DOWN WORDS

Down Words is a single-player puzzle game that plays like a word version of Tetris. Letters fall one at a time from the top of a 10-column grid. Your job is to guide each letter left or right so that it lands in a position that will eventually spell one of the target words for your current level.

BASIC RULES

• Each level gives you 10 vocabulary words to find and spell.
• Letters fall from the top of the grid. You steer them left or right before they land.
• Once a letter lands, it stays put. Gravity pulls all letters downward whenever a word is cleared and tiles are removed.
• A word can be spelled horizontally or vertically, and it can read left-to-right, right-to-left, top-to-bottom, or bottom-to-top.
• When the game detects a valid word on the board, those tiles are cleared automatically, points are awarded, and remaining tiles fall to fill the gaps.
• Clear all 10 target words to advance to the next level.

The game ends if a column fills up completely to the top and a new letter cannot be placed.

CONTROLS (keyboard, rebindable in Options)

• Left Arrow: Move the falling letter left
• Right Arrow: Move the falling letter right
• Down Arrow: Soft drop (fall faster while held)
• Space: Hard drop (letter falls instantly to the bottom)
• P: Pause / unpause

On touch screens and mobile devices, on-screen tap buttons appear automatically, and you can also swipe left, right, or down to control the falling letter.

SCORING

Each letter has a point value based on its Scrabble score. When a word is cleared, your score increases by: (sum of all letter values in the word) x (word length)

Letter values are multiplied by the current level number, so longer and harder words are worth significantly more in later levels. Spelling bonus words or re-spelling words you have already cleared that level earns bonus points on top of your regular score.

LEVELS

The game has 10 levels. Each level starts with a fresh board and 10 new target words drawn from a carefully graded vocabulary list. Words grow longer and less common as levels increase. Levels 1 through 3 use only the letters found in that level's target words, so the pool is focused and manageable. Levels 4 through 6 add a set of common English letters. Levels 7 through 10 draw from a full Scrabble-style letter distribution.

The letters also fall faster with each level. Complete all 10 levels to see the victory screen and post your final score to the leaderboard.

BONUS WORDS

The game recognises over 1,100 bonus words beyond the 100 level targets. These include short everyday words, number words, colour names, math terms, food and drink words, shape names, art vocabulary, sports terms, family words, body parts, verb tenses, and plurals. Scoring a bonus word awards points and shows a gold star tally in the word list. Bonus words can be scored as many times as you can spell them.

PREVIOUS-LEVEL WORDS

Any vocabulary word from an earlier level can still be scored when it appears on the board in a later level. These are shown with a diamond icon and count toward your bonus total for that level.

REPEATING TARGET WORDS

Once you have crossed a target word off the list, you can still score it again as many times as you like during the same level. Re-spelled target words are treated like bonus words, adding a star tally to that word's row and playing the bonus chime. The word stays checked off, and your words remaining count is not affected.

BOMBS

Every now and then, you may get a bomb tile instead of a letter. Lining up three bombs in a row (horizontal or diagonal) will cause an explosion and remove all the surrounding letter tiles.

DEFINITIONS

Every time a word is cleared, its definition appears below the grid, including its part of speech. All 1,257 words in the game have definitions stored locally, so no internet connection is required.

HOW TO PLAY

Simply unzip the file to your computer and open the HTML file in your browser of choice!

THIS GAME WAS DEEPLY INSPIRED BY THE RECENT STEAM RELEASE OF 'WRITER'S BLOCK', WHICH THIS DEVELOPER HIGHLY RECOMMENDS. Available here: <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/4025400/Writers_Block/">https://store.steampowered.com/app/4025400/Writers_Block/</a>