Word Flurry – prepare for a new standard

Word Flurry takes a game that we all love to play – the classic anagram word finding game – and adds what many of the others are missing: ease of play. If you like the other popular anagram games, but are tired of their cumbersome and unwieldy user interfaces, you will love Word Flurry.

Go beyond the tap-tap-tap-a-letter user interface that the others give you and discover the natural mechanics in Word Flurry, such as letter-to-letter swiping, quick last-word recall, and more.

Be warned, though. Once you've played Word Flurry, you may find it difficult or impossible to play the others!

Casual vs. Challenge

Word Flurry allows you to play at the pace you enjoy. If you like taking your time, play a casual game at your own pace. If you're up to a bigger challenge, try testing your skills against the clock.

Relax with music, or listen to your own

Word Flurry comes with a small selection of ethereal background music to keep you entertained while playing.

Don't like the music selection? No worries. Turn the music off in the settings, or play your own music from your iPod library.

Crisp colorful graphics and animations

Word Flurry provides a clean, uncluttered and – dare we say – beautiful screen to behold. All of the UI elements have been designed with one purpose in mind – making the game simply pleasant to play.

Technical information

Word Flurry is designed and developed exclusively for iPhone and iPod Touch. It uses a proprietary, scratch-built OpenGL engine, which allows the game to provide the responsive user interface.

Support independent game development

Word Flurry is developed by a small independent game development studio in the USA. Support indie game development!

What is the objective of Word Flurry?

The objective is simple – unscramble the 6 letters in the puzzle to find as many words as possible. Find a 6-letter word, or find enough 3-, 4-, and 5-letter words to qualify for the next puzzle round. The more words you find, the more points you score!

Play a Casual game at your own pace, or play against the clock for an additional Challenge.

How do I select the letters to build a word?

The most naturally obvious technique for selecting letters is to simply tap on the orb containing the letter you want. As you tap on the letter orbs, the corresponding letter will be added to the word in the build bar.

Is there a way to select the letters more quickly?

Yes! Unlike most other games, Word Flurry allows you to select multiple adjacent letters by swiping from one letter orb to another in an arc around the center orb. In Word Flurry, it is possible to select all 6 letters in one swift circular motion. Don't believe it? Try it!

One of the key goals for this project was to provide the most effective user interface ever seen for this style of game, and we believe we have designed such a system. Be warned – once you've played Word Flurry, you may find it difficult or impossible to play the others!

How about tips on removing letters from my word?

When there is a word in the build bar, you have several options for removing letters from the word. Remove the last letter of the word by tapping on the corresponding letter orb, or by tapping on an unoccupied section of the build bar. Additionally, you can tap on any letter in the build bar to remove that specific letter. Finally, starting in an unoccupied section of the build bar, swipe through any or all of the letters to quickly remove them.

Word Flurry provides multiple intuitive options to suit any player's taste!

Is there a good technique for quickly submitting similar words?

Yes. One hidden feature of Word Flurry is that the button used to submit words (a.k.a. the "Flurry" orb) does double duty as a last word "recall" button. If you have submitted a word, and have not yet started building another word, you can press the Flurry orb to recall the most recently submitted word.

This ability to quickly recall the last word, and the ease with which you can add and remove letters, allow you to go from "DEN" to "DENT" to "DENTS" to "DENTED" with speed and ease!

Why won't Word Flurry accept a word that I know is real?

Whether a given word in any puzzle is "real" or not is determined by the dictionary we use, which is the Official Tournament and Club Word list, TWL06. You can read more about this list here.

If you play with the entire dictionary (the "everyday" option is unchecked), any word that is in the TWL06 list will be in the puzzle (except for a few obscenities and other inappropriate words, which we have removed from play entirely).

If you play with "everyday" words only, most of the more obscure words are removed to make it easier to complete a puzzle. We have hand-picked the everyday words to be like those that you might hear in a normal everyday conversation.

Because the everyday word list is subjective, you may still see words you don't recognize, and you might not see a word you use every day. But don't fret! If you find that a word does or does not belong on the everyday list, let us know! We would love to hear your thoughts, and will regularly update the list with your suggestions.

How are the game rounds in Word Flurry scored?

Each word that you find in a round earns you 10 points per letter. A 6-letter word earns 60 points, and is worth twice as much as a 3-letter word.

Additionally, finding all of the words of a certain length (e.g. all 4-letter words) earns you a bonus that effectively doubles your score for that group of words.

And if that is not enough, there are many ways to earn bonus points for various achievements in a round. Can you discover all of the bonuses?

Can I review the scoring breakdown after a round?

Yes. Once the scoring tally is complete, you can scroll through the individual score entries by swiping vertically within the scoring section.

The red "advancement beacon" changes position from one round to the next. How is its position determined?

The position of the advancement beacon is determined by a calculation that is too difficult to explain in words. In a nutshell, you are expected to complete 100% of the puzzle words to qualify for the next round. But, depending on the type of game (Casual or Challenge) you are playing, you are allowed a certain number of "freebie" words that are not required to be found, which ends up lowering the total percentage needed to qualify.

I have trouble advancing when a round has lots of words. Any tips on how to deal with this?

The most effective way to qualify for the next round, whether you are playing casually or against the clock, is to focus on finding the 6-letter word(s) for the round. If you are having trouble envisioning that 6-letter word, use the shuffle button to give the letter orbs a spin, mix things up, and put a new perspective on things.

Still can't find that word? Ask yourself these questions: Is there an "S" in the puzzle that can make a 5-letter word plural? Are there two 3-letter words that can be combined to form a 6-letter compound word? These are just a couple examples of good strategies for completing Word Flurry puzzles.

Why does Word Flurry look a little different on my iPhone 3G?

During development of Word Flurry, certain effects that were created to add visual fidelity to the game caused minor slowdowns on older devices, specifically the iPhone 3G. In order to maintain a high level of playability, these visual effects are disabled on those devices.

I love Word Flurry! What can I do to make it better?

Show your support for Word Flurry by giving it a 5-star rating/review. The more positive feedback we receive, the better we will be able to provide updates with new words and features.