WordShapes - How To Play

- The basics
- The "..." patterns
- Scoring
- Controls
- Adding words
- Whose guinea pig?

How to Play

Click on words to match the target word shape.

The smallest boxes match letters we write half a line high, such as "a" and "o". Letters like "t" and "N" match higher tall boxes, and "g" and "j" fit in lower tall boxes.

"i" and "j" are tricky because of their dots. For this game, "i" is small and "j" is low.

The "..." Patterns

Sometimes the target shows a "..." and some fixed letters. That means the match must have the fixed letters in it, but the "..." could match anything.

pattern	means	matches
a...	"a" is the first letter	ate and
...e	the word ends in "e"	ate bike
...ed...	letters "ed" appear somewhere in the word	edit redder bed

The Score

For each correct match, your score goes up. To get the most points, pick the word the first time it scrolls by. You lose points for picking a bad match. As the level goes up, you get more points for each correct match.

There are four rounds to a level. If you don't get too many wrong, the next level is harder, and the picture changes. For the highest score, you need to do all levels. But you can skip to harder levels if you want.

The game ends when it runs out of levels, or you've done the same level 3 times without advancing to a harder level.

High score is only your high score within the current web browser session. The game doesn't remember scores from yesterday, etc. A later version will probably change that.

The Controls

The icons over the word list control the game. They can make it harder or easier.

	Pause word scrolling
	Continue word scrolling
	Scroll faster
	Scroll slower
	Skip to harder level
	End game Also, start new game

Adding Words

Click on the "Add My Words!" menu at the top left to include your own spelling words in the game.

Tip: Type your words into a file and save the file on your computer. Then copy/paste your words into the menu.

After you close the game, it won't remember your words anymore, and you don't want to type them in again.

Whose Guinea Pig?

That handsome boar is Penny, my daughter Sarah's guinea pig. We saw the turtles in St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The rest are stock photos - we never met those animals.