Word Search Party

Word Search Party is a word puzzle game that the whole family can enjoy. It’s a classic word search brought to life with a buzzing library of user-created puzzles. Because this game is already established on other platforms, there are more than 8,000 different puzzles already available, and if you can’t find something of interest you can create your own!

In bringing Word Search Party to Windows 8, we were keen to make an app that looked the part and not just do a straight port. It was completely redesigned to embrace the new visual style and features.

We offer a huge number of puzzles and even the selection of top level categories can be a little overwhelming. Therefore we implemented the Semantic Zoom feature to make browsing easier and used the integrated search contract to allow users to quickly query the large puzzle database.

The sharing lets you tell your friends what you’re playing and brag when you complete a puzzle quickly. We also made sure the app supports all possible views. Tablet users can play in portrait or landscape mode and when the game is put into snapped view, it remains fully playable, so you can move it to one side and keep playing casually while doing something else.

We were working with a game that had originally been designed for touch, so we had already considered the the user experience for tablet devices. For example, the app shows you when you tap and drag in an invalid direction by changing the colour of the selection. The letters you'’ve selected are also spelled out at the top of the screen, so you can see what you’re doing even when your fingers are in the way. Bringing this to Windows 8 means that desktop and laptop PC users also get a game that's great with a mouse!

Windows 8 Features: