A new twist of the classic games Scrabble and Crossword by the name of Letter UP has been getting the attention of word game enthusiasts  since its launch in June 2013 at the Game Developer’s Conference held in San Francisco. The primary reason for the extraordinary interest is its live gaming feature. Players get to play in real-time, making the game not only a learning resource to test word knowledge but also an exciting form of entertainment and competition.

Letter Up Screen Shot

What is Letter UP?

Letter UP is a live multiplayer crossword game for 2 to 4 players. The main objective in the game to come out a winner is to score the most points by forming words horizontally or vertically using the given letters on a 15 by 15 square grid. It is currently available on Facebook.

It was developed by Hey Snails Inc. , an independent game developer. It has since become part of the Flow State Media Inc. family. The company has close to 40 years of gaming experience and massive franchises such as Call of Duty and Farmville. It is worth noting that the developers of Letter UP are two Filipinos namely Redentor Quiambao and Harold Khan.

letter_up_game_play

Rules of the Game

The rules of the game are pretty simple:

1.The online game uses the Tournament World List Dictionary. Words that are not allowed include proper nouns, hyphenated words, words with apostrophe, acronyms or abbreviations, and foreign words.

2. Each player starts with 7 letters. The first player starts at the center. The next player’s word must share at least 1 letter from the word already placed on the grid.

3. Players can change their letters. However, this results to turn forfeiture. Players can pass their turn but the game ends when all players pass.

4. There are 102 letters with specific distribution and assigned points. Specific squares on the board provide for multipliers which multiplies the players’ word scores as indicated. Multipliers can only be used once. A player is awarded bonus points for using all 7 letters in one play.

5. The final score is equivalent to the garnered points less the equivalent points of the unused letters. A game ends when the tile bag is empty and one player uses his or her last letter. Two consecutive passes for a player will also end the game.

Requirements to Play the Game

Those who want to play Letter UP will just need a web browser with the latest version of Flash Player which can be downloaded for free from the Adobe website. The best playing experience can be had for minimal computer specifications.

Letter Up picture

Game Time

What better way to discover what this is all about than to play the game itself, right? I let my two kids play the game. I played one set as well. There was not much constraints that involve waiting time and license boundaries. The time limit element of the game adds to the thrill. Players can ask for a rematch or start another game.

My Say

Personally, I’m not much into online games probably because I’m afraid it will take a considerable chunk of my working time. What I like about Letter UP though is that it is a kind of game that relaxes me even while I continue to learn about one of the most important weapons of a writer like me – the English language. It also makes for a good bonding activity between parents and children while making learning vocabulary more fun for the latter.

This is a game that can be appreciated by both adults and children. I have long known that reading helps in enriching vocabulary knowledge but seems like playing word Letter UP can add just the right dose of fun in it. Now off to one more round!