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Hey everyone, this is Vocabulus.

In Vocabulus, you find all of the words which can be made from a set of letters that have been given to you. Vocabulus takes this idea and polishes it as much as possible.

(http://i.imgur.com/ohND64jt.png) (http://i.imgur.com/ohND64j.png)

The idea has been done before. You can probably find a dozen flash games out there, and I found out that Bully even has a minigame like this in it. But I challenge you to find a game like this with:

• Silky smooth, solid operation. Vocabulus will accept input as fast as you can add it, and it feels great.
• Multiple game modes so you can play as fast or slow as you like.
• Selection of any word length that makes words.
• Real-time multiplayer

(http://i.imgur.com/Y5aQDtit.png) (http://i.imgur.com/Y5aQDti.png)

I want to get some feedback on Vocabulus now. It's gone through a lot and the development has been delayed a ton (years) because of personal happenings. I want to get this game out to people that can give me good critical feedback on it. It's a bit late to make any drastic changes, but at the very least I want to get some feedback on the game to see if I should finally finish it up and get it out there. Basically, the feedback I'm looking for is, "is this game good and should I finish it up".

There are still a fair amount of bugs, particularly with the multiplayer, but I don't expect many people to really try that out right now. Single player is pretty robust at this point.

A few notes:

• Linked is the XNA version. That means windows only right now. I have gotten a working MonoGame version in the past, which ran successfully on a mac. There are a few bugs with MonoGame so I'm holding off on that for now. I also don't have a mac to compile on, so that makes that really difficult.
• A lot of people have asked if this is coming out on a tablet. I didn't really think that it would be good for a tablet at the beginning because the game works best with a keyboard. I suppose I could port it to android/ios with MonoGame, but I don't know how well that would work out and I have no experience in it.

So anyway, please let me know what you think. Art is by Jason Cabral (http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?action=profile;u=46317) and music by Moritz P.G. Katz (http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?action=profile;u=46975)

Download Vocabulus (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/33679965/Vocabulus-Setup.exe)


(http://i.imgur.com/0gV2mSRt.png) (http://i.imgur.com/0gV2mSR.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/Iz0BHlHt.png) (http://i.imgur.com/Iz0BHlH.png)

I totally understand your reasoning about how this game is ideally suited to using a keyboard, but I think given the straight-forward/simple gameplay, porting this to a tablet OS would be a good idea.

My experience is that many folks only play simple/casual games on their tablets and this (like, say, Wordament) feels like a very tablet-friendly word game. The touch controls seem straight-forward (just tap a letter to add it to the word). Sure, it's slower than typing on a keyboard, but I don't expect tablet players to be at an elite level.

Anyway, just something to think about. Sorry I don't have any other feedback yet :)

I totally agree on that. Hell, even I would play my own game if it was on a tablet. Starting over from scratch perhaps I would make it tablet-first (though games ported from that are generally awkward and don't quite fit, like say, rymdkapsel).

The art wasn't designed for a tablet as well. Non-widescreen (and non-fluid) aspect ratio, small buttons and text at certain areas (like the book area). Not to mention that the state of tablet games is, in my opinion, awful right now, between "free"-to-play and not being able to find anything on the app stores.

But anyway, I do have to work with what I have right now. Maybe that's only as good as giving away the game. Maybe Vocabulus is in an irreversibly awkward spot. But I've put too much work into it just to have it sit as code on my hard drive.

Wow, it sounds like you really through the tablet thing through. Sorry, I wasn't trying to second-guess you--just wanted to provide a different perspective. I agree that the fixed aspect ratio is a pretty big hurdle (whether or not it's worth it is another question).

Anyway, I sat down and played the game and I was blown away. This is really polished! The music, graphics, and style are all great. The only sound I disliked was the "graph-drawing" sound after a round--that sound was pretty loud/obnoxious :). Note: I was a bit shocked to see the download was 56 MB. Not a big deal, but it did slow down my time from wanting to play the game to actually starting.

Unsurprisingly, I couldn't find any multiplayer games to play. I'd be very curious to see how the multiplayer modes work. In the past, I got semi-addicted to Wordament (on a tablet, heh) and this game feels equally addictive and the graphics/sound are much better. Maybe something as simple as just having a new round start from a central server (rather than having a bunch of "rooms") every 2:30 and allow players to drop in/out whenever would make up for the presumed lack of players (at least when starting out). I know this is not a small change, but I feel like it could make the multiplayer component very compelling.

Ok, so on to the part I think you're probably interested in: would I pay for this game? Honestly, I don't know. I'm a cheapskate, for sure (so take this with a grain of salt), but I feel like I don't really like to pay much for casual games. I don't know if this is a common feeling or not. On the flip side, I don't mind ads in casual games like this, so that would provide one avenue for some revenue (again, not a small change, but something to think about).

Either way, this game is very polished. Nice work on it and thanks for sharing!

Thanks a lot for taking a look and the detailed response!

Not at all! It follows completely naturally that a "casual" game like this would appear on a tablet. The game was started at the end of 2010, the ipad had only been out a half a year, and we just didn't have the foresight to put it on a tablet.

I know! That is totally a placeholder sound and I never pushed to get a real sound. Most of the rest are done professionally.

Well, for a standard 2d game that you'd find on steam it's about average I think. The installer is also bundled with XNA/.NET in case the computer doesn't have it. Between the art, music, sounds, it does add up though.

That's an interesting idea! The multiplayer is very "traditional", in the sense of rooms and lobbies and stuff. I realize it's a bit awkward, especially in this day and age. It was my first attempt at multiplayer in any form. The issue with what you're suggesting is that there are a lot of different options for multiplayer. In addition to difficulty, there are five game modes, totalling 15 ways to play the game, and then there are 20 different letter lengths. If we only take 5, 6, and 7, that's 45 different rooms that would be available... It really is a thought though. I wish the multiplayer were better integrated in the game. I'm amazed I was able to tack it on like I was. It's mostly for playing games with your friends I suppose :/

I think it's a pretty common feeling. Free-to-play has completely changed the financial landscape of video games. It's totally normal now to give out a game for free and then put ads in it. I hate-hate-hate ads though, so that's out. Additionally the game is in a really weird niche. The market for people who like PC games and like word games is quite a small one.

Again thanks for your input! I'm glad you felt it was really polished and smooth, that was the #1 priority with the game. I wanted to make a game like this, and push it as far as it could go.

Possible bug: it looks like the installer didn't create a link in the Start Menu (or at least I couldn't find it).

Also, it looks like this app throws an "access denied" exception if it is not run as an administrator (on Windows 7).