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Captcha: Protoype Complete w/ Rules

I've finished the prototype and playtested it once. Nothing was wrong with it other than how everything was to be carried out. I bought a $1 timer from the dollar tree. I can't turn it off so I don't know how long the timer will last. I bought 2 just in case. Also, I have Warmachine bases which I will be coloring and then gluing to the sand timer. This way, when the timer is stopped due to player incompetence (bad) or a player finishing a word (good), once play is ready to resume, players will (hopefully) have an easy time remembering which end the timer was placed.

This game is a fun, family game for ages 8 and up. Along with being an enjoyable game, I think this help kids with spelling, hand-eye coordination, and even simple math.

INSTRUCTIONS
==========

Setup
==========

Place all the tiles on a smooth, flat table, face-down.
Shuffle the tiles.
Place the Word Sticks inside the Game Box.
Each player takes a Word Stick from the Box.
Start the timer.

Game Play
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Once the timer is triggered, each player, using only one hand, flips tiles over. If the tile which is flipped contains any letter needed to complete their word, that player takes that tile and MUST place it on their tile rack. If it is NOT a tile they require, they must flip the tile face-down and continue on to another tile. Tiles marked with a " ! " are Wild Tiles; They substitute any 1 letter. Once a player has found all the letters for his word, if he has not already done so, he must place all the letters in their correct order to spell out his word. When completed, this player shouts "Finished!" and pauses the timer. At this time, all other players must stop searching for letters and may not rearrange their tiles. The player who completed their word, then shows the completed word on his tile rack and the word stick. The player then places his tiles face-down and shuffles all the tiles thoroughly. Finally, this player grabs a new Word Stick, without looking at the word, and starts the timer. If this player does not want to complete the word he has chosen, he may return it to the box and select a new Word Stick AFTER he has started the timer.

If two or more players finish their word at the same time, those players all show their work. Those player shuffle their tiles and play begins again when the last player has drawn their new Word Stick following the rules above.

Once time runs out, all players remove their hands from the table and begin scoring. No points are received for incomplete Word Sticks. These Word Sticks are immediately put back into the box.

Scoring
==========
Points are awarded by the number of letters a word contains.

3 points for 3-letter words.
4 points for 4-letter words.
5 points for 5-letter words.
6 points for 6-letter words.
7 points for 7-letter words.

Also, if you have the most words completed with a certain number of letters, you receive points as well.

1 point for having the most 3-letter words completed.
2 points for having the most 4-letter words completed.
3 points for having the most 5-letter words completed.
4 points for having the most 6-letter words completed.
5 points for having the most 7-letter words completed.

Any questions or comments? I think I'm pretty much ready to try it out again with these revised rules.
I have a few names for it now:
Word Scramble
The Final Word
Wordcraft
Letter Hunt
Tile Pile
Letter-riffic

Comments

Ballancing

I think the most difficult choices you are going to have to make will involve your point system and how many of each letter to have among your stack of tiles. You might be able to start with scramble letters because they have been fairly balanced to usage within English. For example there are many more "E"s than "X"s.

Your words might need to have points individually assigned rather than points for length. This is because words with "X" or "Z" might be more difficult to complete... but maybe they won't be because people will be more likely to leave them out on the table. But you still need to make sure you have an appropriate number of each letter. Two of each letter would be inappropriate.

I would start by looking at all the words you want to use on your word-sticks and count how many times each letter is used. For example just looking at this last sentence I used.... I-4 times , W-5, O-7, U-5, L-5, D-4.... I would probably do this by making an excel spreadsheet of some kind, because it will be really hard to count this all out by hand.

Now, another thought is that your game isn't really a "word game" in the traditional sense, because the words are given- it takes no knowledge of English to play this game. You can play this game without being able to read. You could technically re-theme your game into pictures of fish and whales that players are trying to find specific groups or schools (one red fish, two blue fish, a seahorse, and seven crab...) The game would play out exactly the same if you had 26 different types of sea creatures, populated to the same amount as your letters, and made into "similar" sets. In fact... who knows, maybe the game would sell better as a tile-grabbing fish-collecting game, or planets, or artifacts, or minerals, or space ships or whatever you want.

Good luck on your progress.

Regards,
Matthew Kiehl

http://mdkiehl.wordpress.com

I won't stress with the

I won't stress with the details since I'm on my break at work.

Letter distribution has already been balanced.
No word has more than 1 of the same letter. (some may have 2 of the same vowels)
Words included have been balanced to include every letter in the alphabet. (as much as possible)
I've gone so far to try to include every letter in every 3-letter word, 4-letter word, etc.
"!" tiles act as letter substitutes.

Letter substitutes... chicken substitute... soup.....
Alphabet Soup! That's what I'm calling my game! The Sticks look like wooden spoons!
PERFECT!!!

I do like the idea of planets and fish and such. If this takes off, I could go the way of Coloretto and Zooloretto and Aquaretto. Unfortunately, fish and planets are drawn which take more time to get on tiles. Plus, I have to draw it the same exact way every time. It would be much easier to stamp them or print them out and glue them. I'll need the funds for that, which I currently don't have. Thank you though.

Alphabet Soup

Hum... well. Sadly there are a few games with that title.

http://boardgamegeek.com/geeksearch.php?action=search&objecttype=boardga...

Nooooooooooo!

Nooooooooooo! lol. That's the first thing I said when I opened the link.

Since there are 5 different games and all but 1 were made 20 years ago, I'm not to worried about using the name.
Heck, the 2009 one has absolutely no information on it, nor a picture. Bah... alphabet soup sounds lame to me now. The magic is gone.

I'll just leave it as "CAPTCHA".... but can I actually use this as the title?

Carnegie Mellon University attempted to trademark the term, but the trademark application was abandoned on 21 April 2008.
(words only): CAPTCHA
Standard Character claim: Yes
Current Status: Abandoned because no Statement of Use or Extension Request timely filed after Notice of Allowance was issued.
2008-06-26 - Abandonment Notice Mailed - No Use Statement Filed
2008-06-26 - Abandonment - No use statement filed

Signs point to all clear, but I'm no lawyer.
Maybe just add something to it, like "CAPTCHA Crackers!"?

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