Let's Play PopCap Games Collection Series - 10 - Bookworm Adventures Deluxe

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• published: 04 Feb 2010
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Bookworm Adventures is a follow-up to the word-forming computer puzzle game Bookworm from PopCap Games. Released in November 2006, Bookworm Adventures combines the "create words from sets of letters" aspect of Bookworm with several elements of a computer role-playing game. In the 2007 Interactive Achievement Awards, Bookworm Adventures won the "Downloadable Game of the Year". The game also won three Zeeby awards for Best Word & Trivia Game of 2006, Best Game Design of 2006 and Best Story/Narrative of 2006. In contrast to the lower production budgets typical of most "casual games", PopCap Games spent over two and a half years and US$700,000 developing Bookworm Adventures. Although the direct sales model used by the company avoids various distribution and retail fees, this still represents one of the most expensive investments in the genre to-date. John Vechey, PopCap's director, indicated that this did seem to be a departure from the previous model, noting that "A couple years ago, the prevailing wisdom was that it took three guys six months and $100,000 to make a casual game. They used to be considered a low art form." Players guide Lex the worm through a number of stages, battling creatures along the way. Each battle consists of Lex squaring off against a given foe. Both Lex and his adversary have health meters (represented by a number of hearts), which, when depleted, signal defeat. However, unlike more traditional role-playing games where players might injure their opponents with arms or magic, enemies in Bookworm Adventures are damaged by forming words. As in the original, words are formed from a grid of available letters. Unlike the original, the letters used to form the words need not be adjacent to one another. The longer the word which is formed, the more damage is done to opponents. Similarly, words generated using letters which are less common do more damage than those using only common letters. Each turn, players can form a single word, while enemies use one of their available attacks to injure Lex, heal themselves, or otherwise make the battle more difficult. If victorious, Lex automatically recovers all of his health between battles. After a certain number of battles are won, a "boss" of increased difficulty is encountered. If players defeat the boss, they complete the stage and are rewarded with a treasure item. Treasures provide special abilities to Lex, such as a reduction in damage inflicted to him, or more damage generated from words containing certain letters. In some cases, rather than receiving a new item, an existing item is upgraded. After the player has accumulated more than three items, he or she must then choose which three items to bring along on later chapters.