Jokerdown

[JackHurst]

I am in the process of creating some Countdown variations to add to my app:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... l=en&gl=US


One such creation is Jokerdown. So far I have implemented only the letters and the gameplay is designed to keep the small UI of the mobile phone uncluttered. I am pretty happy with how it works:

Letters Rules

• You pick 8 letters include at least 2 vowels, and at most 5 vowels.

• The final letter is a "?", i.e. a joker. A joker can be used as any letter

• You do not have to use the joker (but you may as well)

• To save the faff of the keyboard coming up during the game, you don't even have to specify what letter you are using the joker as. The game detects for you if there is any valid word(s)

Numbers rules

• To be determined. Will post an idea in a subsequent post

Conundrums Rules

• To be determined. Would love suggestions

Example
Selection: S L L N G E I S ?
Bob declares S?ELLINGS and scores 18 points. SWELLINGS and SPELLINGS are both valid words which match his declaration (using the joker as a W or P respectively)
David declares G?LLINESS and scores 0 points. There are no words in the dictionary matching this pattern. Maybe David was thinking of some invalid word like GULLINESS.

Have a go:
R P S E I A H E ? [--------------EPARCHIES, SHAPELIER, APHERESIS, THERAPIES, THERAPISE]
O A E I I C R D ? [--------------APERIODIC]
R J E O S U D Q ? [---------------QUERIDOS]

Well done if you solved any of those. All very tough to get the best word on.


It's quite fun. Some of you might say it's the same as Goatdown. It's quite similar, but rather than having to pick a letter before time, you are picking during the round, and opposing players could pick a different letter to your for their word. To max a Jokerdown letters round would be a bit like Metamaxing a Goatdown letters round. Another thing that will make it different to Goatdown will be that I want to make the numbers different from your bog standard boring numbers rounds. This should add some spice.

Previously when I did Xmas specials on the show, Damian was asking about some ideas for variations on the standard rules we could try for the specials. In the end we just ended up doing standard rules because getting something set up at short notice would have been too much. A nice thought about Jokerdown is that all you would need to do is print off a ? tile and have it stashed off at the edge of the consonant stack for Rachel to put up as the final letter for each round.

[JackHurst]

Here's one idea for numbers. The target is a 4 digit number where one digit is a "?" (i.e another joker). As long as you make a number which matches the overall pattern of the target, you get 10 points. Another way to think about it is its a numbers game where the target is 10 times bigger, but there are also 10 targets and you can pick which target you go for during the time limit. Scoring could be the same is usual. If you hit any of the targets you get 10 points. If you only manage as close to 1 away to one of the targets you get 7 pts etc.

Things I am thinking about:
- Would a default time limit of 60s be better?
- Should you be allowed to pick 6 small?
- Is 6 numbers even the right amount for the selection?


numbersSelection: [100, 50, 25, 7, 9, 2]
numbersTarget: ?248

Example with solution
numbersSelection: [100, 50, 25, 7, 9, 2]
numbersTarget: ?248
solution: 50 * 25 = 1250. 1250 - 2 = 1248.

Examples to play along to:
numbersSelection: [75, 50, 25, 8, 1, 9]
numbersTarget: 46?1
====

numbersSelection: [25, 10, 3, 6, 9, 8]
numbersTarget: 1?24
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numbersSelection: [50, 10, 7, 9, 2, 4]
numbersTarget: 6?74
====

numbersSelection: [5, 6, 4, 1, 10, 2]
numbersTarget: 107?
====