### Story Of My Life
A while ago, my wife and I were driving somewhere, and while we were only a couple hours on, I was already starting to fall asleep. I suppose that wouldn't be such a bad thing—people tend to nod off on car trips all the time. The problem is, I was the driver.

Well, of course, my wife wasn't very happy with me, and in the past when something like this has happened, we've ended up turning on the radio or lowering the temperature in the car somehow by either opening the window or upping the air conditioning. Snacks or a drink will help too, but in this case, it wasn't so long a trip that we'd brought anything with us.

This time, though, she took our her phone and starting playing this app called *Wordscapes*.

![IMG_2376.PNG](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmZBZqXpTjD8X1tCKePJZpgvWmf3sa61FHE5rGtGDr8DQg/IMG_2376.PNG)

#### This Might Seem Normal, But...
First of all, I didn't even know my wife had this on her phone, and I've yet to ask how it got there. You would think she put it on there, but she has to ask anyone who will help her to do most things that are of any sort of a technological nature. She's still working on texting (though her mastery of talking on the phone is par none—you should hear the messages she leaves on voicemails—it's like she's actually talking to the person).

Second of all, English is her second language, and even in her native Spanish she has trouble spelling, so the fact that she would have an app like this, where you actually need to know how to spell English words, was amazing to me.

The app does say it wants to help you learn English, but as I've gotten into the higher levels on my own, you do have to have a pretty large vocabulary to at least guess at what some of the words are.

#### Back To The Story
At any rate, as she would play the game on this trip we were on, she would do what she could and then she would give me glances of the phone or call out how many letters and what letters were already revealed and I would have to guess. Yes, I did keep my eyes on the road and we did reach our destination in safety. It also kept me awake and it was something that my wife and I could do together that we both actually enjoyed doing (which, let me tell you, isn't always the easiest thing to accomplish).

#### How The Game Is Played
For those who have not heard of *Wordscapes*, it's essentially like a crossword puzzle, except instead of clues to the words, the words are formed from the letters provided in the circle. Generally, there are six letters given, but sometimes there are seven. Most of the time, then, the words would be comprised of three letters up to six in this case, but as you can see in the lower right corner, and if you look at the boxes, there are no three letter words in this particular puzzle.

So, all words are between four and six letters long, and basically, they are divined through just starting to spell words. You touch a letter to start and then swipe over to the next in succession. As you do, lines form between the letters. When you let go, you've either spelled a word or you haven't, and the app will let you know which you've managed to do. If it's part of the puzzle, the word goes into the set of blocks it's been assigned to.

In between the circle and the crossword puzzle above it, you can see the letters you've chosen and whether they're making a word or not. That jumble of letters will shake if it's not a word and you start over again. If it's a word, but not one used in the puzzle, it will go down to the star (where I directed your attention to before) and it will give you extra coins when the puzzle is solved.

Essentially, that's the point of the puzzle—to collect these coins. As far as I know, however, they are not redeemable like STEEM would be, but you can use them to purchase help, such as the arrow and bullseye, which allows you to pick a block to reveal a letter, and the firework, which actually chooses random letters to reveal.

I've yet to use the light bulb, so I'm not entirely sure what it does.

#### Solving The Puzzle
So, if I were doing this puzzle, I would try to get the six letter word as quickly as I can. In this case, it's actually kind of easy:

SOCCER

In a lot of the puzzles, though, the six letter words are much more difficult to pick out. You can use the crossed arrows to order or jumble the circle of letters in a different way, which may or may not be helpful. I generally just stick with what the app defaults with to start.

From there, this puzzle has two five letter words, and three four letter words. This is actually one of the smaller puzzles. I've been amazed at just how many words can be formed using some of the same six letters, especially when there often words that don't even make into the puzzle.

SOCCER
SCORE
CORES
ROSE
SORE
ORES

All of those could essentially fill up the puzzle. But the word core is also possible, and would end up being collected as an extra coin at the end of the game.

#### In-Game Purchases
As you can see, I've yet to buy a reprieve from the ads that pop up at the bottom.

You can spend $4.99 to get rid of them as an in game purchase. There are other things you can buy, too, if you want to spend the money. I don't like doing it, but there's a piggy bank that fills up with coins after each puzzle is solved and when it gets full, the only way to continue accumulating coins that way is to pay $2.99 to bail the coins out. Pretty annoying, but otherwise, you not only lose out on the 1,440 coins accumulated there, but every other coin that you might earn after that.

#### STEEM Idea Perhaps?
If someone were to make this game as a dApp on STEEM, I would probably play it, especially if I could earn STEEM, or even their own STEEM alt coin.

I don't have any affiliation with *Wordscapes*. I just thought I'd share something that I've enjoyed doing that I think helps to keep my mind working on something I like in the spare moments I have here and there.

Or when I'm trying to stay awake on a longer trip somewhere.

<sub>*Image source—Wordscapes*</sub>