Lexitron: Available Now
Apple has deemed Lexitron worthy to grace its AppStore. Thanks for your support over the last weeks. I’ll continue to keep you all apprised of updates I’m working on and progress on my new apps.
Please leave your positive reviews on the AppStore– I’ll work to continue to improve Lexitron to meet all the fans’ expectations, but in the mean time, a five star review would be a nice way to say thanks for the old, free version as well.
Thanks everybody, happy lex-ing!
August 17th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
I’m still trying to get used to the new layout, but overall you did a good job! The one thing I do miss is how the words were listed in the old versions. It made it much easier to see what length of words as well as alphabetically what sort of words were still needed. Other than that, my girlfriend and I give it 5 stars.
August 17th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
As I wrote in my review, there should be a way to end a game without waiting for the time to run out. I love the feature of resuming a game, but one should have the OPTION to either start a new game or resume the current game. Great work.
iamse7en = theaustinpeay on the Google Code message thread for Scrabble. By the way, EA’s Scrabble is a real disappointment. Your version was much better, even if it crashed every once in awhile.
August 18th, 2008 at 5:58 am
Thanks for getting this created for 2.0 my wife and I really appreciate it! Sextuple word Challege is a joke….
I just got it a few minutes ago but I can’t seem to figure out how to get back to the main menu without hitting the home button and relaunching. Is this by design? Seems strange cause you have the ability to get to the options in the original.
If anybody has any insight please let me know. Thanks!
August 18th, 2008 at 10:43 am
I would really like to be able to listen to my own music during play. For this type of game, that is more important (to me) than having to relaunch to restart the game. Also, having multiplayer capability over wi-fi would be pretty awesome.
Your version is the best looking one by far, and challenging.
August 18th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Woohoo! Downloading now.
August 18th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Please add other themes and an on-screen timer. Right now, it’s very unpleasant for me to play with all the harsh colours and sounds. What should be a very casual game has a very negative vibe. I’ll avoid posting a review for now since it’s a new game, but honestly I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone right now.
August 18th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
I should that the previous version on your blog post from April looks much more like what I’d want.
August 18th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
I absolutely prefer the old look. It was more or less perfect.
Now I find it hard to focus on what really is important: The wording!
Too many distractions in the new design in my opinion.
Less is more!
I got so much potential, and if you add an option to choose differnent skins (incl the old look), it definately will get 5 stars from me!
Well done overall!
August 18th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
I also preferred the old look, but I’ll add some specific observations:
1) I agree that the new word list is very difficult to use, especially for those of us with older eyes. As solo pointed out, the new layout makes it difficult to tell at-a-glance what word lengths are still outstanding compared to the older columnar layout.
2) Furthermore, changing from underscores to circles in the missing words has made it even more difficult to tell at-a-glance which are completed words and which are still needed.
3) When playing in the dark, gray on gray can be difficult to read, especially since the background gray is mottled.
4) I’m not a big fan of red, but I recognize that’s purely a matter of personal choice.
Would it be possible to make the skin user-installable and let us create our own?
On the positive side, however, I like the addition of the “Round xxx” indicator in the UI. The non-English support is especially surprising (and some day, I might have the guts to try it). And the improved stability is greatly appreciated!
August 18th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
You guys are missing the positive points of the interface which in my opinion outweigh any of the cons.
1) the new layout gives more space for the buttons and the display which are absolutely critical to gameplay. I’d rather have the word list be smaller and the word i’m typing in and the given letters be big and clear.
2) the old layout had boxes around the letters and buttons making them much more difficult to read. the new version corrects this by containing the submitted letters centered within a display.
3) the game has a unified theme that actually feels appropriate to the game’s title, “lexitron”. clearly the developer put some thought into the branding of the game, which is always nice.
4) you also have to think about marketing. a game that looks and feels just like very other word game out there probably isn’t going to do very well. Lexitron stands out from the pack because of its unique interface and scheme, as well as its intuitive interface.
5) music and sound are a huge advantage over the old version
I think we should give digicide some props instead of bashing all the hard work he did. If he can pump this out in 3 weeks flat I think we can expect some more great things here soon, including some updates to Lexitron. cheers
August 18th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
i agree with Jason the new lexitron is better than the old one.
August 18th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
I do like the look and the game is very fun. I do agree with some of the others points however.
-Listening to my own music would be nice.
-The word list is very difficult to read. Changing to white text may solve this issue or making the selected letters a little smaller and making the word list a little bigger. I have bad eyesight and can’t really read the word list.
-A button to return to the main menu and one to go to the next level on unlimited time mode when the 6-letter word is found would be good.
-Main menu text and instructions need to be made easier to read for those of us with bad eyesight.
-I also noticed some weird things going on when I would be hitting letters quickly and it would submit them even though I didn’t double tap the main part, though this wasn’t a big issue.
-The LED style letters are bearable but IMHO would be nicer if they were just a plain font…again, easier to read.
All in all I do really like the game and I know you’re attentive to these comments and consider what we all say, which is really appreciated.
Again, good job with the game and thanks for getting it to us so quickly. I hope you make a buttload of cash.
-Rick
August 18th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
I disagree. I bought Lexitron based on the old game. I’ve already uninstalled the new one because I don’t enjoy it, and I’m waiting for an update before I add it back.
1.) The new letters are harder to see than the old ones. Instead of clear black on white look, we’ve got red on white, with additional white fade on the lettering. Instead of concentrating on what words I could form, I found myself constantly having to look over the letters to remember which ones they were.
2.) The old word list was an important tool to determine which words need to be found. The new one makes it more difficult, with no added benefit.
3.) Replacing a timer with a bar graph is frustrating. Again, something that was previously easy to look at to determine time remaining, has been replaced with something that constantly needs to be figured out.
4.) The sound effects are jarring. Every time I tried to make a word that wasn’t a word, I lost my concentration because the sound effects sound like something a lot more critical than a missed word is going on.
5.) Red and black is unpleasant. I play this game to relax, not to feel unwanted pressure.
6.) Replacing the button letters with dots again makes it harder to read.
7.) Having the letters move to recenter after entering each letter is needlessly distracting.
Don’t get me wrong, I respect digicide and $2 is worth it for all the time I used to play the game. The new version is a huge step backwards though, with flashiness replacing usability every step of the way.
August 18th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
First off, thanks for getting this out so quickly and for being open to suggestions. The fact that you listened to my (and others’) suggestion for an unlimited time mode and added it for the first version is commendable. Now I hope you’ll be open to some constructive criticism.
This new version is great (and so far hasn’t crashed on me … Yeah!) However, there are some things that need improvement. The thing that bothers me the most at the moment is the fade in of the letters after a shuffle. It slows me down. I would like it if the fade in was either faster or just not there. Secondly, like others, the coloring just doesn’t work for me. Maybe I’m somewhat colorblind or something, but the white on red is hard to read. I’m also with the others on the layout of the word list. It’s difficult to know how many letters are in the remaining words.
The rest of the layout seems fine to me, even if I originally thought the fuel gauge looking thing was going to be an indicator of how many words I had completed. The sounds are neither here nor there to me since I usually have all sounds off for all my games. Overall, this is a great version 1. Here’s to version 1.1.
August 18th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
finally its here! I really love the new design! And I love love the red, and with the mechanical/robotish team it really fits the name “lexitron” now! I love the sounds as well!
I think I found a bug last night. I’m playing the 2-minutes-mode, and i got the final word right so that i had found all the words and a message said “perfect”… and then, instead of a hefty bonus, it said game over??? that was really sad, I hope this will not happen every time i get them all…
I would really like a high-score so that I can play with my friends, and they can try to beat me… now it doesnt say who made the high-score.
Do you get lower score if you choose unlimited time and higher score if you do it in less time? If not it should be a different high-score for different gameoptions…
Good work!
August 18th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
Well.. despite the negative feedback from others here, I gotta say the more I play this version, the more I like it!! I really don’t have any major gripes, except for a few things which have mostly been mentioned by other people:
1) We really do need to be able to play our own music.
2) There needs to be a way to get to the options screen without quitting and restarting the app (or maybe I’m just not aware of how to do that?).
3) Perhaps the wordlist can be brightened up a bit. I find it pretty easily readable most of the time, but when I turn my iphone’s brightness down to save battery, it definitely gets a bit more difficult.
4) I don’t really mind the red, but a blue-toned theme would be awesome as an option.
5) Perhaps an option to disable all the animation for us “speed-players”.
I really like the look and feel of it, though! It’s growing on me the more I play it. I think everyone else needs to give it a fair chance
Thanks digicide!!
August 19th, 2008 at 1:17 am
Hey Digicide! I think just about everybody here is pretty impressed with your game! I’m a big fan — minor quibbles aside, this is the best game of its kind in both presentation AND usability on the App Store, hands down. I think there’s some good feedback given above, but it’s easy to focus on the minor negatives instead of on the major positives. Great game, and I hope you make buckets of money on it!
And if you manage to let me listen to my music while playing, and maybe give me vertically-aligned word columns again in a future update, well… that’d be swell. 
November 25th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
I live in Brazil and me and my girlfriend were addicted to Lexitron, unfortunately once it went to the App Store I can’t have it anymore.
When trying yo buy it, I get a message that it is not available outside US.
Will it be available some day?
Thanks