WORD SEARCH PUZZLE HAVING GRID OF CELLS CONTAINING MULTIPLE LETTERS
A word search type puzzle is provided in the form of a grid containing two or more letters in each cell. Words are formed by selecting one or more of the letters in each cell and progressing to other cells in a manner following a standard word search format, in that words may be formed forwards or backwards, vertically, horizontally or diagonally, in a linear fashion. Any combination of quantities of letters from each cell can be specified to be used in forming each solution. The grid can be mapped using coordinates for rows and columns. Solutions can be provided with hints for discovery, such as a starting or ending grid coordinate or direction within the grid. Solutions can be marked on the grid, or can be identified by the user by their coordinates and direction within the grid.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/677,692, filed Jul. 31, 2012, for all purposes.
FIELD OF INVENTIONThe present invention relates to a word search type puzzle, and more specifically to a word search puzzle utilizing a non-singular grid of characters.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONWord search type puzzles are known in the prior art. The most popularly known example is a standard word search where words are hidden in a vertical and horizontal linear grid containing one letter per cell of the grid. Words can be oriented in a forward or backward direction, vertically, horizontally or diagonally. The placement of the letters must follow a specific set of rules in order to provide the challenge which in turn provides for the entertainment factor of the game in question.
Another example of a word search type game is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,422,561 to Schroeder. Schroeder discloses a word search based game including a playing surface divided into individual playing cells, and a plurality of both alphanumeric playing tiles and directional instruction tiles. The alphanumeric tiles are placed on the playing surface in a manner to form words, similar to the popular Scrabble® game. However, in this iteration, the played tiles do not necessarily have to form words with every alphanumeric playing tile that happens to be adjacent on the board. Directional instruction tiles are of the same size, shape and color as the alphanumeric playing tiles so that they may be drawn at random with alphanumeric playing tiles, but indicate a desired direction in which to form a word and a bonus multiplier if a word follows said direction. The game also provides category cards that can be drawn at the start of a game to provide a scoring bonus to words formed which meet the category. The game is adaptable to both a traditional board game format and a computerized format.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,892,319, an apparatus for a word game is disclosed using a game board surface divided into a number of squares into which playing pieces containing letters of the alphabet are placed to form a word. The various words are contained in groups which, when of a certain size, are considered to be an ISLAND which creates the right to start a new word independent from all others, which is an ATOLL. Except for ATOLLS and the beginning of the game, any new letters added must form a word with those letters already on the playing field. New words which link one ISLAND to another ISLAND or ATOLL are ISTHMUSES and capture the ISLAND OR ATOLL to which they are linked as part of the territory for the player creating such an ISTHMUS. Two icosahedron dice having their faces numbered from 1 to 20 are used to randomly select numbers from 2 to 40. These numbers are related to the letters of the alphabet by a decoder with the frequency of the number approximating the frequency of the use of letters in making words. The seldom used letters of the alphabet are increased through the use of a number of bonus letters and the value of the individual letters vary based on a scoring code. The individual ownership of ATOLLS, ISTHMUSES, and ISLANDS is shown by a color coded transparent flag placed on top of one of the previously played letters.
In 1988, Waddingtons Games, Ltd. published Wordsearch: The Game of Finding Words, a word search based board game where tiles are randomly placed on a grid of spaces on a playing surface. Players take turns moving the tiles to vacant spaces to form words. Words may be formed in any direction. Letter tiles are both played onto the playing surface and moved around on the playing surface in order to accomplish word formation.
While the aforementioned games or puzzles generally involve the formation of words through placement of letters in a linear array, or the discovery of words hidden in a fixed array, they do not describe a word search containing multiple letters in each cell of a grid. In this respect, the game according to the present invention departs substantially from the usual designs in the prior art. In doing so, this invention provides a more challenging word search experience.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONIn view of the foregoing disadvantages inherent in the known types of word games, this invention provides an improved word search. As such, the present invention's general purpose is to provide a new and improved word search game that uses more than one letter in each cell. Players start with a grid filled with letters used to assemble the words found on a provided list. Some of the letters will be used and others are there only to increase the difficulty of the puzzle. Players have only the restrictions that they must form the words using letters found in cells that are in a straight line. Otherwise, words may be formed in any direction, as is customary in word search puzzles. Played letters do not need to be in any specific order within each cell, but the letter or letters in adjacent cells must follow the proper spelling of the word as a single letter or a pair or group of letters. Other variations of the game include restrictions on the number of letters that can be used in each cell and the option of whether the same letter can be used twice within a cell.
The more important features of the invention have thus been outlined in order that the more detailed description that follows may be better understood and in order that the present contribution to the art may better be appreciated. Additional features of the invention will be described hereinafter and will form the subject matter of the claims that follow.
An object of the present invention is to provide a word search based puzzle that is entertaining to play.
It is another object of the invention to provide a word search based puzzle that is adaptable to either a conventional paper format or computer format.
It is still another object of the invention to provide a word search based puzzle that can use multiple letters per cell to increase the difficulty and entertainment values of the puzzle.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a word search based puzzle that is adaptable to infinite categories and arrangements.
It is an even further object of the invention to provide a word search based puzzle that is economical to manufacture and produce so as to keep eventual costs to the consumer reasonable.
Other objects of this invention will appear from the following description and appended claims, reference being made to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification wherein like reference characters designate corresponding parts in the several views.
Before explaining at least one embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.
Referring to
The grid 12 is formed of an array of cells 16 arranged in rows 18 and columns 20. Each of the rows 18 is identified by a letter coordinate 22, and each of the columns 20 is identified by a numeric coordinate 24. Each cell 16 is occupied by a letter or letters 26.
The solution table 14 of
In order to solve the puzzle 10 of
In
In
Referring to
An answer key (not shown) will normally be provided for each puzzle presented. The answer key will show the word solutions by one of several methods. The word solutions can be circled or lined through, as shown in the puzzles of
In one embodiment of the invention, the puzzle is played on a mobile application of the type that is designed to run on smart phones and other mobile devices.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present invention. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent constructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
Claims
1. A word search type puzzle comprising:
- a grid having a plurality of cells wherein each one of the plurality of cells contains at least one letter, at least one of the plurality of cells contains two or more letters, and two or more of the plurality of cells are solution cells, each solution cell comprising one or more solution letters; the grid further containing at least one word solution, the at least one word solution formed by connecting two or more solution letters whereby at least one of the solution cells contains two or more letters, each solution cell is adjacent to at least one other solution cell, and the solution cells form a linear configuration.
2. The puzzle of claim 1, further including a coordinate system to identify the location of cells in the grid.
3. The puzzle of claim 1, wherein the linear configuration is oriented in one of a forward and backward horizontal direction.
4. The puzzle of claim 1, wherein the linear configuration is oriented in one of a forward and backward diagonal direction.
5. The puzzle of claim 1, wherein the linear configuration is oriented in one of an upward and downward vertical direction.
6. The puzzle of claim 1, further comprising a list of the word solutions to be found in the grid.
7. The puzzle of claim 6, wherein the list of word solutions further comprises a grid coordinate to identify a starting cell for locating the word solution.
8. The puzzle of claim 1, wherein the word solutions are formed utilizing only one of the letters in each adjoining cell.
9. The puzzle of claim 1, wherein the word solutions are formed utilizing all of the letters in each adjoining cell, to the extent that the number of letters in the word solution is evenly divisible by the number of letters in each adjoining cell.
10. The puzzle of claim 1, wherein the word solutions are formed utilizing a predetermined number of the letters contained in the adjoining cells.
11. The puzzle of claim 1, wherein the word solutions are formed utilizing a predetermined range of numbers of the letters contained in the adjoining cells.
12. The puzzle of claim 1, wherein said grid arranges said cells in an array of rows and columns, said grid further comprising at least one enlarged cell that spans at least one of multiple columns and multiple rows.
13. The puzzle of claim 12, wherein said at least one enlarged cell contains a number of letters corresponding to a multiple of the number of letters contained in adjacent non-enlarged cells.
14. The puzzle of claim 12, wherein said at least one enlarged cell combines with adjoining cells of any of said multiple columns and multiple rows to form word solutions.
15. The puzzle of claim 1, where a letter in one of said adjoining cells is utilized twice within the same cell to form the word solution.
16. The puzzle of claim 1, further comprising an answer key revealing the location of the word solutions in the manner of one of circling, lining through, coloring, highlighting and removing unused letters.
17. A word search type puzzle formed of an array of letters, wherein the letters are arrayed in a grid-like configuration, and wherein the letters are arrayed in groups of at least two letters within the grid-like configuration, and wherein a word solution is contained within the array of letters by combining letters from adjoining groups in a linear configuration so that the word solution is constructed by connecting at least one letter from one group to at least one letter in the next group in the linear configuration.
18. The puzzle of claim 17, wherein the word solutions are constructed by combining multiple letters from at least one of said groups in the linear configuration.
19. The puzzle of claim 18, further comprising a listing of word solutions contained within the array of letters.
20. The puzzle of claim 19, wherein the listing of word solutions includes location indicia to identify a position of the word solution within the grid-like configuration.
Type: Application
Filed: Jun 7, 2013
Publication Date: Feb 6, 2014
Inventor: Benjamin Edward Noordhoek (Grandville, MI)
Application Number: 13/912,755
International Classification: A63F 3/04 (20060101);