''Alphabear'' is a
freemium
Freemium, a portmanteau of the words "free" and "premium," is a pricing strategy by which a basic product or service is provided free of charge, but money (a premium) is charged for additional features, services, or virtual (online) or physical (o ...
(premium being $4.99 per month) Scrabble-style
word game
Word games (also called word game puzzles or word search games) are spoken, board, or video games often designed to test ability with language or to explore its properties.
Word games are generally used as a source of entertainment, but can add ...
that was released by independent video game company
Spry Fox
Spry Fox is a video game producing company headquartered in Seattle, United States, that was founded in 2010 by David Edery and Daniel Cook. The company produced the games ''Triple Town'', a freemium strategy puzzle game with city-building game ...
in July 2015. It draws on creative elements of one of their older releases, the 2010 game ''Panda Poet''.
A sequel,
Alphabear 2
''Alphabear 2'' (also known as ''Alphabear: Words Across Time'') is a Scrabble-style video game that was released by Spry Fox in September 2018. It is the second edition of the game ''Alphabear'', which itself draws on creative elements of one of ...
, was released in 2018. Alphabear was removed from the stores in 2019.
Gameplay
The premise of the game is making words from random letters on a grid for points, and scoring as many points as possible - similarly to
scrabble. Using tiles unlocks other tiles adjacent to them, however tiles not used for a number of turns decay into unusable stone blocks. Scoring well in levels unlocks progressively more valuable cube-shaped bears and further levels. Playing a round requires the use of a game currency called 'honey', which accrues slowly at a certain rate, limiting the number of games that can be played successively.
[ A payment of US$4.99 unlocks unlimited 'honey'. A player can select up to three bears to help them get more points in a game. The more powerful bears 'nap' for up to several hours after use in a game.]
Reception
Evan Killham of '' GamesBeat'' gave the game a score of 85 out of 100, citing many positives but conceding the requirement for the game to be continually connected to the internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
a problem.
''Alphabear'' was reviewed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM), who found there were no features of concern to young children.
A feature of the game that became a fad on Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
was capturing screenshots of the bears incorporating words that had been entered by the player in random sentences.
''Alphabear'' received the award for Standout Indie app at the inaugural Google Play Awards in 2016.
References
External links
*
{{Portal bar, Video games
2015 video games
IOS games
MacOS games
Windows games
Video games about bears
Video games developed in the United States
Android (operating system) games
Spry Fox games