Alphabet Soup

revision again

2009-12-07T18:48:00.001-08:00

Alphabet Soup consists of a varying number of 30 second rounds. At the beginning of each round, a random letter and topic card will be flipped over off the top of each deck. The round begins immediately after the cards are both flipped, and each player must spend the 30 second round on their own, writing down all of the words that they can think of that both begin with the letter selected, and pertain to the topic. The winner of each round wins possession of the random letter card, whereas the subject card is just put to the side. The winner of the entire game is determined by the first player to use their accumulated letter tiles to spell out a 4 or greater letter word and shout out “Alphabet Soup!”

1. Distribute a writing utensil and paper to each player.

2. Deal out four random letter cards to each player. These cards help towards the creation of the 4+ letter word.

3. Place the stack of letter cards and subject cards in the middle of all of the players, and flip the top card from each deck.

4. Start the 30 second timer as soon as both cards are flipped.

5. Write down as many words as you can that begin with the flipped letter card, and that pertain to the subject card during the round.

6. After the round ends, each player will take turns reading their word list out to the rest of the players to check the validity of the words. Whoever has the highest number of valid responses wins that round.

7. The winner of the round can either accept the letter that was played and add it to their growing collection, or forfeit that letter and spin the bonus spinner.

8. The object of the game is to use the individual letter cards accumulated throughout the game to spell out a 4 or greater letter word. Players do not have to use all of their letters to win.

9. The first person to shout “Alphabet Soup!” after spelling their final word and meeting all of the proper criteria wins the game.

Further Information:

Forming the Final Word
• The minimum amount of letters in the final word is 4, this includes the currently flipped letter tile.
• The 4 letter word must include the currently flipped letter tile anywhere in it, and pertain to the topic at hand. You can just leave a space in the formation of the word to indicate where the current letter goes.
• The final word does not have to use all of your letter tiles.
• The final word must be formed during the current round and pertain to the subject and include the current letter somewhere in the word.
• Example Winning Word Scenario:
o Letter Card: A
o Subject Card: “Things that make noise”
o Assuming you had an A,L,R, and M already, your word could be “ALARM” and you would lay your tiles down as AL__RM, leaving a blank space for the currently flipped “A” tile. Then shout “Alphabet Soup” to secure your win.

Bonus Spinner:
• The bonus spinner may only be used by the winner of the round, and only if they choose to not accept the prize letter.
• The letter that was forfeited is simply put off to the side or the bottom of the deck.
• The letter cards that correspond to the bonus spinner are labeled as “bonus vowels” and kept separately from the rest of the letter cards.
• The spinner must be spun immediately, and all consequential actions take place immediately as well.

Group Consensus For Valid Words
• When each player reads off their list of words, the validity of the words is totally subject to group debate and discussion. The final call comes down to the opinion of the majority.

Revised Rules

2009-12-07T18:05:00.000-08:00

Alphabet Soup consists of a varying number of 30 second rounds. At the beginning of each round, a random letter and topic card will be flipped over off the top of each deck. The round begins after the cards are both flipped, each player must spend the 30 second round on their own, writing down all of the words that they can think of that both begin with the letter selected, and pertain to the topic. The winner of each round wins possession of the random letter card, whereas the subject card is just put to the side. The winner of the entire game is determined by the first player to use the letter tiles that they accumulate throughout the game to spell out a 4 or greater letter word. The four letter word must be spelled out during one of the 30 second rounds, and must also pertain to the subject card, and include the current letter card.

1.Distribute a writing utensil and paper to each player.

2.Deal out four random letter cards to each player. These cards help towards the creation of the 4+ letter word.

3.Place the stack of letter cards and subject cards in the middle of all of the players, and flip the top card from each deck.

4.Start the 30 second timer as soon as both cards are flipped.

5.Write down as many words as you can that begin with the flipped letter card, and that pertain to the subject card during the round.

6. After the round ends, each player will take turns reading their word list out to the rest of the players to check the validity of the words. Whoever has the highest number of valid responses wins that round.

7.The winner of the round can either accept the letter that was played and add it to their growing collection, or forfeit that letter and spin the bonus spinner.

8.The object of the game is to use the individual letter cards accumulated throughout the game to spell out a 4 or greater letter word. Players do not have to use all of their letters to win.

9.To win you must incorporate the letter card drawn from the current round into your final word. The letter may be used anywhere in your word. Your final word also must fit into the subject card that is being played for the current round. For example, if your word is A-L-A-R-M the letter card for the round must be an A, L, R, or M and the subject could be “Things that make noise”. So, the player would win by having one of those letters drawn for the round and having it fit into a subject that could contain their word.

10. The first person to shout “Alphabet soup” with all the criteria wins the game.

Further Information:

Bonus Spinner:
• The bonus spinner may only be used by the winner of the round, and only if they choose to not accept the prize letter.
• The letter that was forfeited is simply put off to the side or the bottom of the deck.
• The letter cards that correspond to the bonus spinner are labeled as “bonus vowels” and kept separately from the rest of the letter cards.
• The spinner must be spun immediately, and all consequential actions take place immediately as well.

Forming the Final Word
• The final word does not have to include all of your letter tiles.
• The final word must be formed during the current round and pertain to the subject and include the current letter somewhere in the word.

Group Consensus For Valid Words
• When each player reads off their list of words, the validity of the words is totally subject to group debate and discussion. The final call comes down to the opinion of the majority.

Final Preperations!!

2009-12-02T08:45:00.000-08:00

Today, we worked on finishing up the rules and design of our game. It is our last meeting till our final game presentations. Each individual cards will have their own design to help differentiate between subject and letter cards. There is also a new design for bonus cards. We established a website at www.alphabetsoupgame.weebly.com , which will have our final product of the game within a week.

WOOHOO!

2009-11-18T09:02:00.000-08:00

Today we play tested the games. Some suggestions that our classmates gave us are to include more vowel cards and create graphics. They think that a game board is unnecessary. We removed some subject cards that we thought were too difficult. Moving forward, we plan to print new cards, buy a sand timer, include more vowels, and make a better spinner. Everyone enjoyed the game.

Hello Greeting from Alphabet Soup!!!

2009-11-11T07:29:00.000-08:00

Today we brainstormed about all the components of the game. The spinner and the topic cards are being made.
These are some topics that we are going to have for the game:
nouns
shapes
colors
adjectives
books/magazines
words that end in y
words that end in e
food
all about school
things found in your home
things found in your kitchen
all about music
electronics
animals
countries
articles of clothing
girl names
universities
cartoon characters
movies
song titles
things found in a park
things found in a garbage can
things found in a dorm room
things found in ikea
flavors
things you would not expect to see in a church
occupations
things on the streets
brands
words with three syllables
words with more than 7 letters
things that are easy to lose
holidays
4 letter words
adverbs
character traits
words with the letter t in it
things you'd get from a supermarket

We will play several more rounds of this game to see if we can detect any flaws.

We could use a Q and X card for 2 bonus spins on the spinner.

Another idea we came across was to use a youtube video of a 30 second countdown as an alternative to buying a timer. We will include this link in the game website right by where we put the link to purchase the timer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHIU8RGphlY&feature=related

Today is the day... We played the game.

2009-11-04T08:14:00.000-08:00

Today we used cards from a game that is already made and we played around 10 rounds. The game play is very quick and does keep you interested due to the 30 second rounds. We’ve realized that the categories will need to be very broad in order to make it easier to get a longer list. The average list is normally either 2 to 5 words long. We only had 2 ties throughout the entire game. We’ve been tossing around several ideas to enhance the game.

Providing 3 letters to each player to begin with before the first round.
Or, providing players with 1 or 2 vowels, (A,E,I,O,U) at the beginning
Incorporating some type of bonus chip that would be held by the players throughout the game and allows them to put it down at the beginning of a round. After this chip is put down a second letter card will be flipped for that round, allowing the winner of the round to get both letters.
Allowing the person who wins for the round to forfeit their letter card in order get a spin at a wheel. This wheel would have different things on it like getting a vowel card or getting to steal a letter from an opponent or getting to swap a letter with an opponent.
Also the idea of using a board to monitor game progress came up. There would probably only be one game piece moving one space on the board for each turn. This would just be a visual representation of the progress of the game play.

The First Day......

2009-10-28T08:43:00.001-07:00

We set up our group and met initially to discuss our game. We're going to play it next week to try and approximate the game time in order to figure out an appropriate way to end the game. We've identified a game that shares the necessary materials for "Alphabet Soup" and we're going to use it next week.