Vivid Games takes us on a worldwide word safari. Vivid Games, developers of the very well-reviewed game, Speedball 2, sat down to show us an upcoming Q2 title they are working hard on. Word Explorer is an anagram adventure game (did I just make up a new genre?!) that’s different from all the usual word games I’ve seen.
You start off with a map of the world, and have 33 different territories to choose from. We checked out the US west coast, and chose to visit the Grand Canyon area. We were able to view a graphic map of the whole area, and started our journey on a point of the map that had a hexagon with a different letter on each side, branching off in 6 directions. When you tap on one of the letter paths, you must solve an anagram (rearrange the letters) to progress. When you accomplish this, one more more new word paths will open up.
Your goal is to create a path to one of the many camera icons that appear. When you reach the camera icon, you will see a yellow word path, and must solve a more difficult word relating to the landmark you’re taking a photo of. If you beat the word, you’re rewarded with a picture of the landmark/object. You can also build paths to cities, but these require you to solve all 6 words surrounding them to unlock the picture.
The game we saw was an extremely early version, but it appears to be a unique and fun experience that offers a ton of content. According to the developers, in each of the 33 territories around the world there are around 70 photo opportunities. That puts the picture count at over 2,300! The word database also contains 20,ooo+ words, so there’s definitely plenty to keep you busy. There will be hints and goals built in, as well as stars to collect based on how well you complete various word paths.
Vivid is working with Tower Studios, who has had a lot of past experience with football (soccer) games in the past, so it was mentioned that they have plans to create a new arcade football game based loosely off the Speedball 2 engine, and have released free versions of Ski Jumping 2011 and Shoot to Kill.
