Some not so obvious actions

Gallimaufry Words is designed to be as user friendly as possible, but without diminishing the game play and wasting valuable screen real-estate, especially on the smaller sized iPhones. Accordingly, some user interface actions may not be immediately obvious unless the player is acquainted with the iOS echo system and can effectively interact with iOS devices. Also watch the instructional videos for more details.

Tapping the tools button on the top-left-corner of the game screen (Figure 1) will bring up the game’s menu screen (Figure 2). This screen is where you can initiate many actions. One of these is to watch the instructional video showing how to play the game effectively.

MenuButton — Figure 1: Menu Button (tools)

iPhoneSE_Landscape — Figure 2: Menu screen

In the menu screen you can press the Select Words Category button (Figure 2) to bring up the categories list (Figure 3) and select one of them. Note that when you select a new category the game currently in play will be discarded and a new game is generated.

iPhone6_Landscape — Figure 3: Categories selection list

When you are back to the game screen you will also see the category displayed in the bottom of the screen in the hints-label. This will be replaced with the words’ hints when you tap on the letters in the words-grid. If you wish to see the category currently in play again at any time during the game play, swipe left or right on the hints label. See the Rules of the game blog for more details.

Category — Figure 4: Hints label showing the category in play

In the menu screen you will see the sharing button on the bottom right corner. This button will allow you to share the game currently in play. See the Sharing the game with friends blog for more details.
Also on the menu screen you will see the Rating button on the bottom left side of the screen. Please use this button any time you wish to give the game a rating. You will not need to go to the app store just click this button. See the bottom of the Sharing the game with friends blog for more details.
When you are playing the game you can see the hint for any of the words by touching any of the slots in that word or to the left or right of that word. This will show the hint in the hints-label. It will also place a small arrow pointing at the word on the left where the words’ numbers are. This will help in knowing to which word the hint pertains.

HintIndicator — Figure 5: Little blue arrow indicates to which word the currently displayed hint pertains

During the game play you may find that you have placed a letter in the wrong slot within the words-grid. You can remove any letter from any slot in the words gird by double tapping on it. This will replace the letter back in the letters-grid and it will become free again to be used elsewhere. You can also replace any letter in the words-grid by placing a different letter in that slot. This will free the old existing letter and then place the new selected letter (as long as it is of the right code of course). Please see the Rules of the game blog for more details.
During the game play occasionally you might get stuck and just cannot proceed with solving the game. You can get unstuck by electing to reveal any slot in the words-grid to see what letter ought to be there. To do this just double tab on the right side of the words grid (the area where the checkmarks are shown) and within two seconds tap once on the slot in the words-grid that you wish to reveal. If the slot is empty the correct letter will be placed there and will be made gray in the letters-grid. If there was a letter already there and it is the correct letter then nothing will happen, but if it is the wrong letter then the old letter will be placed back into the letters-grid and made available for further play and of course the correct letter will be placed in the slot as above. Please see the Two cheats/hints blog for more details.
Another way you can get unstuck is to let Gallimaufry Words do a google search on the hint (word or phrase) that is currently being displayed in the hints-label (Figure 5). If the hints-label is showing a hint (not the category in play) and you double tap on it the game will run the Safari browser app (if it is not already running) and will ask it to do a google search for the words in the hints label. Please see the Two cheats/hints blog for more details.
One of the most important aspects of the game play is that you must select a letter that has the right Code. The code of the letter is the sum of the row-number and column-number of where the letter is placed in the letters-grid. If you pan (touch and drag) with your finger on the letters-grid the game will display the code of the letter that is under your finger. You can see the code for any of the letters by just touching and moving your finger around to the letter for which you whish to know the code. The code will continue to show in the hints-label until you remove your finger. When you stop touching the game will restore the hints label to display what it was displaying before. See the rules of the game blog for more details.
Of course you can always see the numbers of the columns at the top of the grid and the numbers of the rows on the left of the grid and figure out what the code of the letter is. To help you in being sure even further, when you select a letter the game will place small arrows next to the row and column numbers of the currently selected letter.

CodeIndicators — Figure 6: Indicators help in calculating the code of the selected letter

If you select a letter and then try to place it in a slot in the words-grid but the game won’t let you, then you have a letter that is the wrong code for that slot. Use the above arrow indicators to further ascertain that the letter has the right code. Or you can pan (touch and drag) on the letter to see its code displayed in the hints-label.
When you have filled out all the slots of a word, the game will check to see if the word is the correct one. If it is, the game will display a checkmark to the right of the word (Figure 5). If the game does not put a checkmark, that means the word has one or more incorrect letters. Do not forget that you can have a letter of the correct code but is not the correct alphabetical letter needed in that slot. Use the actions described above to remove the letters you think are the wrong ones or just replace them with the correct ones.
When you complete all the words and you have 6 checkmarks then the game will display a short animation and display a word of jubilation (e.g. Hurray). To start a new game just swipe left or right on the word of jubilation. Or you can press the tools button (Figure 1) and go to the menu screen and select a new game. Or select a different category. Or you can share an image of the finished game or save it to your device’s files before you start a new game or leave the game.

iPad6_Landscape_Hurrah — Figure 7: Swipe left or right on the jubilation word to start a new game

When you double tap on the hints-label while it is holding a hint, the game will go to the Safari browser app. On iPhones you can see either the browser or the game at any one time. iPad provides a facility where you can place two apps next to each other in a split scree. This can be very helpful. If you do another search, the game will use the Safari browser that is in the split screen. That way you can see the search results at the same as the game screen. See the Two cheats/hints blog for more details. Also consult your iPad’s manual for how to setup the split screen option.

iPad_12_9_Landscape_Split2 — Figure 8: Google search in Safari running alongside Gallimaufry Words

The game will show a Welcome Screen when you run the game the first time and every time you start the game fresh after a long time not playing it. To stop this screen from showing again, turn on the switch at the top of the welcome screen to the left of the statement that says to not show the welcome screen again (Figure 9).