iPhone Double Across, A Multiplayer Crossword Game With Literary-Based Computer Opponents

Discussion in 'Upcoming iOS Games' started by Cortis, May 26, 2010.

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How often do you play word games?

  1. Often -- I love them

    8 vote(s)
    50.0%
  2. Occasionally -- They are fun, but they aren't my favorite

    7 vote(s)
    43.8%
  3. Rarely -- Only if forced

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  4. Never -- Even under pain of death

    1 vote(s)
    6.3%
  1. Cortis

    Cortis Member

    Apr 5, 2010
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    #1 Cortis, May 26, 2010
    Last edited: May 28, 2010
    [​IMG]

    Our new game "Double Across" has been submitted to iTunes and is currently in review. It should be available in about a week. Game details follow; check out our first game play video on YouTube or scroll down to see the screenshots.

    If you haven't already done so, go to http://doubleacross.com to register to win a ton of cool stuff.

    GAME DETAILS
    Double Across is the exciting new word game for the 21st century; it's designed for everyone who loves books, board games, or crossword puzzles. Double Across invites to travel back in time to match the power of your vocabulary against such fascinating computerized personalities as Jane Austen, Mark Twain, Jules Verne, William Shakespeare, and Aesop. For an even greater challenge you and your friends can match wits with the incredibly powerful Mr. Genius. When playing against these built-in personalities, Double Across not only lets you exercise your vocabulary skills, it is also a delightful source of entertainment. Whenever you play a word that strikes their fancy, these characters wax romantic (Jane Austen), colorful (Mark Twain), philosophical (Jules Verne), poetic (William Shakespeare), or quixotic (Aesop) by proudly spouting off phrases and quotes from their published works.

    This is the game inventor Alfred Butts (a.k.a. Mr. Scrabble™) would have invented if he had had an iPad. The strategy is to construct new words of any length, one at a time, to build an ever expanding crossword composition. At the beginning of each turn a player has four minutes to make a word that intersects with as many existing words as possible.

    PLAYER FEATURES:
    • 1 - 6 Players (Play solo or against up to five human or computerized friends using the same iPad.)
    • 6 Distinct Computer Personalities [AI's] (Jane Austen, Mark Twain, Jules Verne, William Shakespeare, Aesop, and Mr. Genius)
    • 5 Individualized AI Dictionaries (Author AI's are restricted to using words from their writings.)
    • Thousands Of AI Quotations (Author AI's respond to words played by others with lines from their books, bringing out elements of Adventure, Philosophy, Science Fiction, Drama and Romance.)
    • Uber Genius AI Included (Mr. Genius knows it all and plays it all. Watch out!)

    DICTIONARY FEATURES:
    • 4 Unique English Dictionaries (American, British, Canadian, and Australian).
    • Proper Nouns Optional (There are more than 3,000 proper nouns included, in such categories as: common first names, common last names, countries, states, cities, other geographical names, days of the week, months of the year, planetary bodies, constellation names, names of languages, etc.)
    • No Need For Word Challenges (No penalties are assessed for trial words or misspellings.)
    • Unlimited Letters (Each player starts with all of the letters they'll need, and you can buy more.)
    • No Forced Hard-To-Use Letters (You can't get stuck with Q's and X's that you can't use.)
    • Blanks Unnecessary (Buy whichever letter you may need, including Q's and X's.)
    • No Word Length Limit (Play words of any length.)

    OTHER FEATURES:
    • Non-Random Game Play (Double Across is more like Chess than Yahtzee®.)
    • No Poker Face Required (Everyone can see everyone else's letters.)
    • Extremely Large Playing Field (Double Across's board is 10x the size of Scrabble® or Words With Friends™.)
    • Timed Multiplayer (Party games don't get boring.)
    • User Friendly Interface (Type your words or drag tiles to the board.)
    • Works With Hardware Keyboards (Use your Bluetooth or iPad Dock Keyboard.)
    • Family Friendly (Kids can learn lots of new words, and the AI's are prohibited from playing profanity.)
    • Stunning Graphics (It's OK to judge this book by its cover.)

    SCREENSHOTS
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  2. drelbs

    drelbs Well-Known Member

    Jun 25, 2009
    11,200
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    UI looks fantastic, and I like the concept you've come up with AI players.
     
  3. BazookaTime

    BazookaTime Well-Known Member

    Looks good.
     
  4. Yoda is my Idol

    Yoda is my Idol Well-Known Member

    May 25, 2010
    61
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    Mm, an iPad, I do not own. Overcome me, greed has!
     
  5. wolfhunt

    wolfhunt Well-Known Member

    Mar 17, 2009
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    Looks interesting. I like the AI approach using words from their writings. If the price point is reasonable I might have to check this one out.
     
  6. songbird

    songbird Well-Known Member

    Dec 4, 2009
    4,449
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    Looks pretty cool and I love the concept. :)
     
  7. VeganTnT

    VeganTnT Moderator
    Staff Member Patreon Silver Patreon Gold Patreon Bronze

    Jul 19, 2008
    4,491
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    Freelance Entertainment Analyst
    Orlando, FL
    This game looks gorgeous! I really wish I had an iPad cause I'd definitely pick this up
     
  8. Finandir

    Finandir Well-Known Member
    Patreon Bronze

    May 7, 2010
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    This looks very interesting and depending on the price, I might be tempted to pick it up.

    I understand the family friendly dictionary, but it might be nice to allow profanity for adults. Maybe only allow that to be enabled if parental controls are off? If the players are allowed to use profanity, then I don't see this as a problem at all. That is my main concern, not whether the built-in players will use it.

    The real issue for me will likely be the dictionary. As a Scrabble player, it can be frustrating playing various games that have too small of an allowed vocabulary. I end up trying to play words that I know are real words only to have the game disallow them. How large is the vocabulary for each of the dictionaries? (How many words?)

    Can the players add words to the dictionary? That would be an especially nice touch and would help make up for the inevitable missing words.
     
  9. Cortis

    Cortis Member

    Apr 5, 2010
    20
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    Double Across

    There isn't a profanity filter for human players, just the AI.

    We spent a lot of time on the dictionaries, so we believe that they are pretty good. Each of the English variant dictionaries currently contain more than 120 thousand words. There are also approximately 3,000 common proper nouns (things like days of the week, country names etc.) that can be added (actually proper nouns are on by default). The AI players average about 5,000 words each, excepting Mr. Genius whose vocabulary is 120,000+ words minus profanity.

    No, but perhaps in a future version (No promises).
     
  10. JCat

    JCat Well-Known Member

    Mar 11, 2009
    515
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    CEO E-Commerce
    NY
    Liking the concept and classy graphics!
     
  11. Finandir

    Finandir Well-Known Member
    Patreon Bronze

    May 7, 2010
    250
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    Outstanding. Nice to see family-friendly handled appropriately instead of bothering players that don't care one way or another.

    It sounds great. Hopefully you will add even more difficulty levels over time. It kind of sounds like a big jump from the various personalities to Mr. Genius. I can see where it might be tough to keep some of the flavor of the personalities if you expand their vocabularies too much, but hopefully over time...


    I'll just have to keep hoping. The 120,000+ words sounds pretty good. But, no dictionary will have everything the users want.

    In any case, I'm definitely looking forward to trying this out on release.
     
  12. Cortis

    Cortis Member

    Apr 5, 2010
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    The AI's only play words from their works. In fact to really give a flavor of their personalities, we set a threshold for how often they need to use the word in their works in order for it to be in their dictionary. This isn't a huge limiting factor on how hard they are to play. With the exception of Aesop all the AIs are quite formidable for most adults. Aesop is easier, but still fun.
     
  13. Cortis

    Cortis Member

    Apr 5, 2010
    20
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    Added GamePlay Video to Top of Thread

    Just wanted everyone to know that we added a link to our new YouTube video featuring Double Across to the initial post of this thread. The video doesn't showcase all features of the game, but will hopefully give you some flavor of Double Across.

    And for your convenience I'm including another link to it here:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYf0nmWiYvY
     
  14. funambulist

    funambulist Well-Known Member

    Dec 21, 2008
    505
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    Double Across is out.

    Just bought it (EUR 7.99) and played a bit against the inimitable Jane Austen.

    She's winning... :mad:
     
  15. BazookaTime

    BazookaTime Well-Known Member

    Out in the US at $9.99. I think this looks great but at that price I will wait for impressions.
     

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