

Letterpress by Loren Brichter of Atebits - tuhin
http://www.atebits.com/letterpress/

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tehwebguy
This game rules.

It's fun, it's easy to play and it's got the kind of interface that feels very
simple but actually has insane attention to detail.

Edit: You don't have to use only contiguous letters, if you've played a lot of
Scramble that may take some getting used to.

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nicholassmith
It's one hell of a good looking app and according to an article on The Verge
it apparently clocked in at under 7k LOC. Looking forward to seeing what comes
out of Atebits over the coming years.

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fieldforceapp
I really like this take on asynchronous gameplay UI, it's tough get the
"glance" aspect of the UI correct and yet make it compelling. The "Draw
Something" problem where you're drowning in partially played games perhaps led
to it's demise, a victim of the UI's inability to scale?

(Sigh... should have spent more time studying design / HCI in school...)

~~~
spartango
No one says you can't study it even now (except perhaps your calendar)... One
classic starting point is "The Design of Everyday Things"[1].

[1] [http://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Donald-
Norman/d...](http://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Donald-
Norman/dp/0465067107)

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wmeredith
Good lord the App Store search is lame. I get three results when searching for
"Letterpress" and this game isn't among them. In fact, I just spent about 5
minutes trying to find this game at all and I can't. Boo.

~~~
twootten
I think it takes a little while for new additions to get indexed into the
search. Links will take you there though...

[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/letterpress-word-
game/id5266...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/letterpress-word-
game/id526619424?ls=1&mt=8)

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whalesalad
Very fun/cool UI. It's surprisingly reminiscent of Metro, err, Windows 8 Style
UI. You could wrap an iPhone in some clumsy metal/plastic Windows phone
wrapper from a year ago and you'd have no idea what OS was powering this.

~~~
MehdiEG
I haven't tried the game yet but at first sight, it seems to be heavily
inspired by Meego Harmattan / Symbian Belle - a beautifully designed UI (at
least in its Meego implementation) that unfortunately never went anywhere due
to Nokia killing both Meego and Symbian before it was even released.

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haraball
Very fun and beautiful game, just tried it out. I also like the solution that
you can play up to 2 games for free, and then you can pay for it to be able to
play more at the same time.

~~~
masklinn
A very similar model to Outwitters's
(<https://itunes.apple.com/app/outwitters/id432969074?mt=8>)

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reiichiroh
Unfortunately, Outwitters was a sales disaster:
[http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2012/10/outwitters-sales-
disas...](http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2012/10/outwitters-sales-disaster/)

~~~
Steko
Outwitters main problem was the teams were functionally identical so there was
little point in paying for them. Yes the uber units were different but in
actual gameplay these weren't used at all. If there were other noncosmetic
differences, this wasn't apparent to me as a casual player.

I guess I spent around $20 in Hero Academy but I spent $0 for Outwitters, a
game of similar polish and quality.

~~~
masklinn
> Yes the uber units were different but in actual gameplay these weren't used
> at all.

That's not completely true, but it is true that they're not hugely common to
use: because of their price, misusing them will likely break you, whereas
using them does not usually have an absolutely critical impact on the game.
They may be slightly more easy to use in pair games.

> If there were other noncosmetic differences, this wasn't apparent to me as a
> casual player.

Nope, there aren't, probably to avoid the balance issues of e.g. Hero Academy.

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chrislloyd
I love the app, but this isn't how you win friends on the internet:
<http://cl.ly/image/0Y401a2D1c2R> ;)

~~~
wmblaettler
I am sure it uses a standard dictionary such as SOWPODS, which excludes proper
nouns among other things.

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verisimilidude
I'm going to love this game right up until someone creates a cheating
app/site.

~~~
jowiar
The game is far more strategy-dependant than vocabulary-dependant. The word
list comes nowhere near being exhausted on a given board within a game.

Now, is it possible to write an AI? Sure, and actually, an AI-contest for this
game would be a whole lot of fun. It's not simply "generate words" - you could
give everyone the word list and the game would still play well.

~~~
greenmountin
Not true, for example I've been ruining the game for the past couple hours
with a quick (greedy) AI.

Play a couple rounds with words like 'tetrasyllabics', where you completely
reverse their blocks, and people just give up :(

Actually, I'm hoping there's someone else out there doing this too, because
then I'll need to throw in the blocking logic.

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speg
I was playing this game all afternoon. Ten I came home and turned my phone off
silent. Wow. The attention to detail in the sound effects want me to go back
to my review and give it another star.

