I made this game. It’s like Boggle, but on a hexagonal grid. Try it out and let me know what you think!
I understand that the daily challenge is the same for everyone, but is it based on a randomly generated board just like the practice games? Sometimes the random boards have “dead zones” where there are two or more letters which can’t be used to form any words. That’s frustrating.
I think it would be more fun if the board was seeded with some words so that there will always be some very long entries. A randomly generated board is unlikely to hold a 10- or 11-letter word so the game is mostly a race to find 4- and 5-letter words along with the rare 6- or 7-letter word.
I would also suggest that you don’t allow plurals formed by adding S. There’s no skill in adding S to a word and you shouldn’t be rewarded for it.
I disagree. This is a standard in word puzzles and it would be strange and frustrating to disallow it. You can do this in Scrabble, and Boggle, and every word game I can think of playing. Recognizing that you can make multiple words with just one letter change is not just a skill, it’s an essential one. And a skilled and clever player is one who takes advantage of the easy ones before trying to make hard ones.
I wouldn’t be opposed to a reduced point value though if you just add a “s”, that seems fair.
My criticism is that after a while I start just doing random letter combos because there is no penalty for a wrong answer, so if you can’t find something you literally have nothing to lose by doing so and might get lucky. On the other hand, the interface for forming letters is awkward (especially on a mobile device) and it’s easy to make mistakes. I’d propose a penalty for a wrong word and give a “delete” option to prevent a simple and common mistake from hurting someone. (Something like an X next to the word you can tap to quickly remove a word you didn’t mean to spell.) Just a suggestion.
Yes, the board is just randomly generated, so it’s possible there would be no words at all. That’s an interesting suggestion for making the board more interesting, and I’ll consider it.
Regarding the -s suffix, I agree with Atamasama. Suffixes like that part of the language, and I think it makes sense that they be included. The point reduction idea is worth considering though.
I don’t want to discourage guessing. For one, you might look up a random correct guess and end up learning a new word. And I don’t want someone to see a word that they think is real but aren’t totally certain, not guess it out of caution and then afterwards see that it was a real word.
Also, the idea about adding a “delete” option to deal with typos (… dragos?) isn’t unreasonable, but it adds more complexity and more opportunity for mistakes. What do you do if someone accidentally deletes the wrong word?