This is a multiplayer game. Every player will need to enter the same sequence of words, or keyphrase, in order to play on the same board.
If you are the one setting up the game, you should generate a new, random keyphrase, and then share it with your fellow players.
That's not a keyphrase! A keyphrase is a series of four words separated by hyphens or spaces, and you must use the same keyphrase as other players in order to play on the same board.
Once you have entered or generated a keyphrase, press “Submit” above. Then you can press “Start game” below; the game will not start until you press “Start game”.
If you need a timer, try this one.
W | O | R | D |
F | I | N | D |
G | R | I | D |
G | A | M | E |
That's not a word! A word consists only of letters, with no punctuation. Did you hit a punctuation key by accident?
That word is impossible! You can't make a path through that word in this grid. Did you make a typo?
You already found that word!
0 words stand out of 0 words found, for a total score of 0 points.
(There is no automated check for a “real” word. That's between you and your fellow players. You can enter any garbage you want here, as long as you can convince your fellow players that it's a real word to someone.)
This is a game in which one or more players search a grid full of letters (and the “Qu” pair, which always occupies a single cell) for as many words as they can. It is also available commercially as a tabletop game, by certain other names (at least some of them trademarked).
Words are found in the grid by searching from each letter to each adjoining letter in any combination of the eight compass directions, bounded by the edge of the board (no wrapping around). For example, if the upper-left four squares spell out “S O/P T”, that spells SPOT (S, south to P, northeast to O, south again to T), POTS (P, northeast to O, south to T, northwest to S), POT, STOP (S, southeast to T, north to O, southwest to P), TOP, and TOPS. Words must be three or more letters and can't spell a proper noun, multi-word phrase, or hyphenated compound.
A letter can't be used more than once in the same word. For example, GLASS requires two adjacent S's, and if you only have two S's, you can't make GLASSES. You can, however, use each letter in as many different words as you like; for example, you could claim both GLASS and LASS.
Every board is uniquely identified by a four-word phrase, called a keyphrase, that can be entered into the form at the top to reproduce that board. You can send the keyphrase to other people to play that board for people who aren't in the same physical space as you to play with you.
When you play with other people, you're competing to find the most and longest words within a time limit. After time expires, the player who found the fewest words goes first, and reads off their list. Other players cross off those words from their own list by unchecking them. The player with the next highest number of words goes next, and reads off their words. Each player's score includes only the words found by that player alone, not by any others; you can achieve this either by having every player read off every word, or by having each player verbally acknowledge when they also have a word.
Scoring is by adding up the number of letters in each of your words. “Qu” is counted as two letters. In a 4-by-4 game, the minimum word length is three letters; in a 5-by-5 or 6-by-6, it's four letters. A word of minimum length is worth 1 point; a word with one more letter is 2 points; a word with two more letters is 3 points; and so on. Whosoever ends up with the most points wins.
PROTIP: Remember to look for plurals, past-tenses, adverbs, and other prefixed and suffixed forms!
This implementation is by Peter Hosey. Its home is https://boredzo.org/gobble/ .
It uses seedrandom.js by David Bau, under its MIT license.
The word list (used only for keyphrases, not for any sort of checking of player word discoveries) is based on EFF's “large” word list for random passphrases.