid for proof. I treated interviews like case studies of work I’d already done, not like a plea for a first chance.

Where are you from, and where are you now?

I was raised in Jamaica, Queens. First thirteen years in an attic. I live in Hell’s Kitchen now. The city didn’t get bigger. I just moved west of the same story.

How do you actually use Cursor and Claude?

As a tutor and a pair, not as a ghostwriter. I still read the diff. I still throw away the parts that look clever and aren’t. The tools make the boring parts faster so I can spend the hours on the decisions that have to be mine.

What would you tell someone learning to code right now?

Build something your family can use. Put it in public. Don’t wait for a school to bless the start. I dropped out twice, then finished. Both of those were the right call at the time.