Comments on: Game Design Lessons: Scrabble and Wordscraper http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2008/08/04/game-design-lessons-scrabble-and-wordscraper/ Tracking Innovation at the Convergence of Games and Social Platforms Sat, 13 Mar 2010 21:29:26 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Malcolm Ryan http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2008/08/04/game-design-lessons-scrabble-and-wordscraper/comment-page-1/#comment-331 Malcolm Ryan Wed, 06 Aug 2008 06:09:56 +0000 http://www.insidesocialgames.com/?p=402#comment-331 My goodness this blog has the most unreadble comment formatting I have ever scene. Tiny grey writing on a grey background? What's with that? Do they not want comments to be read? I'm glad that Wordscraper are taking my advice. ;-) I expected that they would make these changes. The question remains whether the design space is really rich enough to make it worthwhile. I suspect one good Scrabble board is much like another -- which is not to say that all boards are equally good, but that once you've found one good board, another good board is unlikely to afford a substantially different game. My goodness this blog has the most unreadble comment formatting I have ever scene. Tiny grey writing on a grey background? What’s with that? Do they not want comments to be read?

I’m glad that Wordscraper are taking my advice. ;-) I expected that they would make these changes. The question remains whether the design space is really rich enough to make it worthwhile. I suspect one good Scrabble board is much like another — which is not to say that all boards are equally good, but that once you’ve found one good board, another good board is unlikely to afford a substantially different game.

]]> By: Barnaby Dawson http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2008/08/04/game-design-lessons-scrabble-and-wordscraper/comment-page-1/#comment-326 Barnaby Dawson Tue, 05 Aug 2008 09:22:16 +0000 http://www.insidesocialgames.com/?p=402#comment-326 They have already done point (2) you recommend. Wordscraper is in a continuous redesign mode currently with lots of useful changes. I suspect they may well do (1) soon. They have added more parameters as you suggest. Tile distribution and value are now changable. I suspect they may allow variance in the size of board too. I agree with your points on randomly generated boards. I am considering writing a genetic algorithm to search the design space for good quality boards. Barnaby They have already done point (2) you recommend. Wordscraper is in a continuous redesign mode currently with lots of useful changes. I suspect they may well do (1) soon.

They have added more parameters as you suggest. Tile distribution and value are now changable. I suspect they may allow variance in the size of board too.

I agree with your points on randomly generated boards. I am considering writing a genetic algorithm to search the design space for good quality boards.

Barnaby

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