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Word Flower

Objective

Learn more about the Word Flower puzzle type, its rules, how it's played, and when to use it for your audience.

What is a Word Flower Puzzle?​

PuzzleMe's Word Flower is an engaging word puzzle where players are challenged to form words similar to Spelling Bee (from the New York Times) or Polygon (from the Times of London) or Spellathon, using a limited set of letters arranged in a pattern, typically resembling a flower. It's a great way to apply vocabulary and pattern recognition skills. The game can be configured to use between 4 and 9 letters. An interactive demonstration of a 7 letter Word Flower is included below.

How the Game Works​

Here are the rules and mechanics of a Word Flower puzzle:

  1. Using the Central Letter (if present): If the puzzle includes a central letter, every word a player forms must include this central letter at least once. If there is no central letter, this rule does not apply.

  2. Using Available Letters: Words can only use the letters provided in the puzzle (the central letter, if any, and all surrounding letters). Letters can be used multiple times within a single word if available in the puzzle's letter set.

  3. Repeated Letters: The creator of the game can control whether letters can be reused. Typically, 5 and 7 letter configurations (including the central) letter are set to allow repetitions of letters, while 9 letter configurations do not allow repetition.

  4. Finding Words: Players enter words they can think of using the available letters. They can either type in the words or directly type the petals of the Word Flower. Only the words that have been approved by the creator for the game are accepted. Players can also shuffle the visual placement of the letters, which sometimes leads them to discover new words due to some letter combinations becoming more obvious.

  5. Pangrams: A pangram is a word that uses all of the available letters (the central letter, if present, and all surrounding letters) at least once and is highlited as bold in the discovered words list.

  6. Scoring: Points are awarded based on the number of valid words found, and their lengths. Longer words get more points. For example, in a 7 letter configuration, 4 letter words get 1 point, 5 letter words get 2 points, and so on. Pangrams get an extra bonus of 5 points.

  7. Hints: Hints are provided for times when users hit a block and cannot think of new words. Upon clicking the hint, users are shown some letters of a word that has not yet been found, and the number of letters in it.

  8. Explanations: All the words in a Word Flower game can be optionally hyperlinked to other pages, so that users can find more information. Often, these games have words that a user may now know about. In such cases, a link to a dictionary entry for the word is helpful. In other cases, a specific word can be linked to an article about that word that you would like solvers to read.

The challenge for the player is in discovering both common and less common words, as well as finding variants of words based on derivative words, plurals, tenses, etc. They have to aim for high-scoring pangrams. When players have found all the words they can, they can choose the reveal option to see which words they did not found, which often leads to delightful a-ha moments.

Word Flower is a particularly fun game for solvers to play with their friends. PuzzleMe's social play feature allows up to 4 players to find words simultaneously, and shows the words found by each player in a different color. Often, different people think in different directions, which allows the team to make more headway in the game together.

The game tracks the player's progress showing which words they've found out of the total possible words and their current score. As players find words, they cross various milestones depicted on the progress animation.

Partners on the Enterprise plan can provide custom imagery for the central graphic, animations for the progress milestones, and a special animation in the flower when the user finds a pangram. Some good examples of implementations of this PuzzleMe game are:

How To Create Word Flowers?​

Here are some considerations when creating Word Flowers:

  • What size of game would you like to create? If you're not sure, choose a 7 letter game with repetitions, and a combination of letters that results in 40 to 70 words. This usually leads to an engagement time of 15 to 30 minutes. However, you could also create a 5-letter game that consists of fewer words, which may be more appropriate for younger readers. You can even create a single word game, if you want to highlight just one theme word.

  • PuzzleMe has an inbuilt dictionary (for American English and Hindi) using which you can type in some letters, and ask it to auto-populate the word list.

  • Expect to edit the word list because some words may or may not be appropriate for your audience.

  • Partners on the Enterprise Plan can upload Word Flower puzzles in bulk using a CSV format. This CSV file can be generated after following any internal editorial processes.

Why Use Word Flower Puzzles?​

Word Flower puzzles are particularly effective for these scenarios:

  • Reader engagement: Word Flower is a popular game type, just like the Spelling Bee. Readers like to work on these puzzles throughout the day, offering a high dwell time and helping publishers boost their engagement time and deepen ad inventory. They also like to share their scores and the levels achieved with family and friends groups. With PuzzleMe's social play mode, users can now solve word finding games together.

  • Advanced Vocabulary Challenge: Offer a sophisticated word puzzle for audiences that appreciate a deeper linguistic challenge, focusing on extensive word knowledge and pattern recognition.

  • Language Learning: Challenge learners to form words in a new language or explore nuanced vocabulary by finding less common words and pangrams from a set of letters.

  • Competitive Team-Building Activity: Encourage collaboration and friendly competition as teams work together to maximize their score.

  • Literary or Book Club Engagement: Create puzzles based on letters from an author's name, book titles, or key themes from literary works to deepen engagement.

Read on for details about how you might create and configure a Word Flower easily with PuzzleMe.