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Word Ace: Available Now for the Pre & iPhone/iPod Touch
selfawaregames
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hey, all. Thanks to the PA crew for wanging the selfawaregames.com server. There's a tradition we're surprised and glad (and also not glad!) to be a part of. 
The interest, is, of course, greatly appreciated. And while our server crawls off to the corner to mope for a bit, I figure I'd let you know that... uh... there's not actually much info on Word Ace there yet anyway!
We're cranking away in the last stages of development - testing, polish, all that jazz. We've got screenshots & a press release we're planning on sending out tomorrow, which'll show you a bit of what the game's like. I'll definitely post the details here as soon as I can.
If you're interested in Taxiball, it's about as simple a concept as a game can be - Crazy Taxi + Marble Madness. Got a retro style & an all-vocal beatbox soundtrack, and is available on iTunes now! The iTunes page has as much info as the website - hopefully when our blog comes back online, you'll check it out. Some weird stories about development, a little behind-the-scenes stuff, etc. Oh - speaking of behind-the-scenes stuff, there's an Instructable about designing and implementing the game's weird all-beatbox soundtrack.
Thanks again for checking us out, and we hope to play Word Ace (and Taxiball) with you soon!
seppo
The interest, is, of course, greatly appreciated. And while our server crawls off to the corner to mope for a bit, I figure I'd let you know that... uh... there's not actually much info on Word Ace there yet anyway!
We're cranking away in the last stages of development - testing, polish, all that jazz. We've got screenshots & a press release we're planning on sending out tomorrow, which'll show you a bit of what the game's like. I'll definitely post the details here as soon as I can.
If you're interested in Taxiball, it's about as simple a concept as a game can be - Crazy Taxi + Marble Madness. Got a retro style & an all-vocal beatbox soundtrack, and is available on iTunes now! The iTunes page has as much info as the website - hopefully when our blog comes back online, you'll check it out. Some weird stories about development, a little behind-the-scenes stuff, etc. Oh - speaking of behind-the-scenes stuff, there's an Instructable about designing and implementing the game's weird all-beatbox soundtrack.
Thanks again for checking us out, and we hope to play Word Ace (and Taxiball) with you soon!
seppo
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Thanks!
seppo
seppo
I hope you get a chance to check it out! It's available here, and costs you $0!
Thanks!
seppo
How is it on the iPhone but not the Touch?
FYI, Tycho wrote about this in today's newspost:
Anyone with an iPhone or Pre needs to check this out. You can also play online multi with friends, with Wii-styled Friend Codes—if anyone wants to play me, my FC is 57356!
Last weekend I got stuck in dead-stopped traffic for about two hours on the way home from visiting my parents, and all I know is that if it weren't for Word Ace, I would have gone absolutely insane. Seriously, everyone needs to try this one out. You don't even have to be a good speller, since the Texas Hold Em style of the game lends itself to bluffing and psyching people out when the pots get large. It's really lots of fun.
Oculus: TheBigDookie | XBL: Dook | NNID: BigDookie
Thanks, Lunker, as well.
Inksplat - the deck composition is on our blog - http://www.selfawaregames.com/blog
Hope to see you all online!
seppo
Oh, awesome! You guys are definitely generous--I'll have to return the favor by buying some chips. :P
Have you guys considered selling getting into the "real world" market with this game? I'd definitely buy a good quality physical deck of these cards.
Done and done, re: title. Thanks!
re: WAP, the *only* differences are:
* Ability to do in-app purchase - this is a requirement on Apple's part - you can't do in-app purchases on free games.
* In-app purchases will include both additional chip packages, and the ability to donate to support the game in exchange for an icon by your name for 30 days that indicates you're a supporter
* A shiny gold WA icon
* A little gold "Pro" next to the WA logo
That's it. It'll cost $1, but in exchange for the hassle of downloading another app, we'll give you 12,000 chips for that dollar, instead of 10,000.
Word Ace Pro will be going live on 9/8. It's already approved, but we wanted to wait a couple days after launching WA, to make sure that all the kinks were ironed out before we accepted anyone's money.
Thanks!
seppo
However -
1) Dependence on the mostly arbitrary official scrabble dictionary (or whatever, I was told its something called TWL) is annoying. I don't see why names like Tony or Heidi or places like China or Texas can't be considered valid words. Doesn't make any sense. I mean, woot got added to the dictionary, but even if it hadn't, enough people can verify that Dingo9774 didn't just make it up on the spot. So who cares. I got boned with "zen" going all in on a huge pot that I ended up losing on a technicality. Which brings me to my second point -
2) If you *have* to restrict the valid word set to some arbitrary dictionary, can the game at least verify your entry before the hand is concluded? If I want to use "zen" but its not going to accept it, can it just give me a raspberry when i press "use this word" and force me to enter something else? I went through four betting rounds thinking I was slow playing my opponent to the largest pot in history only to find out later I'd been throwing my money away the entire time.
We chose the TWL because it's the most common competition word game dictionary by far. That or SOWPODS, which is essentially the TWL, which is the American Scrabble dictionary, and the British Scrabble dictionary.
We can't do names as valid words. There's just no way to reasonably distinguish between common names and uncommon names. Is it valid that "Fred" is a valid word, but my name, "Seppo" is not?
We need to create understandable, clear standards, and the easiest way to do that is to use the most common standard available. The core rules are simple - no proper nouns.
More information is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_Tournament_and_Club_Word_List
Regarding your suggestion about verifying entries prior to submission, that's a conscious decision we made. We don't want to have people able to verify their words, because a huge part of the strategy is spelling the *right* words. There are a LOT of times where I have a 5-letter word, and *might* be able to extend it to 6 letters, but I'm not 100% sure it's a word. That stress is part of the game that we want to keep. Losing is part of that, but we think the TWL provides a standard enough baseline that people can make those sorts of judgments.
Sorry you lost the hand, though!
seppo
Yes. Yes we are. When we got all our legal protection for the game, we made sure it extended into the "real world" game space, so that we could print decks. We've got a *gorgeous* cardback design, and if you look at the cards closely, they're pretty snazzy looking. So we're planning on doing a print run of real decks, and seeing how that goes.
We'll post it to our blog when it happens, but it's probably a month or two out.
seppo
Awesome. I'll definitely be grabbing a deck or two when that happens, considering I'm currently planning on printing some out on those perforated playing card sheets you can buy. But I'd much rather have something of better quality than what could come out of my own printer. :P
Harry is an actual verb, though—it means "to hassle or harass."
Thanks!
seppo
(yeah, what Lunker said!)
I know english but I cannot speak it good.
seppo
“What’s Word Ace Pro?” you might ask. You’ve been playing Word Ace, after all - what’s left out of Word Ace that shows up in Word Ace Pro? What do you get for that $1?
Here’s what you get:
* A shiny app icon (pictured above)
* A little gold “Pro” by the Word Ace icon
* 12,000 chips
* In-app purchases are enabled
That’s it. Word Ace has *everything else* that Word Ace Pro has.
So, why Pro? The basic issue is that Apple only lets in-app purchases work for paid applications. So if you have a free app, you can’t have in-app purchase! So we need to charge something for Pro to enable in-app purchases.
For Word Ace, we’re releasing the entire game, free of charge, to everyone who wants to give it a shot. You can play as much as you want for a whopping $0. If you want your friends to try it, so you can play together, they can do so with absolutely no cost, and no risk. Play as much as you want.
If you want more chips, if you love the game, if you want to help us continue to make games like this, if you like the idea that you can set the price of a game… grab Word Ace Pro.
Coming soon, in addition to chip packages, we’ll have a link where you can just donate a couple bucks, and in exchange, we’ll give you an icon by your profile for 30 days that’ll show other players that you are helping support the game.
For our Pre users… there is no Word Ace Pro! Why? Because we can do everything we need to in the standard version of Word Ace. In a few days, you’ll have all the options (save the shiny gold icon) available to you in Word Ace! Just keep your eye on the “Chips & More” section!
Thanks!
seppo
the best game
So far all I've added is Senshi, and someone else sent me a request but I don't know if that was someone here or someone I randomly met online. :P The online functionality is pretty slick.
Thanks! If you really like it, it'd really help us out if you could tell your friends
tell your friends
seppo
Man, I was playing against some girl yesterday (on the $4000 tables no less) who was killing. She was up to something like $32000. I was up to about $10000, and was able to pull out a 20-something point word. I was positive I could win, and so I went all in to draw some money out of her. She checks as I'd hoped, and we lock our words in. To my dismay, she wins with a 35-point word THIRTY-FIVE. I was not happy.
Oculus: TheBigDookie | XBL: Dook | NNID: BigDookie
http://apps.facebook.com/wordace
If you have a Pre, you can even link the two platforms together (that's coming soon on the iPhone).
seppo
Oculus: TheBigDookie | XBL: Dook | NNID: BigDookie