DigWords Instructions

DigWords Brief Guide

The game is played on a 9-by-9 board where you create words using the letters provided. The standard game lasts for 12 rounds, and in each round you get 7 random letters to work with. You create a new word each round which 'interacts' with existing words, either by reusing letters, or extending/crossing words.

The game is played solo with a player forming words alone on a board. In 'Competition' mode, other players will play on separate boards but will be given the same letters to work with. Players aim to score the most points using the same letters.

Allowed Words

Valid words must be at least 2 letters long and found in the DigWord dictionary. The dictionary contains 95,000 words. The dictionary is work in progress, but it should contain most words found in a standard Scrabble dictionary. Feel free to contact us if you find any errors or omissions.

Words Not Allowed

• Words that require an apostrophe ("They're") or hyphen ("X-Ray").
• Capitalized words such as proper nouns e.g. "Beyonce", unless they also appear as acceptable entries: "Jack" is a proper noun, but the word JACK is acceptable because it has other meanings.
• Prefixes ("nano-") and Suffixes ("-ist")
• Acronyms or abbreviations are not allowed other than those that have been regularized e.g. RADAR.

Word Placement Guidelines

• Newly placed letters must form a single continuous "Main Word" reading either left-to-right or top-to-bottom.
• The first word must cover the centre of the board.
• The following words must 'interact' with at least 1 existing letter on the board. This includes reusing letters (see "VAN" / "FLAN" pic), extending words (see "TOUR" and "FANG" pics), or creating secondary cross words (see "WIN" / "WE" pic.)
• If the main word is placed adjacent to existing words (creating secondary cross words), those words must also be valid.

The word "VAN" reuses the letter 'N' from "FLAN". The word "VA" is not a word, but we are only interested in the full continuous word, which includes the 'N' to form "VAN".

The word "WIN" does not reuse letters, but the 'W' is adjacent to the word "FEE". Thus the second word "WE" is formed, which is a valid word and scores extra points.

Similarly the word "BIN" does not reuse any letters, but the letter B is adjacent to the existing word "ALE", and in this case, it extends that word to form "BALE"

A 'T' by itself is not a word, but it extends the word "OUR" to forms the main word "TOUR".

The word "FANG" extends the word "AN" using one letter on each side. This is valid, since all new letters are part of the same continuous main word.

Bad Placement

The words "CELL" and "RAN" are both good words, but all newly placed letters must form a single continuous "Main Word". In other words, they must be part of the same "Main Word". It is not possible to create two distinct Main words in this way.

The word "PINK" is a good word, but it does not 'interact' with any previous letters. Newly formed words must join, extend, reuse, or cross existing words or letters.

Besides these two examples, there are not many ways to go wrong. Once you have placed your letters correctly, the Play button should light up. then you must hope your words are spelt correctly!

Tiles and Scoring

Each letter has a point value assigned to it based on how common the letter is in the dictionary. Most of the vowels are 1 and 2 points while some rarer letters (J, Q, X, Z) give 8 points. When you make a new word, the points for all the letters of the word are added together to give the word score. If secondary cross words are created, those letters are also added together.

Bonus Squares

There are 8 bonus squares on the board labelled DL, TL, DW, and TW. These represent Double Letter, Triple Letter, Double Word, and Triple Word. Any new letters/words placed on these squares will have their points adjusted. The Letter 'P' gives 7 Points, but will automatically change to 14 when placed on a DL square. The Word bonus works in the same way. These bonuses only apply to newly placed letters, so you can only make use of them once in a game.

More Instructions coming soon!

Watch this space for more instructions, examples, clues and hints...