Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Wyatt Webb and I am responsible for the engineering on the Windows Mobile versions of WordPop, Farkle, and Word Monaco. Todd mentioned that an update to WordPop is under way and I thought I should chime in a bit.

WordPop was our first Windows Mobile game and, as such, it is a little rough around the edges internally. I had a much better idea on how to tackle these types of games when we did Farkle and Word Monaco. So, not only will this next version of WordPop include new features and more fun, but it will be significantly remodeled on the inside, too.

That probably doesn’t mean much to the average user, but it will mean that future upgrades and maintenance will be quicker and easier.

I’m just getting started and I don’t even know all of the new features, yet. I’m looking forward to building them as much as I hope you all are to playing them. I hope to check in periodically to update you on my progress and the twists and turns of casual game development.

Smart Box Design is the proud sponsor of PATV91. Here is the latest from Sammy and his team. 

PATV91 – We want your thoughts on ebooks, Starsky & Hutch, Club Astraware, Astraware game development, CallPod, Neil on Palm Hardware, Thieves and Kings for Palm OS, Palmdoc Chronicles, Palm Discovery, Word Monaco Solitaire

In our 19 minute edition of PATV-91 we cover:

– We want to hear your thoughts on ebooks on Palm devices? Do you favour it? Or do you prefer to read books the old fashioned way? Please send your thoughts and we will read your thoughts on PATV – sammymcloughlin@gmail.com

– Reader, Mark Connelly thinks Jonathan Winter and I are like the Starsky & Hutch of PalmAddict

– We discuss Club Astraware and some of the benefits

– I like the look of CallPod but have some concerns about their pricing

– Reader Neil Tomlinson talks about Palm hardware and I have my say on some of the great devices from past and present. Read his thoughts in full.

– The Astraware Team Blog talks about Astraware Solitaire development

Thieves & Kings Solitaire for Palm OS

– Why Astraware does well at creating great games

– We take a look at sites we like today including Palm Discovery & PalmdocChronicles

– Smart Box Design’s game Word Monaco Solitaire is reduced at the moment, details here

– And a reminder about our weekend giveaway to win a Samsung Q1 UMPC, again the details can be found here.

We have started to work on wordpop upgrade. Very exciting.

 WordPop Pocket PC Game

Our 24 minute PATV edition 90 covers quite a lot today including:
– Reader Alan Price wants us to take a look at the Palm OS weather xWeather following Peter Arts review from the weekend.
– Jonathan Winter looks at SmartboxDesign’s game Farkle
– Reader Shelly Middleton sends in her views on Bible software and Biblical verse on your Palm device
– Reader Paul Blake writes in regarding Music on your Palm / Treo device, Jonathan Winter and I discuss
– Jonathan Winter talks about Mobile Office documents on your Treo

Review: WordPop — Time To Dust Off Your Spelling Hat
May 5th, 2007 by dgoldring

Everyone remembers the classic word game, Boggle. Mix up the lettered tiles, and slam the box to lock them in place (everyone’s favorite part of the game was slamming the tiles into place). Flip the timer and you are off. Whoever could make the most words out of the random jumble of letters won. Well, get your spelling hat ready, because Smart Box Design apparently remembers Boggle as well. WordPop is the 21st century rendition of Boggle, with a little bit of Scrabble thrown in to spice things up. It has everything you remember, including the fun of finding words in the jumble of randomly lettered tiles; and a lot of things you may not remember from the original game, such as the rotating board and helper tiles. So, sit back and start warming up your dictionaries for WordPop!

Installation and Registration: WordPop follows the standard installation procedure. Simply download the desktop installer and load the game onto your device via Activesync. Once installed, you can start 25 new games before you will have to register. (As an aside, Smartbox is among the most generous trial periods of any developer). You won’t need to play all 25 games before you find yourself clamoring for your wallet to buy the full version. If you are the type of person, however, who wants to feel like he got his “money’s worth” out of the free trial, then feel free to play all 25 games before registering.

Gameplay: WordPop is a basic word search game. Just select new and set the difficulty level to drop lettered tiles into the board. Each letter is assigned a point value based upon the point values assigned in Scrabble. Now, the hunt is on. Find words by linking adjoining letters. Note that the letters need not be in a straight line, as long as they are all adjacent to each other. Once you form a word, those letters will “pop” off the board. Clear the board to advance to the next level.

Three Levels of Difficulty: WordPop offers three levels of difficulty, which means anyone from the novice word finder to the advanced word sleuth will enjoy playing this game.

– In Easy Mode, you will begin the game with three blank tiles which may be used at any time. Each time you clear a level, you will earn an additional blank tile.
– In Medium Mode, you will begin the game with a single blank tile. Each time you clear a level, you will earn one random bonus tile.
– In Hard Mode, you will start with no tiles, but can earn bonus tiles as the game progresses.

Bonus Tiles: Since we are on the subject of bonus tiles, I’ll give you a little better explanation of how they work. As I mentioned, depending upon which level of difficulty you select, you may start with one or more blank tiles. These tiles are wild cards. They are worth no points, but can really help you out of some difficult situations (such as finding yourself at the end of a level with no vowels; or worse, a “Q” standing alone.)

Additionally, you can earn bonus tiles which already have letters on them. These tiles can be played at any time, and will earn you the same number of points as if that tile had appeared naturally on the board.

In addition to earning bonus tiles at the end of each level, you can also earn bonus tiles for creating words worth a certain number of points.

In Easy Mode, a word worth 40 points will earn an extra bonus tile.

In Medium, it is 50 points, and in Hard Mode, 60 points.

Of course, the obvious question is what if you complete a word worth double those amounts (80 points in Easy for example). Well, in that case, WordPop will award you a double bonus of two new tiles.

You can only hold onto three bonus tiles at a time. Don’t worry, though, if you earn a bonus tile while you are already holding three, WordPop will not forget about you. Instead, when you earn a fourth bonus tile, one of your existing tiles will turn into a blank wild card tile.

Scoring: Scoring in WordPop is similar to the game of Scrabble. Each tile has a number in the corner. When you form a word, the numbers are added up and then multiplied by the number of tiles in the word. In other words, if you spelled the word “eat”, the letters “E”, “A”, and “T” are each worth 1 point. Thus, the word is worth a total of three points. Multiply that by the number of tiles (3) for a total value of nine points. WordPop will even take care of all of this advanced math for you, tallying the score for each word as you go along. All you need to worry about is finding words and “popping” them off the screen.

Rotating the Board: Sometimes, you reach a point in the game where you seem to have no remaining options. Like children at a junior high dance, the vowels are all clustered together on one side, while the consonants are ignoring them from the other. It seems like the game must be over now. There is no way to form a word unless you can think of one that begins, “OIUAAEI”. I sure can’t. But all is not lost. In WordPop, you can rotate the board at any time, without penalty. Just hit the rotate button and the board will shift 90 degrees. What was the top is now the side, and so on. Suddenly, that “N” is next to the “E” and you have the beginning of another word.

Ending the Game: The game ends when you cannot form any words with the remaining letters. One drawback I found in the game is that you will not receive a message telling you whether there are any words to be made. The reason for this makes sense, it is because the rotation of the game board makes it impossible for the computer to anticipate all possible variations of the letters. Nonetheless, I found it slightly frustrating that there was not a message. Regardless, when you cannot locate any additional moves, tap the red “X” button on the right to end your game.

Sounds: I do not typically like to play games with the sound turned on. This probably stems from the fact that I am usually playing in public places, such as the train. Nonetheless, I was extremely disappointed by the sounds in this game. The background music plays only during the introduction, not during actual gameplay. During gameplay, a series of chimes sounds to alert you how you are doing. One chime sounds each time you select a letter. If the last letter selected completes a word, a second chime sounds. A slightly different chime will sound if you complete a high value word.

Additionally, although WordPop has a built in volume control, it can be a little tricky to use. Tap it once and the volume will be muted in the system control. Tapping it a second time should return the volume to its previous position. In order for it to do so, however, you must first set the desired volume in the sound settings menu. One of my main criticisms of other Smart Box Design games has been that the audio controls did not tie into the main system volume. Thus, the sound was difficult to control. WordPop seems to have fixed this problem, as the tie in worked extremely well.

High Scores and Best Words: WordPop does a great job of tracking your progress through the game. First, it tracks up to ten high scores for each difficulty level. In each high score, it will note the score you achieved, as well as the round on which you ended.

Additionally, WordPop will keep track of your best words. This is a list of the 10 highest scoring words you have played. My best word so far was “junta”, which earned me 65 points.

Conclusion: If you are a fan of word games such as Boggle and Scrabble, then WordPop is the ideal game for you. It is a fast paced and addictive game. It takes you from the highs of scoring a 75 point word to the lows of finding yourself stuck with “XVZI” as your final tiles, in a matter of seconds. Give this game a try, and before long words will be popping right out of your dictionary.

Vital Statistics:
Name: WordPop
Version: 1.01
Platform: WM 2003 SE
Also Available: WM5, Palm OS, Treo.
Developer: Smart Box Design
Distributed by: Smart Box Design, Astraware Games
Price: $14.95