Bookworm Adventures?

[Otter]

Hi.  I know "SDA" and "casual game" don't really sound right together, which is why I'm running this by the forums first of all.  By all means shoot me down if this is (too) silly.

Bookworm Adventures is a PC game where you spell words (made from a pool of letters, yes, just like Scrabble) to defeat enemies.  The game is divided into three books, each containing ten chapters, each containing between four and seven enemies.  The game also pressures you into doing minigames for extra powerups but they're skippable.

Key talking points for speed are going to be spending your turn quickly (being able to see and choose a word immediately, not wasting any time on letter selection) and minimizing the overall number of turns (longer words deal more damage but are harder to see immediately and take a bit longer to input; worthwhile if you can manage it, though, because minimizing turns means minimizing the number of enemy animations).  Strategy for each chapter is important too -- you generally want to spend the second half of a chapter building for a nine or ten-letter word so you can knock out the chapter boss is one turn (these one-hit kills save a ton of time), but that means restricting your letter options for the enemy or two before the boss, so depending on how well you can make do with a limited selection, those enemies might take two or three times as long and you'd nullify the time saved.  Efficient use of the most important (and most limited) powerup, which doubles your damage for the next word only, would be necessary to prevent stalling at times when the RNG decides to stop giving you what you want.

So okay, two important questions you are probably considering.  Would this run look all that different from, well, anyone else's run of the game (it is a casual game, right)?  Well, I think so, since speed isn't valued in the game at all (it's turn-based) and that gives a normal player as much time as he needs to work out what he can spell, while a runner would have to start clicking letters as soon as his turn came up (giving him maybe a second, each time, to look at this bank of letters and come up with the longest word he can so he can start spelling it immediately).  That brings up the next question: would it be any fun to watch?  Being consistently -fast,- like speedrun fast, for even an entire chapter would be pretty punishingly hard, although simply being difficult for the runner doesn't make something enjoyable for a viewer, I suppose.  Plus, with story scenes and all, it would run a bit long (estimating between three hours and 3:30), not the longest run on the site but not quick either.

Please weigh in, this is a game I'd actually like to see a run for but I'm aware that I could be the only one.

[SkratMan]

I am a fan of puzzle-y word games in general.  Unfortunately, I'm not aware of the game you're talking about.  Maybe a good way to find out if people would be interested in a full run would be to demo a level or two just to showcase the game? 

[Stupid]

I don't think thats a good game to run. I guess it would be stunning to see an awesome player finding 7 or 8 letter words in matter of seconds... for a while. I think theres a good 150 battles in this game, and it would get really tedious after a while I think.
Besides, you would definitely have to add webcam-proof, as it's really easy to get some "tool-assistance" by a second person, a laptop with some angram-creating-program etc.
Also, better make sure youre pretty damn good at the game before even starting. I think I've seen a reportage about some geek that can unscramble 10+ letter words in seconds.

[OlikA]

I'm a big fan of PopCap Games, I tend to play TyperShark on X-Treme and the Bookworm Deluxe-style games like that "japanese" one letter in a bubble and the others, and of course the button mashers like Big Money, one of my favourite.

I will definitely watch any popcap game speedrun, however I don't think that this will be a "famous" speedrun... I mean, that not everyone likes to watch inhuman speed if it's not so actionful or it's hard to understand. (<-- hard to understand: greatest example for this is tasvideos. whenever I show a tasvid to someone: "WTF IT'S CHEAT" or "YEAH BUT YOU CAN'T DO THE SAME". btw, hard to understand: if someone doesn't knows the game, then it would be hard to understand the game throughout the speedrun).

But if you like this game, and really want to speedrun it, please do it, cause I would like to see bookworm adventures in it's full glory

[bmn]

I believe the SDA stance on the subject is that any game where educated, solid play is significantly faster than casual play is fair game. Personally, this sounds really interesting to me, partly because it seems the frantic style of play will be similar to my own experience with hacking "sim" Uplink.

Good luck finding verifiers though...

[Z]

I think an anagram finding program would be the way to go, actually.  I'm decent at the game, but for speedrunning, anything that doesn't modify the game is fair play - like the reloading after checking out the map in the Diablo 2 runs, etc.

[ZenicReverie]

I think an anagram finding program would be the way to go, actually.  I'm decent at the game, but for speedrunning, anything that doesn't modify the game is fair play - like the reloading after checking out the map in the Diablo 2 runs, etc.

Using an anagram solver vs. the Diablo 2 map scouting doesn't seem the same to me.  Also, wouldn't you need to spend time entering the letters into the solver?  Seems like it'd be faster to just become proficient at finding the words, especially since the board changes after each word I believe.

[qubodup]

Using an anagram solver vs. the Diablo 2 map scouting doesn't seem the same to me. 

I agree, the anagram solver has nothing to do with the game and is even less in danger of violating rules

Also, wouldn't you need to spend time entering the letters into the solver?  Seems like it'd be faster to just become proficient at finding the words, especially since the board changes after each word I believe.

That I wonder about too. I couldn't find rules on 'pause the game and recording' after looking for a little bit.

[Zurreco]

Unless the game gives a time at the end of the run, pausing will work against you.

Also, using an anagram program to speed through this game is pretty weak.  Nothing shows a lack of skill more than relying on a program to do all your work for you.

[OlikA]

If you complete the game, there's an Arena mode where you can rematch all the bosses you played in the normal adventure game in real-time action and not turn-based. If you are about to speedrun this game you should do it in Arena mode. You start at LVL 1 and get experiences after each bosses [maybe lvl increase after every boss?].

And also you can use your unlocked items and helpers from adventure mode.

[ExplodingCabbage]

If you are about to speedrun this game you should do it in Arena mode.

Disagree. Arena is just a short bonus mode. A good run of the full game would be much more interesting to see.

[Enhasa]

I'd check this out for the novelty alone. I'd play the game first though.

Hi.  I know "SDA" and "casual game" don't really sound right together, which is why I'm running this by the forums first of all.  By all means shoot me down if this is (too) silly.

I don't know anything about this game (so I can't say whether main game or arena would be more interesting -- although personal bias and not SDA stance would put short bonus mode over 150 battles) but we have runs of stuff like Little Mermaid, so I think casual is quite alright.

Besides, you would definitely have to add webcam-proof, as it's really easy to get some "tool-assistance" by a second person, a laptop with some angram-creating-program etc.

Not to get into really what's ok since that's not up to me, and because I would never do this personally, but people have gotten assistance through other people. I think in some run Nate mentions getting his sister to read off where to go. Maybe that's a silly example since you should know where to go anyway, but maybe it applies here.

(<-- hard to understand: greatest example for this is tasvideos. whenever I show a tasvid to someone: "WTF IT'S CHEAT" or "YEAH BUT YOU CAN'T DO THE SAME". btw, hard to understand: if someone doesn't knows the game, then it would be hard to understand the game throughout the speedrun).

Those closed-minded OMG CHEAT people are not part of the TASvideos intended audience for people who would appreciate their work. But at any site displaying gaming feats, including ours, I would really hope it would be considered a good idea and a worthy goal to make a WTF video that wouldn't be understood by someone who doesn't know the game.