Proposed "Competitive Crossword Puzzle" Application

Basic Description

1. an individual clue and the number of characters that comprise the answer are given to the user and an alert signifies that the countdown/stopwatch has begun to tick;
   1. possible feature: identify multi-modally consonants and vowels
2. once this notification has occurred, the clock begins to run (choice: countdown or stopwatch?)
3. the passing of time should be non-distracting - for example, ticking to mark passage of seconds, earcons to mark 15, 30, 45, and so on seconds;
4. upon successful provision of an answer, the counter is paused; until the new clue is served, and an alert is sounded to signify that the user is "back on the clock"
5. each clue of crossword is presented one-at-a-time, with pre-populated values (alphabetic characters) inherited from previous answers;
6. the user should have multiple options as to what kind of game is played:
   1. pit one player directly against another,
   2. "tag-team" mode, in which players alternate;
   3. play against the clock in an attempt to achieve a "best time" (as in arcade games)
   4. play against an opponent with same set of clues or against a player solving an equally challenging (with same number of clues and crossovers) puzzle

Aspects of Rich Web Applications Which Such A Demo Will Illustrate

1. puzzle served in response to user's preferred natural language (or user can choose from a list of languages)
2. originally conceived of a "hangman" type game, but making it a cross-word eliminates a lot of work that we don't have time to do right now, but could do (or challenge the SVGIG to) a hangman front-end
3. sighted players may want to/need to turn of sound effects; blind players need them, but non-obtrusively, unless the game is a count-down
4. some players may need to slow the game down to make it practical for them to play (synchronize an alternate input player with "temporarily non-disabled" user to level the playing field (a.k.a. handicapping -- NO pun intended, as i use handicap in its original, Anglo-Norman sense)
5. your contributions here

Related References

• RWApp Game Requirements, Draft 0.1 (archived email)
• Discussion at the 2008-12-16 Backplane Call
• IRC Log of 2008-12-16 Backplane Call