Some little additions:

- The word list is scanned to find frequency of letters. This is then used to determine how many points each letter is worth and the chance of it being given to the player.
- Added a little status area.
- The player can drag letters onto the battlefield.

Updated screenshot:

[Metal Gear: The Roguelike]

Metal Gear: The Roguelike

I think this is a spiffingly splendid idea! Good luck Slashie

I'm trying to work out the simplest+fastest way for the user to tell the computer the word they want, the starting square and the direction

Click & drag, Daniel-san.

Click & drag is a good idea. It'll be simple to learn and feel like scrabble Ooooo and I wont need any controls on the window. Excellentness.

Ah, good to see another wielder of the shield of the @. Nice project Gentleman Robson

Thank you Slashie! I just wish I had time to work on it Since the last update I've been doing my real job and overtime everyday, including all saturday. Nothing happening today, but I'm completely exhausted. Hopefully I'll be able to do some stuff later.

Thanks guys!

The game can't automatically work out where to place the words, because there could be more than one location and words don't have to join up with others.

Random letters will be available for the user to make words from. When the player puts a wall down, the rarity of the letters is used to determine the strength, which is averaged out over the whole wall. For example, if you put down "qwexz" (probably not a real word!) you get a nice strong wall all the way across, rather than a strong wall with a useless bit in the middle. The wall also gets a strength bonus if it's connected to another wall.

The enemy soldiers appear from the top and then attack the walls. If they get through, they start attacking the castle. If they damage the castle too much, the level is lost. Each level will require the player to defend the castle for a certain amount of time, until the attackers give up and retreat. If they are successful, they go onto the next level, which is just a bit harder. The player gets a cumulative score all the way through and there will be a high-score list.

Enemy soldiers have to go around trees, but they can walk slowly through water. Placing a word down over a soldier squishes them

I'm trying to work out the simplest+fastest way for the user to tell the computer the word they want, the starting square and the direction. So far my best idea is telepathy, but I'm not sure how to write the code for that.

I've been super-busy writing code to handle the word list, store the battlefield and output the graphics.

Here's a very early version, where you can't really do anything:
http://iceyboard.no-ip.org/files/wotw1.zip (268kb)

Here's a screenshot, that's so hacked up I broke an axe while making it:

[Original Post]

Original Post

Wall of the Words is a combination of scrabble and castle invaders!

It will involve protecting your precious castle, by hurriedly shoving words down to stop the enemy soldiers. The game will be written in VB6 and I'll post the current build with each progress update, regardless of how incomplete + buggy it is

I've already lost the first week and I've got a ton of rl stuff to do before the deadline, so this is going to be very difficult. Will I rise to the challenge or fail in the most embarrassing and humiliating way?

Edit on June 1st

The game is finished! Download it here

Edit on July 24th

The enhanced version is finished! Download it here (722kb). Here's the manual.