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Global High Scores are Cool

wordpop_globalhighscores75.jpgFor the last month, the team has been working on Global High scores for WordPop for the iPhone and iPod Touch.  A real challenge was how to lay out the screen. Wyatt was driving the effort and through several iterations with Jim and I, a series of screens were created and tested. The driving goal of the High Score screen was to allow players to easily and quickly compare their scores to other players. It was complicated because we have three different scores, Easy, Medium, and Hard. It was a lot of information to squeeze into one page. It was tempting to split this to separate screens. The feedback from our testers to Wyatt was very helpful and I am very pleased with the final vesion. 

 A feature we added that is not new, but not seen too often, is Today scores. Typically, All Time high scores are posted and compared. However, I wanted new and occasional player to see how they are doing in comparison to others. The Today High Score posts scores from the last 24 hours, Pacific Time. It has been great fun watching the Easy, Medium, and Hard lists fill up through out the day.

 An interesting side note in releasing a Global High score feature.  Our first version was rejected by Apple as violating their privacy policy. We assumed the term Global High scores was enough to alert players that their scores are being posted to the net. Scores are considered private data by Apple, so we needed to add some language alerting the player is a more transparent way. Although Apple was more strict than I liked it did push us to be more creative in our presentation.

I highly recommend all owners of WordPop for iPhone to upgrade to the latest version. It is free and the new feature is a real incentive to get those high scores. I know during testing that I really wanted to beat some of the other scores I saw.

Click here to download the latest version from the Apple Store.

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Diet WordPop! – Free Version of WordPop! for the iPhone

wordpop_game_diet.jpgWe are thrilled to announce Diet WordPop! Same great game but with fewer calories. Diet WordPop! provides a risk free experience of the game and if you fall in love with it and want the full version, we’ve included a convenient buy button right in the game. If you don’t want to upgrade, but love the free version, we hope you tell your friends, family, and co-workers about WordPop!

Get the free version here.

Features

  • Unlimited play, the fun never ends
  • Unique blend of strategy puzzle and word-creation
  • Word List with 80,000+ entries
  • Beautiful Graphics
  • Help section with rules and scoring
  • Shake to rotate game board to mix the letters
  • Fewer calories but fully entertaining.

We love receiving suggestions and comments. Email us at support@smartboxdesign.com.

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WordPop! for iPhone – FREE Update

This month we created our plan for updating WordPop for the iPhone features for the next few months. We started with a minor release on Friday. Although the changes were minor they are very important to our long term commitment to making the best word game.

  1. Added “Suggest a Word” – We’ve been wanting this ability from a while now. Even though we have an 80,000 plus word list there is room for growth, especially in industry specific words, such a medical or accounting. The Suggest a Word selecting in the main menu, provides a quick and convenient method for sending us words to consider.
  2. Added user suggested words – We are dedicated to improving the word list on a regular basis. Announcing this in this recent build was our way to let everyone know, that we appreciate your suggestions and hope they keep coming.
  3. Updated “How to Play” – For new players and for those who want to learn more about the game we added more detail to the help file and graphics. The graphics are especially helpful as they explain visually the directions.

Select Updates in iTunes to get your FREE upgrade.

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Steve Jobs – Get Well Postcards

sbd_allthebest.pngSteve Jobs is currently on a medical leave of absecne from Apple, Inc. In a show of support a postcard campaign was started and we were asked to participate. Below is the card created by our artist Jim who converted our iPhone game title page. We know that post cards do not heal but reading them and reflecting does help make the time go by quicker. We wish Steve a speedy recover.

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