Anagram

Put word puzzles on your website. Players unscramble letters to find the word - or climb a word ladder from one word to another, one letter at a time - racing the clock round after round to top the leaderboard. Anagram is a Pro Tool, and can be gifted to a site.

What it does

• Two puzzle types. Anagrams: each round shows a word with its letters scrambled, and the player puts them back in order. Word ladders: each round gives a start word and an end word of the same length (COLD and WARM); the player changes one letter at a time, every step a real word (COLD, CORD, CARD, WARD, WARM).
• A few rounds a go (5 unless you change it), from your list.
• Random or daily. Random: every go picks its rounds at random from the list. Daily: each day plays the next rounds from the list, in order, with the same scrambled letters for everyone that day; each name gets one go a day, and the leaderboard is per day.
• Any real word counts. For an anagram of up to 8 letters, any other real English word made of exactly the same letters is right too (LEAST for STEAL). Switch that off with Only the listed word counts. The scrambled letters are never the word itself, nor (where it can be helped) another real word.
• Tap or type. Players tap the letter tiles (or type them) to build the word, tap a placed letter to take it back, Shuffle to see the letters in a new order, and Enter to try it. Ladders have an on-screen keyboard as well as the real one, and Back a step when a ladder runs into a dead end.
• Timing kept by the server, from the start of the go to the end of the last round, plus any penalties.
• Penalties you choose: seconds for a wrong guess (5 unless you change it), for a skip (30) and for a hint (15). Slips that cannot be right (using other letters, changing two letters at once) cost nothing.
• Skip a round if you allow it: it counts as not solved and shows the answer.
• Hints if you want them: for an anagram, the next letter of the word in its place; for a ladder, the next word of a shortest ladder from where the player is.
• Leaderboards for today, this week, this month and all time, best go per name. Most rounds solved wins; then, for ladders, the fewest steps over the shortest ladder; then the fastest time.
• The answers never reach the visitor's browser until each round is over. The word list the game checks against stays on the server too.
• Optional overall time limit, opening and closing times, and a limit on goes per name.
• Personal best on the finished screen, and a Share button (it shows how you did - never the words).

Getting started

1. Switch Anagram on in Tools.
2. Open Tools > Games > Anagram and choose New game.
3. Give it a title and choose the Puzzle type.
4. Type your words, one a line (or, for ladders, a start and end word per row).
5. Press Test and play it yourself (see below).
6. Set the status to Open and save.
7. Put it on any page:

[anagram id="planets" /]

Anagram words

• One word a line, 3 to 15 letters. Spaces, hyphens and accents are dropped: "Sea horse" is played as SEAHORSE, "Café" as CAFE.
• As you type, each word shows how many other real words its letters make. Those count as right too, unless you switch on Only the listed word counts. Words over 8 letters always need the listed word.
• A word whose letters cannot be scrambled (AAA), a word twice, and words that are not for a public game are refused when you save, with the reason beside the word.
• Up to 1,000 words in a game.

Word ladders

• Each row is a start word and an end word, the same length, 3 to 6 letters.
• As you type, each row shows the shortest ladder: "shortest 4 steps". A pair that no chain of real words can join is marked, and the game will not save until it is changed or removed.
• Players see the shortest length, so they know what to aim for. Each step over it counts against them on the leaderboard (after rounds solved, before time).
• Pasting a list into a start word box adds a row for every line: COLD > WARM, COLD WARM or COLD, WARM.
• Up to 300 ladders in a game.

Settings

The game

• Title and Short name (used in the shortcode; made from the title if left empty).
• Status: Draft (not shown anywhere), Open (playable), Closed (shows a note and the leaderboard).
• Puzzle type: Anagrams or Word ladders.
• Mode: Random or Daily.
• First day (daily games): the day the first rounds come out. Day 1 plays the first words of the list, day 2 the next, and so on. Under the list you can see how long it lasts.
• Introduction, shown above the game.
• Opens and Closes: optional times outside which the game cannot be started.

Rounds and rules

• Rounds a go: 1 to 30. With fewer words than that in the list, a random go plays them all.
• Time limit (minutes) for the whole go: 0 for none. When it runs out, the go ends with the rounds solved so far, timed at the limit.
• Seconds added for a wrong guess.
• Goes each (per name): 0 for as many as they like. Daily games always allow one go a day.
• Players can skip a round and Seconds added for a skip.
• Only the listed word counts (anagrams).

Hints: on or off, Hints a go (1 to 10) and Seconds added for each hint. The leaderboard marks plays that used hints (H1, H2...).

Leaderboard: on or off, its size (3 to 100), the period it opens on, and Animations (tiles pop in, wrong words shake; visitors who asked for less motion never see them).

Daily games

• Each day plays the next Rounds a go words (or ladders) from the list, in order, from the First day.
• Everyone gets the same letters that day. Each name gets one go a day.
• The leaderboard opens on Today: each day is a fresh contest.
• Once a day has been played, its words cannot be changed (nor the rounds a day or the first day) - you can still add words to the end. Resetting the plays unlocks them.
• When the list has 7 days or fewer left, the game's row says so, and you get a notification (Anagram daily game running out). When it runs out, players see "Nothing to play today" and the Tool's badge in the sidebar turns red.

Testing a game

Test (in the editor, on each game in the list, and on its Plays screen) opens the game right there in the admin, exactly as your players will see it.

• It plays the version you last saved. With unsaved changes the button says Save and test, and saves first.
• It works whatever the status, so you can try a draft before anyone can see it. A daily game plays today's rounds (or day 1's before it starts).
• A test go is never saved to the leaderboard, never counts towards the goes each name is allowed, and never raises a notification. When you finish, it tells you where you would have come.

Plays and leaderboards

Plays shows every go at a game, newest first, with the rounds solved, the time, and beside the name the day (daily games), steps over the shortest and hints used. Hide takes a play off the leaderboard without deleting it (a rude name, a known cheat); Reset the leaderboard deletes every play of the game.

The leaderboard shows beside the game. The board setting on the shortcode changes that:

[anagram id="planets" board="hide" /]    the game only
[anagram id="planets" board="only" /]    the leaderboard only

A leaderboard on its own, anywhere:

[anagram-leaderboard id="planets" period="week" limit="10" title="This week's best" /]

period is today, week, month or all; without it, the leaderboard opens on the game's own Leaderboard opens on setting.

Moving games between sites

Export a game from its menu in the list (right-click it, or ⋮), or from the download button at the top of its editor. Export all at the top of the list puts every game in one file. The file holds the words, ladders and settings - never who played them, and never a daily game's first day.

Import… at the top of the list adds the games in such a file to this site:

• Each arrives as a draft with no first day. Test it, pick a first day if it is daily, then set it to Open.
• Every ladder is checked again against the word list here.
• Nothing already here is changed. A game whose short name is taken gets one of its own (planets-2), so check the shortcode before putting it on a page.
• One that is not valid is skipped, and the message says which and why. Up to 50 games at a time.

Notifications

• Anagram new best: someone has solved every round of a game faster than anyone before (on by default).
• Anagram daily game running out: an open daily game has 7 days of rounds or fewer left (on by default).

Choose which you get in your notification settings.

Players

Players type a name (2 to 24 characters; names that are not for a public board are refused) and play. No account is needed. Their name is remembered on that device for next time, and a go in progress carries on if they reload the page.

Gifting

Anagram is a Pro Tool. It can be bought, or gifted to a site for good or for a number of days.