Word Circus
Age 4+
10 minutes
Language
Competitive
In Brief
Learning objective
When playing Word Circus, the players build up their vocabulary and have the opportunity to practice their reading skills.
Game objective
During the game, the players are presented with different words – either just in written form or in written form with the word being read out to them.
The players’ task is, as fast as possible, to find the image that depicts this word among the eight images that they can choose from. This will earn them points. The first player to reach 100 points wins the game.
Gameplay
The faster the players pick the correct image, the more points they will receive, but if they choose one of the incorrect images, they will not receive any points in that round. As a help to the players, the game will automatically remove the wrong images one at a time until the players make their pick.
Once a player has picked one of the images, this image is turned over so the other players cannot see which image this player has picked. Only when all players have picked an image, the chosen cards of each player are shown.
Players who have picked the correct image receive points and a new word and a new set of images appear. The number of points that each player has collected is displayed just above the players’ play area. Once a player has reached 100 points, this player has won and the game is over.
Cannonballs
If the players are lucky, they will occasionally find cannonballs behind some of their images. If a player manages to drag such a cannonball to one of the free slots next to the area with the images before the cannonball disappears, the player can use it to shoot at one of the opponents. By dragging a cannonball from the slot to one of the three cannons, this cannon will then shoot the cannonball at the opponent who is located in the direction that the cannon is pointing. When doing so, the opponent’s images will begin to rotate making it more difficult for the opponent to make out what is depicted on the images.
Settings
Text and Sound
This is the easiest difficulty level of the game. In this variation, the players will be shown each word in written form and also have the word read out to them by the game.
Text
In this version, the players are only presented with the written form of the words that they have to find depicted amongst the eight images in front of them.
Scrambled Text
This game mode of Word Circus is the one with the highest difficulty level. In this version, the players are only shown the words in a written form where the letters have been scrambled. This means that the players will have to rearrange the letters of the words in their heads to make out the meaning of the words and find the correct image.
Speed
After choosing which of the three variations of the game to play and pressing “Start”, the players are led to a new screen. Here, each player who wishes to participate in the game needs to press the “Join” button once. The button will then light up indicating that the player is participating. Should this player reconsider, they simply need to press the “Join” button again and the button will no longer be lit up. The players also have to decide at which speed the incorrect images should disappear. There are three different speed levels to choose from: Fast (represented by the cheetah icon), Medium (represented by the dog icon) and Slow (represented by the tortoise icon). The faster the speed level, the faster the incorrect images will disappear making it easier for the players to find the correct image. However, the more incorrect images that have disappeared before choosing the correct image, the fewer points the player will receive for a correct answer.