Hi, Victor. Thanks for such a detailed explanation. I'll go hunt this game down once I get my app store problem solved. Best, Dani
-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Victor Gouveia Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2013 9:14 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Accessible crossword game Although not a crossword game per se, there is a game called WordLadder by a company called Sporcle which is quite accessible. They've recently released an update that labeled much of the elements, and it's free, if you want to wait for a single puzzle per day, or purchase a game pack for $4.99. This particular game pack contains 500 puzzles, but initially when you download and install the game/app, you get about 7 to 10 days worth of puzzles for free, at which point, once the free puzzles are completed, you can do them again, wait for another puzzle to come around the next day, or purchase a game pack and have 500 puzzles to choose from, while still getting your puzzle a day option, in other words, you're not relegated to just the 500 puzzles. The game is quite simple. You're given a theme for the puzzle such as celebrities, Don't Wait, which was today's puzzle, or a host of other themes, then you're given a series of clues and you're supposed to fill in the answer to the clues, but the answers are single words, between 4 and six letters, and each word is one letter off from the previous word. For example... Clue=4 letter word 1. Number preceding five=four 2. Fill a glass=pour 3. destitute or penniless=poor 4. This gives you access to a place=door 5. A ponzie or victim of a scam=doop 6. Fall from a height=drop That is basically the way to play the game. To fill in an answer, you double tap the clue, and simply type in the answer. Unfortunately, there are occasional games/puzzles that don't tell you the number of letters in the clue, but scrolling through the clues will usually yield an answer that gives you a precise answer to give you an idea of the letter count in each answer. You can either play with a timer, where you have a limited amount of time to answer all of the clues, or you can play in a timeless puzzle, meaning while the timer is going, there is no time limit and so you can take as long as you want to play the puzzle,or time yourself to see how long it takes you to complete the puzzle. There are sound events that tell you when an answer is correct or not. If an answer is correct, you'll get a pop sound. If the answer is incorrect, you get no sound event at all, and so must delete the letters you input and start entering the letters again, but be aware that if you're filling in an answer where only the last letter is incorrect, you can simply delete that last letter, and type in the replacement. This goes for all the letters as there is an edit field just above the keyboard that gives you access to the answer you're typing in. There is a quit button, at which point you're given the option of continuing the game, resuming the game at a later time, or quitting altogether. When you quit the game altogether, you're given the answers and can scroll through them as you see fit. Once the puzzle is complete or quitted, there are three buttons at the bottom that give you the option of doing the previous puzzle, re-doing the current puzzle, or doing the next puzzle in the pack. I would say that 95% of the game is accessible, and the 5% that is not accessible is the labeling of a few elements, but the game play area with the timer, correct answers to total answers and the edit field and clue area are completely accessible. When you first start the game, you're taken to a screen where you can choose to start playing or view more games by the company. Double tapping the Play button, which is clearly labeled takes you to the second screen where you have the option of selecting between playing the latest released games, in other words, the daily puzzle component, or playing one of the packs you've purchased. there are a few elements on this page that are not clearly labeled, such as the buttons, but directly after each button is the button label which is tappable, so one does not have to double tap the button itself in order to make your option, one can double tap the label to choose. Once you double tap your option, you're taken to the third page with the list of puzzles, though these are simply labeled 1, 2, 3 and 4 and so on. You have to double tap the number and check the theme on the next page. The daily puzzle component, however, is labeled with dates instead of numbers, though each date is only given the theme on the next page, much like the game packs. The game packs themselves are not themed, to my knowledge, and only the various puzzles are themed, so don't purchase game packs based on any theme you may like, but as the game packs are not labeled, just labeled as game pack orange, or some such thing, I can't tell, so if someone uses magnifier, they can possibly come back and let us know. Suffice it to say, once your puzzle is chosen, be it game pack or daily, double tapping the corresponding number or date takes you to the next screen where you're given three elements, go back to the previous page, the theme of the puzzle, and the start playing button, though this button is not labeled correctly. The go back button is obvious, and flicking to the right of the go back button takes you to the theme, followed by another flick to the right which takes you to the start playing button. Double tapping that takes you directly to the game area. The top left hand corner of the screen houses the timer, flicking to the right once gives you the ratio of correct answers completed and total answers to be found, followed by the column labeled "Clue", and another flick takes you to the next column labeled with the total number of letters in each answer, either four, five, or six letters. I have not seen a puzzle with more than a six letter answer, but I have not completed all 500 of my game pack puzzles, so we'll have to see. Another flick to the right takes you to the first clue. As I said above, in some cases the column labeled with the number of letters for the answers is not often labeled, but rest assured that the number of letters in each answer is the same for all the answers in that particular puzzle, so, if the puzzle column says four letter word, all the answers will be a four letter word, as in my example above. In some cases the column will be labeled with "Five letter word" or "Six letter word", and so all the answers in that corresponding puzzle will be a five letter word or a six letter word respectively. If that particular column is not labeled with one of the labels listed above, I would suggest you scroll down the list of clues until you get to a clue you can answer easily, double tap the clue and type in your answer. If you get the pop sound event, the answer will be correct, and you'll know how many letters each answer should be. Remember that each answer is off by one letter from the clue/answer directly above or below it, hence the name of the game, WordLadder, spelled as a single word. Once the puzzle is complete, and all the answers have been filled in correctly, you will get the pop sound event, followed by a string of chimes, and you're taken to the next screen with the name of the theme of the puzzle, with a single button. I'm assuming, since this button is not labeled, that it's simply an ok button, but I've not confirmed this with anyone sighted. I think that's it for the game and how to play, but feel free to ask any questions regarding this game and I'll try to answer as best as I can. Remember that the company is called Sporcle with a C, not with a K, and they have more games than just WordLadder. They also have a game called Minute Morsel where you have one minute to answer as many trivia questions as you can, Mixed Word, a game with scrambled words, and Missing Word, a fill in the blank trivia game. They also have a Sporcle app, which gives you a number of themes to choose from, but this is mainly a trivia game app, and a few of the themes, like US States, or Country Flags are pictograph puzzles with icons or pictures in place of the clues. In US States for example, you don't get any Voiceover response from the clue, and my wife has advised me that there is a picture, so I can only assume that it must be a picture of the state itself on a map, or the state flag, or some such thing. That's not to say that all of the trivia puzzles are like that, as there are a few I have enjoyed playing, such as US Presidents and Lakes in Canada, but suffice it to say, all the game play areas are exactly as I described for WordLadder, and, for the most part, the game play area is 100% accessible. I would highly recommend playing this game, and writing the game developers and reviewing/rating the game so the game developers can further make modifications to the game in the hopes of making it more accessible than it already is. Hope this helps. Victor Gouveia Vice-President Training Coordinator VIP Tech Tel: 1-(888)-737-1115 Fax: 1-(888)-737-1116 [email protected] [email protected] Limiting Disabilities with Limitless Possibilities -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google Group. To search the VIPhone public archive, visit http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google Group. 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