Plans for 2.0
I’ve been asked the same question by a huge number of people: will Lexitron be coming to the App Store for iPhone 2.0?
The short answer is ‘no’. I’ve always been a bit uncomfortable with the legal implications of the game, which, believe it or not, is a rip off of the game TextTwist by GameHouse Software. I’ve always enjoyed the game, so I coded it up, figuring they weren’t going to develop software for jailbroken iPhones. Now that everything’s gone legit, I’m sure they’ll develop the game just as they have for other mobile phones.
I am, however, working on a few of my own ideas. One will be a reinvention of a word game I developed for DS that I call ‘Wordflow’. This is a game of ambience with a feel something similar to Flow, although I developed mine first– my game was never publicly released, so neither of us copied the other…. In Wordflow, letters float downstream and you catch them one at a time. When you’re holding a full word, you can release your finger to submit the word. Invalid words will just keep floating away downstream, and valid words will rise off the surface to be scored. Longer words earn more points, but getting longer words can be pretty tricky– after a while you’re dragging a lengthy word around the screen, and letters from all over will be snapping onto it. You might just give up on a word you’ve been going after forever to grab some shorter words. Wordflow is one of those games where you code some simple rules and all kinds of strategies and techniques follow from those like magic. When I see that in a game I think that it’s meant to be, like Chess or Tetris.
My second project is another word game which I hope will play on the addictive qualities of Lexitron/TextTwist while capitalizing on some of the iPhone’s unique properties. The XCode project is named fiveFinger right now– in this game, five letters appear on the screen, which, like TextTwist, can be rearranged to make a five letter word. To submit words, all five fingers of one hand must be placed on the letters, starting with the first letter of the word and ending with the last. Then, release your fingers to submit the word. It can be pretty intense trying to get your fingers down in the right order over and over. Letters that are used in a word are swapped out. It’s been fun writing the algorithm that replaces letters used in a three letter word with three different letters, but which still form a five letter word together with the remaining two. It’s not always possible, but it’s surprising how often it is. I’m pleased with the gameplay.
Neither of these two concepts are fully formed as yet, so if you have ideas go ahead and let me know. Or, if you have ideas for how to avoid copyright infringement and still implement Lexitron, I’d like to hear those, too.
July 20th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Perhaps you could at least port Lexitron over to 2.0 for release on Installer, until we get to enjoy your App Store games?
By the way, your version of scrabble looks MUCH better than EA Sports.
July 20th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
It’s too bad about Lexitron, though I can understand your concern. Unfortunately, many other people have taken the same idea (without your scruples) and have their inferior versions available on the App Store. None of them have been as smooth, responsive, or (frankly) easy on the eyes as Lexitron.
I look forward to your new games, though. *thumbs up*
July 20th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
I suggest porting Lexitron over to be compatible with 2.0 and then having it available through Cydia ( and Installer if they ever make it compatible too )
My girfriend almost REFUSES to upgrade to 2.0 because she will loose Lexitron and the other text twist clones look like complete crap and from the reviews I have read they aren’t alphabetized correctly and they are missing words, etc.
Please please please port to 2.0 firmware! My relationship with my GF depends on it! Seriously though, we play Lexitron together and have a LOT of fun! So we would both love 2.0 FW for obvious reasons, but Lexitron is holding us back!
July 21st, 2008 at 1:22 am
please, please write a lexitron for the app store. Your version is amazing. My girlfriend and I spend hours upon hours playing it, but then i decided to go legal (2.0) and the only lexitron-like game they have is horrible. It’s the same as yours basically, but yours has personality. There are two Text Twist based games out already, so I don’t think that it would be a problem for a third to come out
July 21st, 2008 at 12:29 pm
I’ve tried the other Text Twist clones available in the app store, and they definitely don’t cut the mustard. Lexitron just fits the iPhone so incredibly well. I’d like to add my voice to the ones above requesting that you reconsider a port to the 2.0 firmware. My phone doesn’t feel quite complete without it.
July 22nd, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Amen to that. Lexitron is/was great. The other version looks terrible in comparison. My phone just doesn’t feel the same without the mighty Lex.
And for what it’s worth (in my completely amateur opinion), I don’t think game designs can be patented / copyrighted — witness the profusion of Monopoly knock-offs (some licensed, others not), or “Scrabulous” on Facebook, which has been sued by Hasbro, but only for trademark infringement, not game design issues.
July 22nd, 2008 at 4:02 pm
I’m REALLY sad to hear that Lexitron won’t be available for the 2.0 firmware.. I’ll be staying with 1.1.4 until there’s a decent clone available, via the App Store or otherwise. Lexitron really is the best application on the iphone, in my opinion. I hope you’ll reconsider making it available via Cydia, at the very least!
August 3rd, 2008 at 6:38 pm
I completely agree with everyone here. I upgraded to 2.0, but regret it every day because i can no longer play lexitron. I am seriously considering a downgrade. You need to port it over!!
February 5th, 2009 at 3:37 am
I want the old blue version of Text Twist back! I upgraded to 2 and now there is no chance of running it anymore. And my girlfriend is also hating me for upgrading (which was forced due to bugs in the system), seeing as we used to play it together all the time. The worst part is that I live in South Africa and our AppStore (CrapStore?) doesn’t offer half the content the US version does, so I can’t even download Lexitron from there.
How I long for the old blue interface, the usability, the urge to try and beat my highscore. Damnit man, it was one of my favourite games ever. None of the clones can compete.
Help me. Please. You’re my only hope.
June 21st, 2009 at 2:05 am
hi
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