A downloadable game

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Dropd is crafted with ❤️ by TheDevJOman

*Currently exclusive to the Panic Playdate*

*Currently in the polishing phase and may contain bugs. The game is free to play until finalized but donations are always welcome and I thank you in advance for what you can spare 😊*


In a nutshell:
Taking cues from Wordle, Scrabble, Tic-Tac-Toe, and Tetris, this new word game will exercise your brain and strengthen your 5-letter word knowledge.


What you see:
You are presented with a letter rack in the left, a 5x5 board in the middle, current and high scores in the top right, and a scrollable list of found words in the mid-bottom right.


Gameplay:
This game uses the official Scrabble letter bag and loads the rack from the top to the bottom. You're then given the bottom-most letter and must use the D-pad (UP - hard drop, DOWN - soft drop, LEFT, and RIGHT) to position the piece on the board while being mindful of the Tetris-like gravity.

Once your letter is placed, you may wait for the Drop Timer to reach 0 or press A to skip to the next letter. You're given the bottom-most letter again and the cycle repeats. You may press and hold B at any time to temporarily pause the game and have a think.

Get one (or more) valid word (as per the official Wordle word list) to fill a whole row, column, or diagonal to increment your score, add the word to the list, and clear the line.

If you get a wildcard ("?"), the game will pause and let you choose a letter using the Playdate keyboard. The game will resume when you select "OK".

The game is over when either the board fills up or you run out of letters. Out of Letters gives you an option to continue in Endless Mode - letters aren't removed from the bag but will still appear with approximately the same chance as a typical Scrabble bag.

During the game over prompt or while holding B, you can press UP or DOWN OR use the CRANK to scroll your found word list and revel in its glory. (This only applies if you have more than 8 found words in a game)


Features:
 - Reset your highscore, adjust drop time (1 to 10 seconds), and toggle Autoplay* from the Playdate Menu
    *Autoplay acts kind of like a screensaver. Scores are not recorded.
 - Over 14,000 English Wordle words to verify against
 - 100-piece Scrabble letter bag
 - Tetris-style gravity, soft drop, and hard drop mechanics
 - Tic-Tac-Toe-style row, column, or diagonal connections
 - Customizable RNG Seeds
    >Always defaults to random seed on launch or if you leave the entry box blank.
    >Set seeds to compete for highscores
    >Accessed by using a 3-button chord on the title or end-of-game screen.
    >The chord: Press DOWN, B, and A together (or press-and-hold in that order)  (highlight text to see spoiler)
 - Achievements (currently 14)
    >Drop, Drop, Drop it like it's hot
    >Oops I Dropd the salt
    >The 'Z' stands for 'Zesty'
    >Competitive
    >Don't Touch That
    >Keyboard Masher
    >Keyboard Master
    >Crank That
    >The Last Drop
    >Palindroppa
    >Only Read Backwards
    >Dropception
    >Drop it Again
    >Alphabet Soup
     I will post hints in the devlog for these over the next few weeks for those struggling to unlock some of them


Parental Guidance:
This game is not explicitly vulgar, however, the letters chosen at random may provide opportunities for vulgar words to appear or be played. The Wordle list I'm using does validate some vulgar words. Play at your discretion and supervise youngsters as you feel necessary.


Generative AI disclaimer:
I used ChatGPT to bounce ideas off of, help me with some of the achievement names, and to discuss optimal code strategy and placement.


Change Log:
  - V 1.2.0
    >Fixed EVEN MORE gravity bugs... ugh...
    >Made keyboard show again if an invalid character is chosen
    >14 initial achievements added
    >An RNG seed system has been implemented
    >Shows unlocked achievements when system PAUSE/MENU button is pressed
  - V 1.1.0
    This should make things more stable 😅
    >Fixed MORE gravity bugs
    >Changed how the game handles wildcard selection
    >Added a couple more sounds!
    >Line clears have animations now!!!
  - V 1.0.1
    >Fixed a few gravity bugs
    >Attempted to make wildcard selection more robust
    >Added sounds!

Updated 23 days ago
StatusIn development
Rating
Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars
(2 total ratings)
AuthorTheDevJOman
GenreStrategy, Puzzle
Made withPlaydate
Tagsenglish, lua, Playdate, Word game
Average sessionA few minutes
LanguagesEnglish

Download

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Click download now to get access to the following files:

Dropd_v1.2.0.pdx.zip 440 kB

Development log

Comments

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(+1)

This game is very nice! Really wraps your brain with the mechanics! You should probably integrate the unofficial Playdate Squad Achievement system for your achievements, just to show in Trophy Case.

Thank you so much, Joro!
And thank you for the Achievement System rec 😊  No promises yet for implementation but I'll look into it and maybe demo it :P  Seems intriguing and I do like the Trophy Case aspect!

WOW! 9 downloads already!? Thank you, folks, and please reply to this comment to let me know what you think of Dropd so far 😊