Project Overview

We love a game that stretches the brain, and so we made one that does just that. The aim of the game is to unscramble the word on screen by spinning the letters into the correct order. Try and gain extra points by solving the word in the least amount of moves possible. If the challenge of unscrambling the word doesn't get you addicted, the soft melodies that accompany game play will!

Developed entirely using HTML5 and then wrapped for the App Store, this fantastic game demonstrates what you can do to push the browser to it's limits.

Organisation

Creative Licence Digital

Team

Stephen Hutchings - Designer & Developer
Mathieu Guillout - Tech Director
Darren Winterford - Director

Project Brief

The team at Creative Licence Digital wanted to create a beautiful game to be enjoyed on the commute home, or when winding down at the end of the day. We wanted to create an intelligent and challenging game that really tests the users knowledge, whilst also delivering a UI that is simple, beautiful and highly addictive.

From a technical perspective, the challenge we set ourselves was to create an HTML5 app that would deliver the same level and performance of a native app - so that even those with a trained eye would not know the difference. The brief was to create a universal app, and so responsive design was also adopted to cater to all iPhone versions and iPad versions.

Looking at the reviews in the App Store, it's clear that we were successful with the goals that we set out to achieve.

"I LOVE this game!!! I thought I could never put down angry birds but it has met its match in a completely different format with this game. I can't put it down! If you really want to give yourself a challenge, try unscrambling these words. It is not as easy as it may seem. Clues are available but it is more fun to try and not use them."

Project Need

Although the game itself provides users with a unique and memorable experience, the way in which it was developed is really what sets it apart in terms of innovation.

One of the issues we find with native iOS development is the amount of time lost in prototyping and exploration. Exploration can be time consuming and less fluid with iOS, recompiling, rebuilding etc. For this reason, a while back we chose to use HTML5/JS for our prototyping.

And this was the path we chose for Scrambled - a game concept where we really felt we had something. The next step was then to move into the development phase, cue native iOS development…

However, the more we played around in the browser, the more we realised this concept lent itself really well toward HTML5. With a bit of exploring, we found this approach not only worked for prototyping, but also for development, deployment and even monetisation. It further proved the right choice when we realised we could use CSS to handle the various iOS screen sizes - iPhone, iPhone 5, iPad etc.

What about performance issues? We were worried too that it just wouldn't stand up to native iOS performance. But by using some emerging frameworks and practices, we were able to achieve a result we felt was comparable.

This approach proved how far HTML5 has come in terms of performance, making app development much more accessible and platform agnostic.

User Experience

Scrambled combines several sensory experiences to really make game play memorable, pleasurable and challenging. The game takes advantage of the touch screen by making the user slide letters in a clockwise or anticlockwise motion with their thumb around a colour wheel to move letters into the correct position. Clever visual cues and animations give the sense of completion and accomplishment, whilst bright and relaxing melodies perfectly complement the winding nature of the colour wheel.

The UI team at Creative Licence Digital have demonstrated their expertise with simple, clean, minimalist interaction design, which has been adapted with keen attention to detail for all of the screen sizes that the game is played on. There are no redundant features, text or animations that inhibit game play or the overall user experience.

The game space is extremely cluttered and competitive. To ensure our game stood out, we needed to apply both clever game play logic, that would challenge users of all different ages and aptitude to keep them engaged from the moment the game was downloaded. The clever colour coding of word categories, word definition reveals and hint mechanic caters to all player types.

To keep players coming back for more, we implemented a push notification system, that sends users' new word challenges directly to their device, in a bid to promote additional game plays. These daily word challenges were delivered at strategic times of the day to maximise repeat plays.

Project Marketing

Within a month of Scrambled appearing on the App Store, it was featured by Apple in the Games Category. This really boosted the app's discoverability, which helped contribute to its 10,500 unique users.

We have also employed targeted Facebook ads to push our Daily Word Challenge for further engagement through Social Media.