Draft:Wurdian

Wurdian
Developer(s)	Ronald van den Berg
Publisher(s)	Quixotic Apps
Platform(s)	iOS, Android
Release	Android: 21 May, 2021 iOS: 23 May, 2021
Genre(s)	Word game, Puzzle
Mode(s)	Singleplayer, Multiplayer (2-4 people)

Wurdian is a online game that offers a different take on Scrabble and is playable on iOS and Android devices. The app has been developed by Ronald van den Berg (Dutchman), and the name Wurdian comes from the Frisian 'Wurd' which means word. The game was released in 2021.

Game Rules

Wurdian's rules are similar to the ones in Scrabble and Wordfeud, in the sense that players play on a 15×15 board and that the regular board contains bonus tiles which double or triples the letter or word value. For a bingo 45 points are rewarded.

However, Wurdian has some remarkable differences compared to Scrabble. Namely, every player receives one blank tile and there is a fixed bonus of 25 points for the first one that clears their rack (no points are added for remaining letters on the opponent's rack). The game has a 'final round' in which players have one more turn after the first person clearing the rack. If they manage to finish with an empty rack as well, they will receive 10 bonus points.

A notable difference with Scrabble is that the game can be played with a bonus for long words which rewards players for playing longer words.

The game can be played with 2-4 people at once and with different turn durations: from 90 seconds to 72 hours per turn.

Tournaments

Wurdian offers players the opportunity to participate in tournaments where they can test their skills against others. In these tournaments, each participant plays a game against every other player and a ranking is maintained based on the game results. The player receives 3 points for a won game and 1 point for a draw.

Any player can create a tournament and then act becomes the host of the tournament. The host has several setting options:

- The tournament can contain between 2 and 20 players.
- The time between turns can be set to 12, 24, 48, or 72 hours per turn.
- The host can choose whether the tournament is played with or without the long words bonus.
- A classic, random a custom board can be chosen.
- Tournaments can be set as public or private. For private tournaments, the host invites players, and for public tournaments, the host can set a skill score range so that only players with a skill score within that range can join.

Game Features

In terms of Wurdian's features both the colours of the board and the bonus tiles can be changed according to one's own preferences, thus having the possibility to play on a board without any bonus tiles. During games, the remaining letters are shown (which prevents the counting of letters) and definitions of words can be looked up by using an in-game check button. This button also indicates if a word is valid before it is being played (regardless whose turn it is) and how often a word has been played and with that same button words can be submitted to be added to the database. Aside from that button, there is also a replay button to review the previous moves.

Other features include players being able to turn their chats of for people that are not in their friends' list, talk in a community chat and no bots are being utilised. Lastly, Wurdian has a game mode in which players are challenged daily to find either 3 bingos or a 15-letter word.

Languages

Wurdian offers several languages to play: Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, English, French, Frisian, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish, Portuguese and Swedish and in December there is a Top 2000 'language' version. This is an occasion for players to place (part of) songs on the board that are in the Dutch Top 2000.

Reception

Reception

Review score

Publication	Score
PC-Active

In June 2024 Wurdian had around 112,000 registered players and roughly 4.1 million games had been played. Wurdian was reviewed by the Dutch computer magazine PC-Active and was rated with 4.5/5 stars.

Media

The Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad (AD) highly recommended Wurdian, praising its variety of options and customisable boards. Moreover, Wurdian received media attention from the Frisian broadcaster Omrop Fryslân thanks to its availability in the Frisian language, which had not been seen before in this type of word game. The developer worked closely with the Frisian education committee Afûk to make a Frisian interface for the game, which also highlighted this collaboration on its website.

References

This page will be placed in the following categories if it is moved to the article namespace.

Categories:

• IOS games
• Android (operating system) games
• Word games