A method of playing a word-puzzle game for one or more players, comprising:
- a. A n×m grid (the board) initially filled with blank (or black) tiles;
- b. A tray which will contain p tiles, each representing a letter of the alphabet;
- c. A bag filled with tiles, at least one for each letter of the alphabet, but preferably with a number of tiles for each letter corresponding to the frequency of each letter in the chosen language of play (for example, a higher number of A-tiles compared to the number of Z-tiles if playing in English), each letter also being assigned a point value, preferably inversely proportional to their frequency in the language of choice (for example, a higher number of points for the letter Z than the letter A);
- d. A sequence of p×r letters, where r is the number of rounds to be played, determined in advance of game play by randomly extracting letters from the tile bag, such sequence to be used by all players of the current game;
- e. A set of rules to determine a valid board, i.e. that words need to be included in an agreed upon allowable word list, that words need to interlock (share exactly one letter with another word on the board), and that words need to be unique (no more than one occurrence on the board);
- f. A scoring system which assigns points to each word, e.g. as the sum of the letter-points forming the word (letters at the intersection of two words will thus be counted twice);
- g. Rules to assign bonus points to words, for example doubling or triple-ing the score of the word for longer words, as well as a special bonus for using all the letters in each round;
- h. Optionally, a parking tray which players can use to temporarily store some letter-tiles while rearranging words on the board;
- i. Rules to play a pre-set number r of rounds of the game, each round comprising the steps of:
- i. Refilling the tray from the letter sequence with a number of letter-tiles equal to the number of letters used in the previous round (or p tiles in the first round);
- ii. Moving tiles from the tray to the board, and across the board, to form interlocking words;
- iii. Completing the round when the board is valid according to the rules above, and advancing the game to the next round;
- iv. Assigning points to the player in each round, according to the scoring system and bonus points described above;
- v. Declaring the game puzzle solved if the player has completed r rounds and used all the p letters in the tray in each round;
- vi. Assigning a final score to the game by adding the scores in each round, plus any bonus points, according to the rules above;
- j. Rules for a plurality of players to compete for the highest score in a tournament, in which:
- i. The tournament begins and ends at predefined times (for example, at the same time each day);
- ii. All players are given exactly the same sequence of letters to be played across all rounds (if the tray is of size p and the number of rounds to be played is r, the letter-sequence will have p×r letters);
- iii. The game of each player is scored according to the scoring system and bonus points described above, and their score is published in a tournament leaderboard, accessible to all players;
- iv. Players can re-play the game during the tournament duration to improve their score;
- and
- v. At the end of the tournament, one or more winners are declared as the players who have scored the highest number of points.