The
Letters Game is a simple game in which two or more players try find the
longest word they can make from a collection of 9 letters in a given
time. The person who makes the longest word is the winner of the
round. Each player also requires a pen and paper. It also makes a good pastime for one person, no pen or paper required, particularly when using the Push and Save variation (see later).
Playing
the game
The players first agree
how long they should have to find the longest word in each round. By
default, a time of 30 seconds is allowed, but the players can choose to increase or
decrease this by 15 second increments by pressing on the + and -
buttons. They should also agree how many rounds they will play (or
when they will stop playing).
To play a round, one player presses the New
button. That player then
chooses nine letters, vowels or consonants, one at a time by pressing the appropriate
button to select and display each one. Once all 9 letters have been selected,
a countdown starts. The players
then have to try to find the longest word (at least two letters) from the
letters available, and write this down. No
letter can be used more than once, unless, of course, it appears more than once.
So,
if the letters are: A, E, E, L, O, P, S, R, X the word SLEEP, with 2 Es,
would be valid, but SLEEPS, with 2 Ss would not.
If
players write down several words they must make clear which word they are
making their final answer with a cross or a tick.
Any
word may be challenged - players should agree which dictionary is
to be used to resolve challenges. The
players with valid words each receive 1 point for each letter in their
word, while the player with the longest word gains a bonus of 5 points;
if two or more players each have the longest word,
then each receives the bonus.
Players take turns at
being the one to select the letters.
Letter distribution
When selecting vowels and
consonants, the system mimics the idea of having two sets of shuffled card
packs, from which it takes the top one whenever a selection is made.
The distribution of letters is not even (e.g. more Ns than Qs, and more Es than Us). You can see the distribution of letters in the standard game in the table below (the letters for a pushed word are additional):
New game
Pressing the New button clears the playing board and starts a new game.
Practising
You
can, of course, play the Letters Game in practice mode by yourself.
Push and Show
The two buttons at the bottom, Push and Show, allow you to play a variant of the Letters Game.
The Push button behaves like the New button to start a new game, but with a significant difference. Instead of just using randomly selected letters, a 7-, 8- or 9-letter word is selected from the built-in dictionary. The jumbled-up vowels and consonants in this are then put to the top of shuffled packs ready for you to select. The idea is that you then know that a long word is available for selection, so you should be carefully studying the letters as they are shown to try to determine what the word might be, so that you can choose a vowel or consonant next as appropriate.
Now, since you control the selection of vowels and consonants, it is quite possible that you will miss selecting some of the letters of the word being pushed at you. Once you have selected all 9 letters, the system will inform you in the text field above the buttons whether you have got all the letters of the pushed word, 'Got it!', or whether you have failed to get all the letters of the word, 'Missed it!'.
You can then play the game in the normal way, or you might just want to focus on determining what the pushed word was if you 'Got it!'.
Once all 9 letters have been shown, you can choose to press the Show button at any time. This will display the word that was being pushed - in grey if you 'Missed it!'.
Terms of use
This software may be used for personal purposes only. It may not be used for commercial purposes.
The software, code and script of this application may not be copied or be distributed to others.
The software, code and script may not be altered in any way.
Copyright of the software, code and script, and its
help
documentation, is held by TopAccolades Limited. No part of
the software,
code, script or documentation may be copied or used in another application or
document.
Although
every effort has been made to ensure that this software functions
as intended, TopAccolades Limited provides no warranty of
merchantability, or
fitness for a particular purpose, in relation to this application or
its
support.
TopAccolades
Limited shall not be liable for any damages whatsoever arising
out of the use of or inability to use this application or the
provision of
or failure
to provide support.
Copyright TopAccolades Limited www.topaccolades.com
Version: 3.0 (20170327) Scale:
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