Clues and Mystery Words

March 10th, 2021 | Spelby

Half of the 1,000 initial mystery words and their clues have been implemented and assigned a difficulty level.

The words range from simple three-letter words like “car” to more challenging nine-letter words, such as “Salicylic”. This reason for the nine-letter limit is due to the game board’s 3 x 3 grid.

The clues to assist in solving the mystery words are short and sweet. Similar to what you see in a crossword puzzle. Some clues are subtle, while others will make the mystery word more obvious.

Each word has a difficulty level that has three factors when determining the value. The word’s character length, how helpful the clue is, and how common or familiar the mystery word is. The difficulty level’s purpose is to make the game more challenging as the game progresses.

The formula for determining the word’s difficult level is as follows:

(word’s character length / 3) + clue helpfulness (1-3) + word familiarity (1-3) - 2 = difficulty level

Let’s use the word “cow” with the clue “Jumped over the moon” as an example:

(3 / 3) + 1 + 1 - 2 = 1

Here’s another example with a less common word and a less obvious clue. In this example, we will use the word “Isometric” and the clue “Exercise without movement”.

(9 / 3) + 2 + 2 - 2 = 5

The remaining words, along with their clues should be finished by mid to late March.