Word Search: Word Puzzle

A word search is a grid of letters with words hidden in it. Drag from the first
letter of a word to its last and it locks in, in its own colour. Find them all
and the level is done.

THE GRID IS NEVER WRONG

The worst moment in a word search is finding a word, tracing it, and being told
no, because the filler happened to spell it somewhere you did not expect. All
1000 grids were re-read by a separate solver scanning all eight directions,
checking each word appears EXACTLY ONCE. If you can read it, it counts.

The filler is not random either. Uniform letters are full of Q, X and Z and
stop looking like language; here the decoys follow English letter frequency and
lean towards the letters of the words hidden in that grid.

EXTRA WORDS COUNT TOO

Because the decoys are built from the answers' own letters, real words turn up
that nobody put there. Find one and it pays. About eighteen a board, and no
list tells you what they are.

DRAG IT EITHER WAY

Words run in all eight directions, and you can trace one from either end. You
were never told which end was the start, so being refused for guessing wrong
would be a rejection you could not explain.

TWENTY THEMES, 1000 LEVELS

Animals, Food, Nature, Home, Travel, Sports, Kitchen, Clothing, Weather, Farm,
Ocean, Music, School, Camping, The Body, Countries, Art, Space, Science, Jobs.
Fifty levels each.

A theme is a subject, not a difficulty setting. Each grows across its fifty
levels, from a 7x7 with five words to a 12x12 with fourteen, so a theme you like
gets harder rather than running out.

What gets harder is the DIRECTIONS. Early on, words read left to right and
downwards, a habit you already have. Then diagonals. Then backwards and
upwards, where "scan for the first letter" stops working.

Themes open eight levels at a time, counted anywhere, so finding one subject
dull never blocks you.

A PUZZLE OF THE DAY, AND A RUN TO KEEP

One board a day, the same for everybody, chosen by the date. Solve it and your
streak goes up. Miss a day and you can put the run back, but you still have to
play today's puzzle.

And TIME ATTACK, the one part of this game with a clock: two minutes to start,
more for every word you find, harder boards as you go, and your best run is the
only score kept.

BUILT TO BE READ FOR AN HOUR

• No cell borders. The genre's usual ruled boxes put eleven vertical lines
between your eye and a word. Here the letters sit on warm paper and the only
lines are the words you have found.
• Every word has its own SHAPE as well as its colour: circle, ring, square,
frame, and three triangles. Fourteen words is more than colour alone can
carry, and for a colour-blind player it is not enough.
• The word list is always on screen and never scrolls.

ZEN MODE, AND NO WAY TO LOSE A LEVEL

One switch removes the counter and the ring and leaves the grid and the list.
Outside Time attack nothing is timed at all. A wrong drag does nothing but
retract, and putting the phone down mid-level leaves it exactly where you left
it.

NO NONSENSE

• Levels, dailies, time-attack boards and extra words pay coins, and coins buy
twelve board looks. They never buy help.
• Restart is always free.
• A short advert may play when you leave a finished level, never mid-level and
never in your first few. Every other advert is one you chose to watch, and
its button says AD first. No banners.
• Nothing is locked behind a paywall.
• No account, no sign-up, no email address.
• All 1000 puzzles are inside the app, so it plays with no signal.
• Progress stays on your device. The app sends anonymous gameplay counts so we
can tell whether it is being played; never your name, your advertising ID or
your location, because it never asks for any of them.

Word search, word find, word seek, letter grid puzzle -- whatever you call it,
this is the one that never tells you the word you just found is wrong.

Free. Start with Animals.