ECOL320: Genetics

Play of the game is very straightforward: You will be presented with a set of letters (circled) and a group of empty boxes; your challenge is to put the letters into the boxes in the appropriate order to spell a word.

Operation: Clicking on an unplaced letter will move it to the next empty box. Clicking on a letter in a box will put it back in its unplaced position. You can also drag a letter to your chosen spot by clicking on it and holding the mouse button down while you drag to the box you have selected.

Options: Clicking the Options button will take you to another menu where you can choose the following:

• Word size: 5-6 letters, 7-8 letters or 9-10 letters. Obviously, difficulty increases exponentially as word size does! The words are arbitrarily chosen from books on my desk, though I have tried to keep the 5- and 6-letter words simple for younger players
• Timer: You can turn this function on and off here. ON displays a timer to induce panic and make you feel inadequate
• Hints: <NONE> refuses to even offer any hints
  <One Correct Letter> will put a letter in its correct spot and lock it there; you pay a time penalty even if you already had it in the right place
  <Correct Doublet> shows you a pairing of letters from the word; you again pay a time penalty but less than for One Correct; this is a much more interesting and challenging hint!

Pretty much that's it! A word of advice--this is a golden example of the 'start somewhere!' philosophy--even if nothing springs to mind, start doodling and grouping letters and see if your brain can't spot something for you.