Due to a conflict of names, the app has been changed to ScramWords. Version 1.0 is waiting for approval, but this little movie shows some cosmetic and gameplay changes made for 1.1.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaNmHkMQ9gw
This version will go up with a slightly expanded (75k words) dictionary. The next round will have a word list revised to over 100k words, more closely matching the lists used in the most popular word games.
ScramWords is now available in the App Store. Huzzah.
Interesting game. I found the time seems to go by too quickly, and I am a fairly fast Scrabble player. Also, it is hard to drop the letters in the right place sometimes, at least on an iPad Mini. Too many words I am used to playing are not in the dictionary, so that makes it a little tough at first, too. I am enjoying it, however!
Thanks, @jlslate. I’ve already pushed up a 1.1 update that includes bug fixes, graphics updates, and about 5k more words, but my goal for 1.2 is to get the Scrabble/Words with Friends dictionary covered.
Sorry about the difficulty of locating spots on the mini. I hate to hear that as I was hoping to go universal with this app in an upcoming version. Any suggestions on how to make placement easier?
.@Mark - good job! I too found the timer a bit short. Also locating the spots on an iPad 3 seems to be out by about half a circle.
Suggestions for improvements for starters - just my thoughts
Thanks, @West.
On the timer issue: the “standard” version of the game (which is standard in that it uses a fixed tile set equal to that used in an English Scrabble set minus the wild cards) provides “bonus” time for words played, with time dependent on score. I’m thinking maybe this time needs to be increased by a factor of 2 or 3, so the pressure to play something remains, but the reward for a good word is increased. That might address both the timing issue and your #4. What do you think?
Highlighting the spot you’re currently over on the board is a great idea. A definite for 1.2 (1.1 has already been pushed up for review).
In 1.1 the high scores are shown on the menu screen, and the bug that screws up the “best ever” value in 1.0 is fixed. I’m thinking that down the road I’d like to return a lot of statistics: how many words did you play in the game? What was your longest word? What word scored the most? etc. And I’d like to get integration with Game Center worked in Real Soon Now.
.@Mark, sounds like a good solution for the rewards. On second look I do see the increase but a boost to this would be better
Top score is 266 so far :-/
I found a bug:
_ _ _ B O G
_ _ _ U _ _
_ _ _ T W _
R I O T E D
_ _ _ _ A _
_ _ _ _ K _
When I added “weak” the word was accepted, even though TW is not a word (I assume!)
Also, as an observation, you sometimes need to click go twice when two words are formed.
Really like the game though - keep up the good work
@West Well… darn. It should have caught that.
When tiles are played, the program goes through a routine of running up-down / left-right from open space to open space. So it should have assembled TW, RIOTED, and WEAK out of that play and tested them all for validity before moving forward.
So clearly you’re on to something (something I didn’t catch before pushing 1.1). It’ll get hammered in 1.2.
Thanks so much for your feedback!
No probs. If it helps the order I played the words was: riot, rioted, butt, bog, weak
I don’t know how you are storing the words, but maybe logging riot and rioted might have affected things?
What it does is actually look at each new letter that’s been played and build out the word list from there, so the TW should have been picked up when you played “weak.” I think I’ve found the problem – the “down words” check was overriding the “right words” check.
In reworking this, I think I’ve found a way to improve the efficiency.
@Mark - How did you integrate a dictionary into the app? Did you do it through the runtime, or did you convert a list of words into an array?
@Zoyt I did it in the most sloppy, lazy way you can imagine.
I took a 70K dictionary, read it in, then wrote it out as a series of strings – one for each letter of the alphabet. Each string I stuffed into a tab inside Codea. In 1.4, I could edit the strings directly, but 1.5 seems to have problems with these large strings so most of the text is invisible. As a result, I paste them (into notepad or another text editor) whenever I need to add words or make adjustments, then paste them back. It still seems to work fine, though I can’t see the text.
At the bottom of the first message in this thread, you’ll see an example of what it looks like. Several people have proposed neater solutions, and I may go to one before the next big update.
Version 1.1 up
Bug fixes, improved graphics, better high score handling, little improvements on touch, new menu options… Kind of where it should have been at 1.0
Well, it is a well known strategy to never buy / install a .0 version. 
Update looks good, though only played a few times so far. Another small bug - if you are in the red timer zone and you get the alarm zone, then get a word which takes the timer back out of the zone, the alarm still persists.
Thanks, @West. Another thing to fix for 1.2.
Have an all new 180k word dictionary loading in less than 6 seconds, so all those folks who have been frustrated with my ugly old string find, and players who have been frustrated that thy couldn’t find a missing word, should both breath easier.
Submitted version 1.2 today. Includes a new 180k dictionary — compressed, as several people suggestedinto an image. Loads up in less than 5 seconds on an ipad2.
New interface, new icon, new… lots of stuff.
But the big deal for me is that it’s now a universal app. I got there in the most unimaginative way possible. First I wrote a series of graphic primitives that mapped in relative screen positions rather than absolute coordinates, but passing my old code through this didn’t give a satisfactory result. The different screen ratios let to odd positioning.
So instead I just intercepted all the HEIGHT and WIDTH calls and made routines to scale fonts and sprites. As a game that wasn’t originally aimed at the iPhone, I had a problem with some elements being too small, but I made adjustments were possible. By the way, if you set up a 320x480 screen on your iPad, it’s very close to the actual size of an iPhone 4 screen. Certainly close enough to test the visibility of elements.
In any case, this finally feels like the game it should have been on day one.
ScramWords 1.2 not ready for sale as a universal app. Just tried it on my iPhone. It is a bit of an eye test, but it works dandy.