Gobble - a word finding game

Gobble is a fun game that develops cognitive, observation and language skills. It is a version of the traditional word finding puzzle, where the player tries to identify as many words as possible on the alphabet grid during a limited time.

The game can be played in a single player mode, so that the player points out the found words on the grid, and tries to achieve a maximum score by finding as many words as possible before the time runs out. Alternatively, several players can play together around a single smartphone or a tablet. During the countdown, each player writes words down on a piece of paper. After the countdown ends, words can be highlighted on the screen to demonstrate how they were found and to verify the points they give.

To start playing the game, click the play button and a fresh selection of letters is created. Select settings to change game duration or base language. Language setting changes the frequency of letters appearing on the grid, making it easier to construct words in a specific language. Currently, Finnish and English are supported.

During and after the countdown, you can highlight words on the grid by clicking the cubes. The words can be composed of letters so that a following cube is adjacent to the previous one (up or down, left or right, or diagonally). A cube can be used only once per word.

To select the word to be included in the list of found words, click the green check mark, to cancel select the red x. A word can be created and added to the list only once, even if it could be constructed several different ways. Words already added to the list can be removed by swiping right over the word.

Scoring is based on word length, the longer the word, the more points it gives: Three and four letter words give one point, five letters gives two points, six letters three, seven gives five, eight gives 10 and nine and above gives 14 points

Gobble was created as a case study to build an architecture web and mobile applications using HTML5. The goal was to evaluate a suitable combination of available JavaScript frameworks, and to experiment if web technology building blocks could be used to produce a visually appealing and responsive user experience.

Gobble is built on several JavaScript frameworks and open source components, most notably Backbone.js and Marionette. The Android application was created using Phonegap. To find out more about the architecture, check http://makipaa.org/gobble/about