{"id":2575,"date":"2008-10-04T17:02:17","date_gmt":"2008-10-04T16:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.razorianfly.com\/?p=2575"},"modified":"2008-10-16T17:06:51","modified_gmt":"2008-10-16T16:06:51","slug":"sneek-peak-word-squares-by-imangi-studios","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arronhirst.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/04\/sneek-peak-word-squares-by-imangi-studios\/","title":{"rendered":"Now Available: Word Squares by Imangi Studios &#8211; [Updated]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><center><\/center><\/p>\n<p><center><strong>NOW AVAILABLE<\/strong>: <strong>[<a href=\"http:\/\/phobos.apple.com\/WebObjects\/MZStore.woa\/wa\/viewSoftware?id=292698925&#038;mt=8\">App Store<\/a>]<\/strong><\/center><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p>From the guys who brought you the extremely popular Imangi, and not yet available on the App Store, we take an exclusive look at Imangi Studio&#8217;s next puzzling iPhone title. Word Squares &#8230; <!--more--><\/p>\n<p><center><object width=\"400\" height=\"300\"><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/vimeo.com\/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1917423&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=&amp;fullscreen=1\" \/><embed src=\"http:\/\/vimeo.com\/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1917423&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=&amp;fullscreen=1\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\"><\/embed><\/object><br \/><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Deriving from an ancient concept, Imangi&#8217;s Word Squares takes you back to possibly before the Christian Era and brings a good ol&#8217; fashioned puzzler to your fingertips.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Aim<\/strong><br \/>\nThe aim of Word Squares is quite simple. Rearrange the letters on the playing board to make words, however there is a catch. Each board contains stationary letters which cannot be moved. These are symbolized by a bigger, white font. White letters are in their correct place in relation to successfully completing the board. To win a board, rearrange the letters until each line reading across or down makes a valid word. <\/p>\n<p>(Yes, we said valid, as in Oxford Dictionary valid &#8230;) \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p><center><script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\ngoogle_ad_client = \"pub-5492796339190081\";\n\/* 468x60, Article Long *\/\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"9201908648\";\ngoogle_ad_width = 468;\ngoogle_ad_height = 60;\n\/\/-->\n<\/script><br \/>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\n<\/script><\/center><\/p>\n<p><strong>Gameplay<\/strong><br \/>\nThere are four levels in which you can challenge yourself with Word Squares, these include: Easy, Medium, Hard and Expert. Each time you increase the difficulty, you&#8217;ll notice the playing board grows in size making it even more difficult to complete the board. When on the playing board, moving letters is as simple a touch and drag. Users can only move certain letters. Movable letters are shown in black. When a move is valid it is signaled visually by the board outlining it in yellow.<\/p>\n<p>Stuck? &#8211; hit the &#8216;Hint&#8217; button on the bottom navigation panel. The board will play a move automatically for you, bringing you ever closer to completing the board!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Screenshots:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Visuals and Sound<\/strong><br \/>\nBoasting a similar UI to the original Imangi [<a href=\"http:\/\/phobos.apple.com\/WebObjects\/MZStore.woa\/wa\/viewSoftware?id=284899739&amp;mt=8\">App Store<\/a>], there is one thing Word Squares won&#8217;t look, and that&#8217;s out of place. Imangi didn&#8217;t stop there though, adding to the small amount of titles that currently support it, Word Squares has sound! As far as we can tell, sounds are initiated on two occasions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>On a successful letter to letter move<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li> When a user completes the board<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>With it&#8217;s very visually pleasing UI which is both simple yet effective, game play can become quite addictive after a time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Game Options<\/strong><br \/>\nHitting the &#8216;Options&#8217; button on the bottom navigation panel brings you to game options. As expected, this very simple game only features very simple options. The two options available are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Turn game sounds On\/Off<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li> Hint Options<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Hint options offer four further options which include;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Start with no hints<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li> Start with a few hints<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li> Start with more hints<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li> Start with lots of hints<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Price<\/strong><br \/>\nWord Squares by Imangi is expected to hit the App Store before October 10th with an introductory price of \u00c2\u00a30.59p ($0.99). With the success of Imangi (their first title) I believe this will also be a hit, and with a price like 59p (the lowest physical price available to developers submitting to the App Store), its perfect for impulse buyers and fans alike. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Things we like!<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Great UI (very polished)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>iPod music can be played during gameplay<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Sound<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Improvements we&#8217;d like to see<\/strong><br \/>\nFrom testing Word Squares, we noticed the only time a user is notified of a correct move is when the user successfully completes the board. As the game works on the principle of word making, we&#8217;d possibly like to see alerts (both visual and audio) initiated when a user successfully makes each individual word.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Overall<\/strong><br \/>\nAfter using Word Squares for just over 3 days now, it&#8217;s a very puzzling title with enough challenge enclosed to make it worth it&#8217;s 59p. It boasts a very well executed user interface which seems to have the user at mind. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Availability<\/strong><br \/>\nAvailable in the iTunes Application Store world-wide for the iPhone and iPod touch starting in a few days (Hopefully before October 10th, 2008).<\/p>\n<p>Imangi Studios: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imangistudios.com\/\">Imangistudios.com<\/a><br \/>\nGrab your Copy: <strong>[<a href=\"http:\/\/phobos.apple.com\/WebObjects\/MZStore.woa\/wa\/viewSoftware?id=292698925&#038;mt=8\">App Store<\/a>]<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NOW AVAILABLE: [App Store] From the guys who brought you the extremely popular Imangi, and not yet available on the App Store, we take an exclusive look at Imangi Studio&#8217;s next puzzling iPhone title. Word Squares &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,16,17],"tags":[876,874,872,3501,498,875,873],"class_list":["post-2575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-app-store","category-iphone","category-ipod","tag-first-look","tag-imangi","tag-imangi-studios","tag-iphone","tag-puzzler","tag-sneak-peek","tag-word-squares"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arronhirst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arronhirst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arronhirst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arronhirst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arronhirst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.arronhirst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2575\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arronhirst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arronhirst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arronhirst.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}