2012 word game
2012 video game
Letterpress is a 2012 turn-based word game developed by Loren Brichter and published by Atebits. In the game, two players take turns creating words to cover the most territory. Focused on combining words with color, Brichter based the game design on Boggle, color wars, and SpellTower. The gameplay gradually evolved during beta testing; in the prototype, players would avoid remaining tiles on the board, thus delaying a game.
Letterpress was released in October 2012 for iOS. Under Solebon LLC, the game was released in July 2016 for the Mac App Store and in August 2017 for Google Play. While it was praised for its minimalist design and strategic gameplay, it was criticized for not having a single-player mode. Letterpress was ranked second place in the App Store's Best of 2012 list and won the 2013 Apple Design Awards. Along with other apps, the game inspired the design of iOS 7.[1]
Gameplay
The player selects letters to form a word.
Letters turn into the player's color. Surrounding tiles are locked.
In Letterpress, two players compete to own the most tiles on a grid with 25 letters.[2][3] Players must assemble a valid word; they cannot reuse or create words from the same word family.[4][5] When a player finishes their turn, their selected letters change into their color.[2][4][6] If a player's tiles surround a letter, the opponent cannot claim it,[7] and the surrounded tiles become a different shade.[8] Players may choose to pass a turn. Once every square is occupied, or if both players pass their turns in the same round, the player that owns the most tiles wins.[3][4][8]
Development and release
After leaving Twitter, Inc. in November 2011, Loren Brichter, the founder of Atebits 2.0,[b] began finishing side projects that he had little time to work on.[10][11] Along with his experience as a graphics engineer for the original iPhone,[12] he had previously created Tweetie and the pull-to-refresh function.[11] After playing Zach Gage's iOS game SpellTower together, he and his wife, Jean Whitehead, were inspired to develop a multiplayer word game.[10][11][13] Focused on combining color and words,[11] Brichter cited Boggle and color wars as influences for the gameplay.[10]
Whitehead was the first beta tester and helped to refine the game's rules. In the first version of Letterpress, players could indiscriminately create long words, as tiles would only turn into the player's color.[13] He incorporated a feature that gave players bonus points for surrounding tiles.[10] However, Brichter realized that players would avoid remaining tiles; to fix this, he made surrounding tiles unclaimable.[10] For the graphics and user interface, he took inspiration from the Windows Phone.[13] The game was written in OpenGL, and Game Center handled the multiplayer matchmaking service.[13] Most of the sound effects were created by spitting in his microphone.[13] Brichter determined the name based on what the player did: pressing letters.[13]
Brichter marketed the game as freemium and chose screenshots of Letterpress to promote it on the App Store.[13] The game was released for iOS on October 24, 2012,[14] and on that day, it was downloaded over 60,000 times.[11] In the free version, players could only compete in two games at once.[7][15] In December 2012, Letterpress was updated with a replay feature.[16] After Solebon LLC bought Atebits 2.0, the game was released on the Mac App Store on July 20, 2016,[17] and on Google Play on August 25, 2017.[18]
Reception
Letterpress has a "generally favorable" Metacritic rating based on eight critics.[19]
Reviewers found the strategic elements of Letterpress captivating. Although TouchArcade's Jared Nelson commented that the gameplay was challenging to explain, he claimed that players would become addicted once they had mastered the rules.[8] Lex Friedman of Macworld and AJ Dellinger of Gamezebo shared similar views respectively, writing that Letterpress was "alarmingly addictive"[4] and would fit with "word nerds and strategy-oriented thinkers".[5] Pocket Gamer's Harry Slater compared the gameplay to chess, praised the suspense of a player waiting for their opponent's next move, and wrote that Letterpress was "asynchronous gaming at its finest".[20] Some criticized the absence of a single-player mode.[5][8][15] While Luke Larsen of Paste magazine concluded that Letterpress was an "incredible achievement", he shared that Game Center might interfere with player statistics and matchmaking.[2]
Critics praised the design of Letterpress. Nelson called the graphics "aesthetically pleasing",[8] and Dellinger said that the game had "zero clutter".[5] Nelson enjoyed the game's "minimalist style and smooth animation", which he compared to the productivity app Clear.[8] Larsen complimented Brichter and stated that it had "pretty menus" and "smart aesthetic choices",[2] and Friedman praised details such as the sound effects and user interface.[4] Ranking the game as a "must have", Chris Reed of Slide to Play said that Letterpress was a "gorgeous example of minimalist design".[15] Jony Ive, a designer for Apple's iOS 7, took inspiration from minimalist apps, including Letterpress.[1]
Letterpress was featured in the App Store's Best of 2012 list, ranking second place as the game of the year for iPhone.[21][22] It was nominated at the Worldwide Developers Conference and won the 2013 Apple Design Awards.[6][23]
