Author Topic: Big Chihuahua coming  (Read 18986 times)

Tom44

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Re: Big Chihuahua coming
« Reply #15 on: March 06, 2011, 06:19:57 PM »
And the new 10-letter puzzle game will be Chihuahuas? :-R
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birdy

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Re: Big Chihuahua coming
« Reply #16 on: March 09, 2011, 04:48:21 AM »
No, that's a plural made by adding an ess, so it wouldn't be allowed.  :D

nineoaks

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Re: Big Chihuahua coming
« Reply #17 on: March 09, 2011, 09:19:09 AM »

Might I suggest 'bloodhound?' It is, after all, used for searching...

But perhaps, Alan, you are planning to move on to some other life form? Since you came up with Chihuahua, I trust you to find the perfect ten-letter word for the Big Chi.

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Alan W

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Re: Big Chihuahua coming
« Reply #18 on: March 09, 2011, 01:58:33 PM »
I hadn't actually been thinking of giving the 10-letter puzzles a name, other than "10 letters". Obviously, marketing isn't my strong suit.

If we follow the process that led to the name Chihuahua, the new puzzle would have to be called Excellence, Immunizing, Invincibly, Politicize or Zoological. These are the 10-letter words classed as common that, with a suitable choice of mandatory letter, can produce only one common word each - that being of course the 10-letter word itself.

The only one of these that could be remotely suitable is, I think, Zoological. But that would probably lead to all sorts of confusion, with people expecting the puzzle to specialize in animal names.

Alternatively, we could look to words that make a lot of other words, rather than few. The champion here is Pedestrian, with E as the mandatory letter. This puzzle would feature 347 common words, and a whopping 841 words in total. But the word has connotations of being humdrum and unimaginative, so I don't care for it as a puzzle title.

So perhaps Nineoaks is on the right track in looking at dog breeds. There are quite a few ten-letter words with dog-related meanings. Such as canophilia and cynophilia, both meaning a love of dogs (and there's also cynophobia). Quickly passing over dogmatical and dogcatcher, I turn to the dog varieties. In addition to bloodhound, there's rottweiler. But the one that appeals to me is Pomeranian. Admittedly, it's not even one of the ten-letter words I'm planning to add to the game, since it's rarely written without a capital P. But it is a small dog - just slightly bigger than the chihuahua, as the 10-letter puzzle will be slightly bigger than the 9-letter variety. (And, like the chihuahua, it is named after the region it comes from.)

Any other ideas will be welcomed.
Alan Walker
Creator of Lexigame websites

pat

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Re: Big Chihuahua coming
« Reply #19 on: March 09, 2011, 07:22:08 PM »
Don't be modest, Alan. Given how much enjoyment we all derive from playing Chihuahua I don't think it would be at all inappropriate to call the new game Excellence.

But if you want to stick with dogs' names, Pomeranian sounds good.
« Last Edit: March 09, 2011, 07:39:02 PM by pat »

Steadyguy

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Re: Big Chihuahua coming
« Reply #20 on: March 10, 2011, 06:31:28 AM »
Congratulations on the new puzzle and I am sure it will be highly successful.

As for names, I do like 'bloodhound'.

However, Chihuahua is now a 'brand' which is priceless and is maybe well-worth retaining.

So, my pitch is for 'CHIHUAHUA XL'.
Why?
1. XL could be the initials of 'Ten Letters'.
2. XL sounds like 'Excel' indicating a higher level.
3. XL is a commonplace 'size' for something, maybe clothing, which is larger.

Whatever name you choose Alan, it will be good I am sure.
Diem Carpe et Amplexa.
(Roughly translated means 'Don't just seize the day HUG IT!)

Alan W

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Re: Big Chihuahua coming
« Reply #21 on: March 10, 2011, 12:19:48 PM »
Clever idea, Steadyguy.

Another thought came to me last night when someone said the word chinchilla. Here is a ten-letter animal name that can use the same Chi diminutive. And the word has a similar flavour, both being from native American languages via Spanish.



(The picture is from Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chinchilla-mange.JPG.)

Another ten-letter animal name staring with chi is chimpanzee, but that doesn't appeal somehow.
« Last Edit: March 10, 2011, 12:22:37 PM by Alan W »
Alan Walker
Creator of Lexigame websites

nineoaks

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Re: Big Chihuahua coming
« Reply #22 on: March 10, 2011, 01:09:14 PM »

Yes! Perfect! Chinchilla gets my vote!! (not that we're voting...)

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Dave

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Re: Big Chihuahua coming
« Reply #23 on: March 10, 2011, 01:20:03 PM »
I thought it was about time I congratulated you, Alan, on the plan for a new puzzle – in one way it's pretty much what I don't need (because my addiction is proving time-consuming :)), but it's a great idea and should generate some mind-blowing puzzles.

I have given a bit of thought to the name, too, and I reckon that you have hit the nail on the head with "Chinchilla."  It does go very nicely with Chihuahua, as you say, and has the additional property of being pretty much equally impossible to rhyme (have to give that more thought!).

Cheers,

Dave
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Linda

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Re: Big Chihuahua coming
« Reply #24 on: March 10, 2011, 08:29:12 PM »
Chinchilla is a perfect name, Alan!  Congrats!!   >:D

ada

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Re: Big Chihuahua coming
« Reply #25 on: March 10, 2011, 08:46:10 PM »
Yes please! Chinchilla. It is not pedestrian.
ada

mkenuk

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Re: Big Chihuahua coming
« Reply #26 on: March 10, 2011, 09:37:03 PM »
Alan says in his notes/ introduction to the game that the reason it is called 'chihuahua' can be seen by looking at the nine letters of the word arranged in a grid. So what form of grid is he planning to use for the ten-letter version and how will the letters of 'chinchilla' look when they are laid in such a grid?
MK

birdy

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Re: Big Chihuahua coming
« Reply #27 on: March 11, 2011, 02:46:16 AM »
I like both Chinchilla and Chihuahua XL - but will probably play it whatever it's called.  As for the design - I think we might need a little typewriter art competition here, since I assume the layout doesn't really matter as far as the computer is concerned.

anonsi

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Re: Big Chihuahua coming
« Reply #28 on: March 11, 2011, 03:58:15 AM »
I like Chihuahua XL.

Is it going to be in the same set of tabs? So if Alan went with Chinchilla, it would say "Standard, Challenge, Chinchilla, Your Puzzles"? Standard, Challenge, and Your Puzzles easily tell the user what they will see when they get to the screen. Chinchilla gives me no idea what will be there.  I think a good, short descriptor would work best.  Perhaps extreme, super size, or challenge+.  The plus might work well because you could have a Standard+ and a Challenge+.

Alan W

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Re: Big Chihuahua coming
« Reply #29 on: March 11, 2011, 05:19:15 PM »
Alan says in his notes/ introduction to the game that the reason it is called 'chihuahua' can be seen by looking at the nine letters of the word arranged in a grid. So what form of grid is he planning to use for the ten-letter version and how will the letters of 'chinchilla' look when they are laid in such a grid?
MK

The secret of the name Chihuahua is not in the arrangement of the letters, but in the fact that no words could be made other than chihuahua. This wouldn't be the case with a CHINCHILLA puzzle, but the number of words possible with those letters is unusually low, because of the small number of different letters. So, the way things are at the moment, a puzzle with chinchilla as its big word would not naturally occur, because the smallest possible puzzle is a "Medium" in Your puzzles, with 21 to 40 common words, but the letters of chinchilla can't make that many common words, no matter which letter is picked as the mandatory one.

For the letter layout, I tried a triangular pattern first, but it seemed to be taking up too much horizontal space, so I'm currently working on the shape you see below.

Your point is a good one, anonsi. Maybe the tab should labeled "10 letters", but once you get there, the name and picture in the middle of the playing area could be chinchillafied.
Alan Walker
Creator of Lexigame websites