First impressions
Beyond figuring out how to pronounce QatQi (apparently it’s “cat-key”), we were instantly entranced by this game’s design. As it loaded up, we heard soothing music in the background and witnessed graphics reminiscent of Tron or ye olde spirograph creations from our youth.
It was certainly a very attractive looking game, but looks aren’t everything. We were keen to see how it all worked, and so took the tutorial at the beginning. The lesson was good but brief, so after showing us a couple of moves QatQi instantly threw us into the deep end with something resembling a Mayan calendar launching us into the game.
How it works
QatQi is a word game, and you might think “Oh, this is just a funky version of Scrabble” but then you’ll realise it goes way beyond that. It isn’t just about creating words; it takes logic and placement skills and a bit of patience at the beginning as you try to work it out. It doesn’t offer you a grid of spaces; you begin with one point and once you drag a letter there, you start building words and your workspace expands.
You are initially given six letters and as you start to place them on the screen to create a word, more letters pop up to replace them. You have 22 letters to place in total in the first level, and just like Scrabble, they have to all make sensible words going across and down, so unfortunately “ZIK” is out the window, although apparently “ST” and “MHO” are valid. Go figure. The puzzle is complete when you place the last letter into a valid word.
As you place letters, you’ll see the “tiles” turn different colours. Green means you have a valid English word on your hands, and don’t be surprised if you’ve never seen it before as chances are good that this game has access to a much larger range of words than your bean contains. Frankly if you’re desperate, throwing letters together in no particular order and they turn green, don’t question, just be grateful.
Yellow tiles mean you could be on your way to a green (and therefore valid) word and red tiles indicate that what you’ve concocted cannot be considered a recognisable member of the English language so you have to backtrack. This is when the “Undo” function comes in handy, but use it wisely. You are given a finite number of Undos at the beginning and once you run out you either have to wait for them to replenish or you have to … buy some more! Again, this is a free app, so not a surprise that money has to come into it somewhere.
Spaces yet to be filled that are sporting some dots multiply the value of the letter placed on them by the number of those dots. Four dots = 4X the value of that letter. You also want to try and get yourself some gold coins. The game tells you at the beginning of each round how many gold coins there are out there to find. Put a letter on one of them, and you get 10 times the value of that letter PLUS 50 points. It’s certainly a bonus worth looking for.
QatQi starts you off with (supposedly) the easiest level for each week (Monday), and then gets progressively more difficult. Sunday levels can be brutal, but the sense of accomplishment if you manage to finish them is pretty awesome. According to the QatQi web site “The game offers new levels every day of the week, scaling up in difficulty from Monday to Sunday. Past levels are archived for access anytime.
“Artist Kun Chang, who worked on Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and the hit game Osmos, lends a striking sensibility to the game board and menus. Complementing the look is an original, spectral score that builds in complexity as you move through more difficult puzzles.”
Oh, and if you happen to create an amazingly long word boasting huge points, QatQi will frame a screenshot for you so you can show off your prowess on social media sites. Will this get you any more friends? Probably not, but then what do you care, you wordsmith you?
When we played
We’ve always considered ourselves a bit of a vocabulary and technology queen, yet we have to admit that we found this game a wee bit challenging even at the easiest level. We were smacking that “Undo” button endlessly in the early hours, nicely reducing our allotment in record time. Our main issue was getting to grips with how it worked. Why couldn’t we create a longer word here, and why wasn’t “ZT” a word??? Cripes!!
After a while we began to see the light and our scores started to improve. We were very proud of “STRAINED” at one point, particularly as it was an apt description of our brainpower at that time. We turned the volume of the music down at the beginning so we could concentrate, but after a while we allowed the zen-like tunes to return and lead us to greater scores. Once we had mastered it we went to recommend it to others.
Final thoughts
This is not your grandmother’s word game and if you take the time to learn how it works, you’ll find yourself challenged and intrigued. It was voted one of the most popular apps of 2012 by a number of different magazines and web sites; they can’t all be wrong. The more proficient you become, the more you’ll be able to plan your moves to expand your workspace map into different rooms looking for those gold coins and higher point achievements. If you’re a fan of crosswords, Scrabble or any kind of word games, QatQi will become your new favourite; promise.
QatQi
Cost: Free
Seller: ZWorkbench, Inc.
Devices: iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch
Rating: E for everyone
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