Outplay Entertainment, the venture backed entertainment company in Dundee has officially released its latest title, Idol Words on the Apple App Store.
Billed as a cross between a word search and bingo, Idol Words challenges players to create high scoring words and clearing their playing board of letter tiles.
We asked Richard Hare, president of Outplay where the idea for the game came from:
The initial concept for Idol Words originated from Alan Gray, the game’s designer and part-time game show celebrity. At that time, he proposed a number of different word game ideas but the one that grabbed everyone was the idea of combining a word search with the objective of completing bingo-like lines and cards (perhaps our proximity to Dundee’s Mecca Hall has influenced Outplay’s collective consciousness). The team put together a prototype very quickly (thanks to the lickety-split coding skills of Stuart McGaw and the enthusiastic producer-ing of Richard Wood) and, even then, it was clear that filling in a board and flipping it to reveal a new one was fun, intuitive, and addictive™.
We didn’t want Idol Words to look like any other word game so the team considered a range of possible themes which were all lovingly visualised by the lead artist, Graham Galvin. The themes ranged from more literal bingo or gaming settings to the more exotic and humorous. We opted for Mayan temples versus Mecca bingo halls and the team took it from there. A lot of passion and sweat continues to be poured into this game and we hope everyone enjoys the final-ish product.
My word.
Players can collect treasure from the exotic temple backdrops to boost scores and access power-ups. Idol Words also offers multiplayer matches allowing you to play against friends and family around the world.
Idol Words is available now for iOS devices – iPad, iPod and iPhone Touch. It’s free.