Comments on: Letterpress - Word Game

Letterpress - Word Game

progosk — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 13:39:15 -0800

It's Boggle + Go (or Scrabble + Risk). It's by Loren Brichter. It's a wake-up call for Game Center. It's Letterpress - Word Game. (I know, it's Friday... sorry, Flash.)

By: furtive

furtive — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 13:45:01 -0800

It's the first time I've caught myself playing a game at work in five years, and then repeatedly caught myself playing it. I've also got about 15 games running concurrently, which makes me a pressmaster or something.

By: supercres

supercres — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 13:46:40 -0800

It's damned addictive is what it is. (Our Dear Leader agrees, I guess?) I can't think of how many times I force-closed and reopened to get around the Game Center issues last night. Everything seems to be running smoothly today-- no hangs at all for me.

By: No Robots

No Robots — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 13:48:35 -0800

S'long, Mrs. Robots:'-(

By: pmbuko

pmbuko — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 13:50:29 -0800

It's fantastic, and truly reveals how craptastic GameCenter (currently) is. I might have made it through one game (out of 20+ so far) without GameCenter errors.

By: chavenet

chavenet — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 13:50:46 -0800

It's a weird word game, in which letter rarity is not a sign of value (i.e. you don't get more for using X or Q or Z) and in which the endgame is absolutely key to the whole thing. It's fun, but I'm willing to be "that guy" who sez it's a flash-in-the-pan.

By: chavenet

chavenet — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 13:51:36 -0800

Yeh, GameCenter: you suck.

By: Sokka shot first

Sokka shot first — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 14:06:30 -0800

I lost twice and am having a hard time working up the desire to play again.

By: box

box — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 14:07:15 -0800

I'm deaccession on GameCenter, and I'll give it a shot.

By: furtive

furtive — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 14:08:12 -0800

I'm furtivecode on Game Center, and if it wasn't crashing again right now you could play me.

By: chatongriffes

chatongriffes — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 14:17:27 -0800

I have been playing constantly for the past few days--it's entertaining and definitely not the way I'm used to playing word games. Yes, yes, I play Words with Friends... My username is the same everywhere!

By: jeffamaphone

jeffamaphone — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 14:18:48 -0800

Yeah, I'm playing too with my mefi username in game center, but I can only play two at a time because I ain't paying till the networking issues are fixed. But its very good. It's also a show piece for what you can do with UIKit primitives.

By: me3dia

me3dia — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 14:20:14 -0800

I too am available for play, with this here username.

By: RogerB

RogerB — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 14:32:55 -0800

Game Center is so incredibly broken right now — I've been trying to play Letterpress against random Internet strangers (including kids who are palpably thrilled when they can spell "VAGINA") but it just keeps breaking or failing to update. I'd be apoplectic if this were my online-play-only game's initial release.

By: RogerB

RogerB — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 14:35:20 -0800

Still, this is a good excuse to put my GC handle in my profile — MeFites are welcome to hit me up for a game.

By: drfu

drfu — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 14:39:04 -0800

I can be found as _drfu_

By: kaibutsu

kaibutsu — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 14:39:53 -0800

(I totally bingoed through a triple word score in a recent scrabble game with 'vaginas.' I was stoked.)

By: adamrice

adamrice — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 14:49:34 -0800

I too am there, under this username. It is good.

By: danny the boy

danny the boy — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 14:51:57 -0800

This is the future, the Letterpress logo spinning, on your face, forever. ALL MY RAGE, GAMECENTER

By: ottereroticist

ottereroticist — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 14:52:28 -0800

Oh how Game Center sucks! Is there any way to play without it?

By: RogerB

RogerB — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 14:55:13 -0800

It's a weird word game, in which letter rarity is not a sign of value (i.e. you don't get more for using X or Q or Z) and in which the endgame is absolutely key to the whole thing. The game mechanics could definitely use a little refining, I agree; right now it's a fun fad and it'll continue to be a fun "casual" game with friends, but for serious strategy it's currently at least a little broken. Making long words is nicely rewarded, especially early in the game, but the small size of the board does make the endgame way too important — nearly all the non-ridiculous games I've played were decided by one or two tiles on the last move, obviating all the great word-making that came before. I imagine a larger grid could help with this, but it'd also be workable, I think, to reward players for holding on to tiles rather than just grabbing them at the final second. And like you say, it'd be nice if there were a way (perhaps another game mode) to make uncommon letters more valuable.

By: supercres

supercres — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 15:32:22 -0800

I disagree that the endgame is everything. You have to build to a position in which your good letters (common ones) are protected. If you leave me the opportunity to flip lots of Ts Rs and Ss near the end, that's your fault. You can also build in such a way to keep your opponent on the defensive and not able to attack back. It's a really good battle simulation: pick defensible positions early and expand from there, attacking where your opponent is dug in but vulnerable while maintaining your own defenses.

By: MarvinTheCat

MarvinTheCat — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 15:48:17 -0800

I'm MarvinTheCat. Play away!

By: St. Alia of the Bunnies

St. Alia of the Bunnies — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 16:00:31 -0800

Pepsi game?

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 16:01:16 -0800

I'm "ColdChef" and I don't really completely understand the game yet. So beat me while I'm still terrible!

By: SpacemanStix

SpacemanStix — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 16:36:11 -0800

I'm sure it's coming to Android at some point... but please, soon.

By: samhyland

samhyland — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 16:40:58 -0800

It's fun and yes the endgame is key. One of my last opponents with his 5x5 letter grid played SLUTS, POMES, VOYEURS, PLUMBERS, PERVY and PORNS as their first 6 words (and kept the game competitive). And I am: sam on the moon.

By: Pater Aletheias

Pater Aletheias — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 16:42:17 -0800

Okay, I'm in. Same username as here.

By: DaveP

DaveP — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 16:42:26 -0800

Huh. The fact that it doesn't have a computer opponent made me give up. I started my two free games, and both opponents promptly disappeared while I was still wanting to play. And then it crashed. Deleted. Maybe I'll try again with version 2.1.

By: Pater Aletheias

Pater Aletheias — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 17:04:24 -0800

I'm worse than ColdChef, so play me for a quick self esteem boost.

By: undue influence

undue influence — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 17:07:10 -0800

undue influence, and golly, I am usually bad at word games. There is also a MeTa where some usernames have been exchanged.

By: undue influence

undue influence — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 17:09:36 -0800

Rah, I just got smushed in my first game. It's hard. Will be adding mefites, just a heads up!

By: Songdog

Songdog — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 17:10:22 -0800

Same username for me as well, and enjoying Letterpress so far!

By: mr_roboto

mr_roboto — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 17:19:58 -0800

Random opponents so far are very weak. I'm gonna try some mefites. mr__roboto with two underscores.

By: Sokka shot first

Sokka shot first — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 17:22:14 -0800

I dunno man, this lady I'm playing just took RUTHLESS advantage of a tactical error I made.

By: jontyjago

jontyjago — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 17:38:16 -0800

I discovered Letterpress a couple of days ago and am loving it. What strikes me about GameCenter is how fucking awful the design is. So I'm in the pixelly-perfection of Pocket Planes or the minimal-loveliness of Letterpress and I bring up a GameCenter window and I get this jarring pseudo-baize-and-wood-pool-table monstrosity with some awful serif font, that might actually be Times New Roman. If it were Microsoft you'd expect it, but you would like to think Apple could come up with something a little more neutral and, you know, classier. Anyhoo, I'm rockmejoe over there so bring it on.

By: panaceanot

panaceanot — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 18:00:17 -0800

I've bought into the Apple ecosystem, but Game Centre is a steaming turd and someone should be fired.

By: gerryblog

gerryblog — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 18:27:44 -0800

I'm sold. gerrycanavan if anyone is looking for another game.

By: pravit

pravit — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 18:36:57 -0800

I've been watching an irregularly rotating letter E for some time now....is this like Zombocom or something?

By: rebent

rebent — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 18:57:10 -0800

can I play this computer game with... my computer?

By: RobotVoodooPower

RobotVoodooPower — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 19:00:27 -0800

I've bought into the Apple ecosystem, but Game Centre is a steaming turd and someone should be fired. Yeah. This will spook game authors forevermore, and there are cross-platform alternatives that work just as well or better. No one is going to code against GC without a backup platform.

By: caphector

caphector — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 19:39:07 -0800

None of my friends are playing yet, which makes me sad. Same name in Game Center.

By: 168

168 — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 19:49:13 -0800

I'm there as {168}, and the strangers I'm playing are all too weak. Let's play!

By: jkafka

jkafka — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 19:59:08 -0800

Unfortunately, I was really excited to see this game, but was crushed to find out you need an iphone, ipad, or i-whatever. That type of thing should be included in posts like these!

By: madcaptenor

madcaptenor — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 20:33:40 -0800

I'm in, same username.

By: brieche

brieche — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 20:45:42 -0800

Letterpress broke my heart earlier when I thought I'd won a game with INFECTED but actually missed an F in the top right corner. Also on notice: jerkfaces who resign right as you're about crush them with SKIRMISHED. I'm brieche on Game Center and up for games all day erryday!

By: aubilenon

aubilenon — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 21:15:52 -0800

I'm aubilenon on the shitty shitty game center. The first random match I played only has played "pussy" "wussy" and "jizzes" so far. Which is pretty awesome.

By: amapolaroja

amapolaroja — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 23:05:45 -0800

I am sourmae on game center

By: progosk

progosk — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 23:07:45 -0800

jkafka, tags are your friends.. With this avalanche of error reports/malfunctions and gamer vociferations (just played that ;-), I am pretty sure that there is going to be some Game Center shake-up, both graphical/UI and of who's in charge, in 3... 2... It'll be nice to say we were part of that. It really is gratingly excruciating (just played those, too - ha!)

By: progosk

progosk — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 23:18:15 -0800

Woah - the very cute (make avatars enlargeable!) labelIngenue just lured me in with WILL and AMOUR, but then, to my unhearing MOLYBDENUM and CATERWAUL, lashed out with FLAMBOYANCE, and trounced me with TRAUMATIC. Letterpress conversations... (make the opponent contactable!)

By: immlass

immlass — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 00:26:14 -0800

I need to sit down and try this but first I need to dig out from three weeks of other game notifications.

By: amapolaroja

amapolaroja — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 00:28:32 -0800

I upgraded so I could play more than 2 games at once

By: undue influence

undue influence — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 01:15:06 -0800

Wow, I am really bad at this. Play with me for an ego boost, I guess.

By: DigDoug

DigDoug — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 06:30:28 -0800

I'm digdoug502 (and very unimaginative) I just sent invites to a bunch of ya'll.

By: nicwolff

nicwolff — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 07:06:49 -0800

Needs a "rematch" option. Playing the random opponents, haven't lost yet! Same name there, ready for challengers...

By: nicwolff

nicwolff — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 08:04:43 -0800

Whoops, not the same name, I'm "Nic Wolff" on Game Center. Does anyone else have a permanent "1" notification badge on their Letterpress icon? Annoying.

By: Iteki

Iteki — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 10:23:32 -0800

Wait, I can protect letters in the course of two moves??

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 10:34:24 -0800

Best part of this game? Dirty words will totally play.

By: timshel

timshel — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 12:27:57 -0800

My username is catnipstrike. Add me!

By: speicus

speicus — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 13:00:46 -0800

I am speicus on Game Center. Disclaimer: if you play me, you will lose.

By: nicwolff

nicwolff — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 13:53:10 -0800

Best part of this game? Dirty words will totally play. Also the worst part – strategy compelled me to play the N-word last game and now I feel like a dick.

By: Joh

Joh — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 14:31:26 -0800

I am loving this game so much! I find it fascinating how hard it is for my brain to process that the letters don't have to be next to each other like boggle et al. I am beanbagjo on GameCenter, feel free to start a game with me!

By: timshel

timshel — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 16:07:12 -0800

I have now used "penises" as my starting word against two separate Mefites.

By: Jimbob

Jimbob — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 18:28:22 -0800

I like it. Been playing with Mrs Jimbob all night, and tried one random stranger who actually put up a fight and stayed to the end. I agree that rare letters should be worth something - a bonus point to the first player who uses them, maybe? But apart from that, it puts up a fun battle, and games don't drag on. Username's ozjimbob2 if you want to look me up.

By: RogerB

RogerB — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 10:33:27 -0800

The dictionary is a little weird. It allows SONTAG and PANTALEON as "words" but not PISSY or THEMATIZE.

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 11:07:45 -0800

Same username here.

By: logopetria

logopetria — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 11:37:15 -0800

nicwolff: next time, try GINGER.

By: pravit

pravit — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 15:31:57 -0800

Got it to work, this game is great! pravit726 on Game Center

By: mikepop

mikepop — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 07:30:15 -0800

mik3pop on gamecenter

By: danny the boy

danny the boy — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 10:27:56 -0800

OK, it seems to be working now. If you'd like to play me, I am fuzzysquid on gamecenter.

By: progosk

progosk — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 16:27:17 -0800

With this avalanche of error reports/malfunctions and gamer vociferations (just played that ;-), I am pretty sure that there is going to be some Game Center shake-up, both graphical/UI and of who's in charge, in 3... 2... ...1: Head-Apple-skeuomorph Scott Forstall has been ousted. Sir Johny Ive will now be in charge of software design, too. Now, how differently do you think his Game Center will look/work?

By: emelenjr

emelenjr — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 17:35:28 -0800

One game against an internet stranger and I'm hooked. emelenjr on Game Center.

By: Joe in Australia

Joe in Australia — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 21:04:54 -0800

I played the game but deleted it. One glaring problem is letter distribution - I had a game with three Zs and only two vowels, both of which were "O". Play "zoot" and you've also used up "zoo" and "zo", which LetterPress thinks are prefixes of, I suppose, "ot" and "t". I squeezed out "zoon" but "zoom", "dzo", and "oozy" weren't possible. Also, while trying to cover the z's and end the game I was forced to use small words, allowing my opponent to eat away at my margin. It doesn't seem well thought out.

By: chococat

chococat — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 08:35:27 -0800

Is there an etiquette that I'm missing? Should I be trying to keep the game going with lots of words or is it cool to try to win as fast as possible? It seems like many people choose not to use the last 2 tiles or so and win, so then I grab the tiles and beat them and feel kind of bad. I'm asking seriously if it's just a lame unfun thing to win quickly; I don't want to be that Draw Something guy who just writes the word.

By: RogerB

RogerB — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 09:02:42 -0800

My personal version of good etiquette would be the exact opposite — you should always go for it if you can. The games that go on forever because XQJZ remain unclaimed while you keep playing PASTING PESTING STEPPING back and forth forever (and then go back and add different suffixes when ING is used up) are way more boring than the quick ones. I wish the game were smarter about word stems so this wouldn't happen as much in the first place. But the way it works now there's usually a sort of strategic detente with about the last three uncommon letters unclaimed, and as soon as one or two of them go, it's fair game.

By: chococat

chococat — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 09:12:51 -0800

I agree that it's more fun fast. Although winning with "QI" is getting a bit old.

By: Hartster

Hartster — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 11:08:40 -0800

I'm actually quite enjoying Letterpress, and yeah, could do with playing some Mefites. There's nothing more annoying than starting a game against a random stranger, spending minutes of my life, that could otherwise be profitably spent reading crap topical gags on Twitter, crafting a strong opening, only to then see them fold the game straight off like someone who just isn't taking it seriously, damn it . And not even get the pathetic validation of seeing a win column increase by +1 in a statistics page. So yeah. I'm harhoo on Game Center and I dunno the etiquette really but I may start picking some people from this thread at random to challenge.

By: unliteral

unliteral — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 19:22:52 -0800

Just added a bunch of you, so bring it on. unliteral on Game Centre.

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 19:28:40 -0800

Best. Letterpress. Game. Ever.

By: lostburner

lostburner — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 00:01:56 -0800

But the way it works now there's usually a sort of strategic detente with about the last three uncommon letters unclaimed, and as soon as one or two of them go, it's fair game. If I'm playing a strong opponent, I often find the game in a state where we're trading the lead back and forth, with a couple of rare letters left unplayed that can't be used in the same word. Whoever is the first to break and use one of those letters ends up losing, because their opponent can snag the last tile with a long word and win the game. Games like that, where people are avoiding the last couple of letters, are about attrition rather than etiquette. It's cool emergent gameplay.

By: unliteral

unliteral — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 06:17:22 -0800

I upgraded so I could play more than 2 games at once My oath, 29 and I still have leachers.

By: mr_roboto

mr_roboto — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 10:38:45 -0800

I just realized I had the rules wrong! I thought that I wasn't allowed to play blocked tiles at all (which seemed how my opponents were playing, too). Turns out you can play them, but you can't convert them. Hrm.

By: unliteral

unliteral — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 02:09:39 -0800

By: nicwolff

nicwolff — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 08:35:01 -0800

Although winning with "QI" is getting a bit old. Play QIS and then you own the Q forever...

By: unliteral

unliteral — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 09:01:25 -0800

Depending on its position. Q can fool you.

By: Joe in Australia

Joe in Australia — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 13:52:52 -0800

Well, that suqs.

By: unliteral

unliteral — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 15:00:54 -0800

Sorry, can't respond, someone may have given me a tranq.

By: unliteral

unliteral — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 01:01:48 -0800

Seems 30 is the maximum amount of games. Congratulations to the siow players, you get the forfeit win, if you can call it that. Win I mean.