by Loren Brichter created Tweetie, the incredible iPhone app that eventually became the official Twitter app. He invented pull-to-refresh. And if you had asked me what kind of app he might release as his long-awaited follow-up to Tweetie, boy, I never would have guessed. Now I know the answer, and I’m as pleased with the result as I am surprised by it: It’s Letterpress, a word game with a healthy serving of strategy to go along with it. It works on the iPhone and the iPad, and it’s awesome.
As you’d expect from a Brichter-built app, Letterpress is beautifully designed, with a sparse, minimalist appearance. It’s a two-player game; you can create games with random opponents, or play against your Game Center friends.
You can use tiles of any color as you build out your word.
Because the game’s approach is unique—sort of a clever mashup of Boggle and Strategery—it takes some time to explain (and master) the rules. Once you get them down, though, Letterpress is alarmingly addictive.
At the start of a game, you’re presented with a five-by-five grid of assorted letters. On your turn, you can use any of the letters to build a word. The letter tiles needn’t be adjacent; you can tap from anywhere. After you submit your word, the tiles you used turn blue. Then it’s your opponent’s turn to make a word. The tiles he or she uses to spell a word turn pink.
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