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TumbleWords


lumoludo
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Greetings fellow devs!


My better half and I decided to start a game company, and we've finished our first game: TumbleWords

It's a word / spacial puzzle game. Like most word games, it's about spelling longer words to score more points. The game differs from others in that it is also about properly managing the board, as used letters are removed from the game. Manipulating the letters so that they get into just the right spot to spell those 14 letter words is the key to high scores. (It's more like 8 letter words for me, but some people are really good at these word games.)
If you're interested in checking it out, you can play it here:
https://lumoludo.com/tumblewords

If you've got an Android device and want to download the game, we have a hybrid app available as well:
http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lumoludo.tumblewords

Any feedback you have would be greatly appreciated!
 

A little about us, if you're curious:
I'm Mike, the programmer/designer, and I've had some experience in game dev before (both solo and in a more professional setting). *Completely* new to Javascript and web development, but decided to go with it anyway.
My lady friend, Jennifer, is the graphic designer. No experience in game dev at all, but she knows how to push a mean pixel.
We decided to try web dev and HTML5 games because we were following Chris Benjaminsen and his exploits starting up his FRVR brand. We're trying to emulate that business model (building a brand, monetizing hybrid apps primarily) as opposed to the sponsorship route, but we'll see how that goes. From browsing the forums here a bit, it doesn't look like the recommended route, so maybe we'll end up switching in the future.
While I've had a little experience building a game engine before, I did not want to go down that rabbit hole. We used the awesome Phaser engine to build TumbleWords, and we'll certainly be using it in the future. Major thanks to Rich and the other Phaser devs: You are the best.
For the hybrid app, I used Cordova to package everything up. Only on Android now, as the Apple app store seems to have a million hoops we're currently jumping through to get it on there.

I'm looking forward to sticking around and getting to know everyone. I have so much to learn about web dev, and it seems like there are a really passionate group of devs here.

 

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tumblewords-screenshot-2-small.pngtumblewords-screenshot-5-small.png

tumblewords-screenshot-4-small.png

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Thanks, Rich, I appreciate it!

Shuffling is pretty common, at least when I play it. I probably clear the board without shuffling one out of ten times. The penalty for it isn't *too* bad though, so it's not a big deal. It used to be real brutal: subtracting half your current points. You'd get all the way to the end and then tank your score just trying to finish the board.

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I tried the game a little and it works well. Great work!

I have some feedback:

  • It would be convenient (and look nice) if the tiles surrounding your selected tiles to be highlighted slightly.
  • The wood texture on the tiles should be either more subtle or removed because it is currently a little chaotic and distracting and takes focus away from the letters.
  • Love how the music gets dimmed when you open the options. I might borrow this :wub:
  • In landscape mode the shuffle button is dangerously close to the clear button.

 

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Thanks, Ed! I greatly appreciate the feedback.

I'll try highlighting the nearby tiles and see how it looks. That was a new addition to the tutorial, as people were misunderstanding how the letter connections work, so it would probably make sense to add it to the game as well. :D My only concern was confusing which letters were in the word versus which letters are available next. That will probably just take some experimentation though.

You're not the first to mention the wood texture. There are a couple things that we just didn't realize were issues I guess. We also had complaints about the tumbleweeds (which used to come across constantly) causing headaches... The next version will probably tone down those wood grains quite a bit.

I'll also take your suggestion and try spacing out those buttons a bit more. I certainly have the room to space them out a bit at least.

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