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Bookworm Adventures
Bookworm Adventures is a word-forming puzzle video game, the follow-up to Bookworm from PopCap Games. Released in November 2006, Bookworm Adventures combines the "create words from sets of letters" aspect of Bookworm with several elements of a role-playing video game. In the 2007 Interactive Achievement Awards, Bookworm Adventures won the "Downloadable Game of the Year". The game also won three Zeeby awards for Best Word & Trivia Game of 2006, Best Game Design of 2006 and Best Story/Narrative of 2006.
A sequel for Bookworm Adventures, Bookworm Adventures: Volume 2, was released on July 30, 2009.
In contrast to the lower production budgets typical of most "casual games", PopCap Games spent over two and a half years and US$700,000 developing Bookworm Adventures. Although the direct sales model used by the company avoids various distribution and retail fees, this still represents one of the most expensive investments in the genre to date. John Vechey, PopCap's director, indicated that this did seem to be a departure from the previous model, noting that "A couple years ago, the prevailing wisdom was that it took three guys, six months and $100,000 to make a casual game. They used to be considered a low art form."
The player takes on the role of Lex the Bookworm (voiced by the Chief Creative Officer of PopCap, Jason Kapalka) through a number of stages, battling creatures along the way (which are largely based on Greek mythology, One Thousand and One Nights and Gothic fiction, while the foes in the game's sequel are based on fairy tales, Journey to the West and science fiction). Each battle consists of Lex squaring off against a given enemy. Both Lex and his enemy have health meters (represented by a number of hearts) which, when depleted, signal defeat (advance to the next section and complete the chapter if an enemy is defeated, and restart when Lex dies). However, unlike more traditional role-playing games where players can injure their opponents with arms or magic, enemies in Bookworm Adventures are damaged by forming words.
As in the original Bookworm, words are formed from a grid of available letters, although unlike the original, the letter tiles used to form the words need not be adjacent to one another. The longer the word which is formed, the more damage is done to the enemy. Similarly, words generated using letters which are less common do more damage than those using only common letters. The game also features gems, which are generated by spelling more powerful words. Each gem has different effects, such as healing Lex and inflicting debuffs to the enemy. The "scramble" feature from the original title returns in Bookworm Adventures, which replaces the letters currently on the grid with an entirely new set, at the cost of forfeiting a turn, so that the enemy gets a "free" attack.
Each turn, the player can form a single word, while enemies use one of their available attacks to damage Lex, inflict debuffs to him, heal or buff themselves, or manipulate the tiles in the grid. During battles, the player can see what attacks and abilities the enemy can use, located at the bottom-right portion of the screen. Some of these attacks can combine two or more effects. After each battle victory, Lex automatically recovers to full health before proceeding to the next battle; however, there are certain chapters that feature "Survival Battles" (still called boss battles in the first game), where Lex will not be healed between enemies.
After a certain number of battles are won, a boss of significant difficulty is encountered. Once the boss is defeated, the chapter ends, and the player is rewarded with a treasure item. Treasures provide special abilities to Lex, such as a reduction in damage inflicted to him, or more damage generated from words containing certain letters, or even resistance to negative effects. In some cases, rather than receiving a new item, an existing item is upgraded, which improves the effect or ability of the old item. However, the player can only equip at most three treasure items in each chapter. In the sequel, the player can only bring along at most two treasure items, but can also have a companion, which gives a beneficial effect every four turns.
In addition to equipable items, players can earn consumable potions, which can be used for an immediate benefit. The potion varieties can recover some of Lex's health, enhance the strength of his next attack, or cure any ailments on Lex and/or the letter grid. While potions can be acquired gradually by defeating foes, potions can also be awarded for playing separate word-based mini-games between stages. In such mini-games, the player must try to either guess a secret word or form as many words as possible from a set of letters, with greater rewards for more skillful plays. In the sequel, the player can only have a maximum of 10 potions of each type, possibly to balance gameplay.
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Bookworm Adventures AI simulator
(@Bookworm Adventures_simulator)
Bookworm Adventures
Bookworm Adventures is a word-forming puzzle video game, the follow-up to Bookworm from PopCap Games. Released in November 2006, Bookworm Adventures combines the "create words from sets of letters" aspect of Bookworm with several elements of a role-playing video game. In the 2007 Interactive Achievement Awards, Bookworm Adventures won the "Downloadable Game of the Year". The game also won three Zeeby awards for Best Word & Trivia Game of 2006, Best Game Design of 2006 and Best Story/Narrative of 2006.
A sequel for Bookworm Adventures, Bookworm Adventures: Volume 2, was released on July 30, 2009.
In contrast to the lower production budgets typical of most "casual games", PopCap Games spent over two and a half years and US$700,000 developing Bookworm Adventures. Although the direct sales model used by the company avoids various distribution and retail fees, this still represents one of the most expensive investments in the genre to date. John Vechey, PopCap's director, indicated that this did seem to be a departure from the previous model, noting that "A couple years ago, the prevailing wisdom was that it took three guys, six months and $100,000 to make a casual game. They used to be considered a low art form."
The player takes on the role of Lex the Bookworm (voiced by the Chief Creative Officer of PopCap, Jason Kapalka) through a number of stages, battling creatures along the way (which are largely based on Greek mythology, One Thousand and One Nights and Gothic fiction, while the foes in the game's sequel are based on fairy tales, Journey to the West and science fiction). Each battle consists of Lex squaring off against a given enemy. Both Lex and his enemy have health meters (represented by a number of hearts) which, when depleted, signal defeat (advance to the next section and complete the chapter if an enemy is defeated, and restart when Lex dies). However, unlike more traditional role-playing games where players can injure their opponents with arms or magic, enemies in Bookworm Adventures are damaged by forming words.
As in the original Bookworm, words are formed from a grid of available letters, although unlike the original, the letter tiles used to form the words need not be adjacent to one another. The longer the word which is formed, the more damage is done to the enemy. Similarly, words generated using letters which are less common do more damage than those using only common letters. The game also features gems, which are generated by spelling more powerful words. Each gem has different effects, such as healing Lex and inflicting debuffs to the enemy. The "scramble" feature from the original title returns in Bookworm Adventures, which replaces the letters currently on the grid with an entirely new set, at the cost of forfeiting a turn, so that the enemy gets a "free" attack.
Each turn, the player can form a single word, while enemies use one of their available attacks to damage Lex, inflict debuffs to him, heal or buff themselves, or manipulate the tiles in the grid. During battles, the player can see what attacks and abilities the enemy can use, located at the bottom-right portion of the screen. Some of these attacks can combine two or more effects. After each battle victory, Lex automatically recovers to full health before proceeding to the next battle; however, there are certain chapters that feature "Survival Battles" (still called boss battles in the first game), where Lex will not be healed between enemies.
After a certain number of battles are won, a boss of significant difficulty is encountered. Once the boss is defeated, the chapter ends, and the player is rewarded with a treasure item. Treasures provide special abilities to Lex, such as a reduction in damage inflicted to him, or more damage generated from words containing certain letters, or even resistance to negative effects. In some cases, rather than receiving a new item, an existing item is upgraded, which improves the effect or ability of the old item. However, the player can only equip at most three treasure items in each chapter. In the sequel, the player can only bring along at most two treasure items, but can also have a companion, which gives a beneficial effect every four turns.
In addition to equipable items, players can earn consumable potions, which can be used for an immediate benefit. The potion varieties can recover some of Lex's health, enhance the strength of his next attack, or cure any ailments on Lex and/or the letter grid. While potions can be acquired gradually by defeating foes, potions can also be awarded for playing separate word-based mini-games between stages. In such mini-games, the player must try to either guess a secret word or form as many words as possible from a set of letters, with greater rewards for more skillful plays. In the sequel, the player can only have a maximum of 10 potions of each type, possibly to balance gameplay.