Seek

Seek is a simple yet elegant Javascript based word game. Players are given a set of letters and must find as many words as possible in the time allotted.

User Interface

Seek was designed with the user in mind. The game starts with a click and the rest of commands are controlled via keyboard. Muted colors, a clean layout and ample spacing give the game it visual appeal.

The Code

The game was built in the span of four days using Javascript, jQuery, CSS, and HTML.

Algorithms

The core of Seek is the recursive algorithm that finds all possible combinations of letters.

combinations(word) {
   if (word.length === 1) {
     return [word];
   } else {
     let previous = this.combinations(word.slice(0,word.length-1));
     let lastLetter = word[word.length-1];
     return previous.concat(this.partialCombos(previous, lastLetter))
     .concat([lastLetter]);
   }
 }

 partialCombos(words, letter) {
   let combos = [];

   words.forEach(word => {
     for (let i = 0; i <= word.length; i++) {
       let partialWord = word.slice(0, i) + letter + word.slice(i);
       combos.push(partialWord);
     }
   });

   return combos;
 }

When further filtered by word length and presence in the Scrabble Dictionary, the result is an array of all valid words that can be formed with the given letters.

The Tech

Babel Javascript compiler provided a means of converting ES6 to the more browser compatible ES5. The Javascript package manager, Yarn, was used in lieu of npm.

Acknowledgements

Musical accoutrement "Arurarian Dance" by Nujabes.