Planet Spogg
Planet Spogg is a family-oriented site developed by a team of Java developers and designers, led by Viktor Lidholt. Currently, it contains eleven multiplayer web games, as well as two secret, hidden games. Many of the games offered are online versions of such classic as Scrabble, Yahtzee, Pictionary, Tetris, Solitaire, and Boggle, among others. These Java-based games are also available on Macintosh 1
Aside from the games, Spogg offers forums, merchandise, a link exchange page, and the option of gold membership with features such as gaming statistics, image albums, and journals. Zollars - 'currency' used on Spogg - can be used to buy gold membership, or gifts for fellow members. Zollars are earned through placing top three in one of the bi-daily tournaments, advertising Spogg through personal sites, sending postcards, or having one of the most visited links on the link exchange page.
The Community
Spogg members have the option of communicating through chat boxes in all of the games, as well as private messages, guestbooks, and the forums themselves. The community consists of members of all ages from all corners of the globe and a myriad of nationalities.
The Games
There are currently 13 games on Planet Spogg, two of them being secret, single-player games (Slingshot and Virgil). The player with the highest score at the end of each game is the winner. If you are a registered member, the highest score you have received will be stored after a game is over. Depending on several factors you will also receive (or lose) ranking points after a game if you are in a timed game. Beware, if you log out of a game already running you will lose the same amount of ranking points as losing the game. However if you enter a game that is nearly finished and don't wish to lose ranking you have a short time to get out of the room without losing ranking. The top 30 daily and all-time high scores for each game are publicly posted. Below are descriptions of the offered multiplayer games.
Aerony
This is the racing game of the bunch. The object is to hit all checkpoints on a lap and then cross the finish line; if a checkpoint is missed you need to go back and hit it. A race is on average 3 laps, this can be adjusted if you want. There are also some power-ups: Speed Up (increasing maximum speed), Speed Down (decreases maximum speed), Swap Keys (inverts your steering), Shield (makes you invincible to harmful things), and Shock (temporarily disables a ship). If you hit a spiked wall you will be shocked for a short moment of time.
Another
This is the Snake clone. The objective of the game is to collect as many energy stars as possible with your adder (snake), without crashing into the walls, obstacles or the adder's tail. To control the adder use the left and right arrow key. Apart from collecting energy stars you can also collect power-ups, which are represented as red crosses on the playing field. These power-ups can be either good or bad, you can either take the power up yourself or send it to another player. Press the down arrow key to send the power up to yourself or press the up button to send it to the leader. If you press the escape key the power up will be removed. It is also possible to use the F1 - F4 buttons to send the power up to a specific player.
The available power-ups are as follows:
- arrows pointing at each other: shortens a player's adder
- mine crossed out by a red cross: removes a mine from the playing field
- mine: places a mine in a random location of a player's field
- arrow pointing down: slows down a player's adder
- arrow pointing up: speeds up a player's adder
- arrows pointing in opposite directions: switches a player's turn controls; left and right would become right and left and vice versa
- swerving arrow: makes a player's adder "drunk", making his or her adder turn randomly either direction
- u-turn arrow: reverses a player's adder's direction of movement
The scoring in Another is simple: for each energy star taken you will be awarded 100 points. Every time you crash you lose 1/10 of your total score.
Crosswise
While it may look like just another online Scrabble variation, Crosswise offers significant deviations from the classic formula. Games are available with a 10, 20, or 30-round limit, the latter only being available in private games. Each player receives seven letters, which starting set one can exchange numerous times via a mulligan before the immediate start of a game, but there are no limited amount of letters such as in Scrabble. Consequently, in any given game there is never any shortage of a certain letter.
Unlike in Scrabble, turns in this game are played simultaneously. As one player may decide what word to place with his or her seven letter tiles up to three others will do the same within the round's time limit of one minute.
Scoring
Every player will receive full points for his or her word unless they overlap or run side by side of each other. In that case, if the words' placings interfere with one another, only the player who played the word with the highest points will earn his or her full score - in the case of a tie for points, the player who played his or her word first receives full credit. All other players who played a word in the same place will only receive half of their possible points. In addition, only the winner's word of this contest will remain on the board.
Each letter has a different value. The total score of a word is the sum of its letters' points. If one letter rests on a bonus tile (2x,3x,4x) the word score will be multiplied accordingly. If a word takes up two bonus tiles both will be multiplied with each other before the multiplier will be applied onto the word score, i.e. one 2x and one 3x bonus tile will create a 6x word score multiplier.
If a player is able to play all of his or her seven letter tiles that player will earn 100 points for that round in addition to his or her regular word score.
Multris
This is Spogg's version of Tetris. Now in v2, with v1 being what was once known as Multris.com.
Rules and Scoring
Just like most other Tetris games, the object is to clear lines of blocks.
Scoring is as follows:
Dropping a block -- 10 points; clearing 1 line -- 100 points; clearing 2 lines -- 300 points; clearing 3 lines -- 600 points; clearing 4 lines -- 1,000 points
Unlike Tetris, the speed level of the blocks doesn't increase over time, and the game is not dependent on survival. The aim is simply to have the highest score at the end of the game. Upon death you respawn and lose 25% of your points.
You have the option of choosing two sorts of games- Regular (also known as Mean) and Nice. The Regular game has bombs, which you can fire at your opponents to give them up to four deleted lines of your own. Target the highest or second-highest (if you're in first place) player with F5. You can also target players individually with F1-F4. The Nice game does not have bombs, and is often used to just play a relaxing game of Multris, or to increase your score.
Games can last for the default 10 minutes, or for private games there are options for 5 or 20 minutes.
Ooze
Note: The numbers below coincide with the picture to the right. (Click On It for a larger version.)
1-4. These are where the other players will be. The maximum players that can be in one game is 5. Use F1-F4 to bomb players 1-4, respectively. If you press F5 (recommended) then it bombs the leader.
5. This is the score you accumulate over the time limit. A good score would be over 600,000.
6. This is the game window. To play Ooze you click on the individual balls as fast as you can. They will disappear if there are more than 3 next to each other. The more balls of one color together, the more score you get when clicked on. The bottom line is the ball generator. It randomly generates balls of the four colors and, depending on the difficulty setting, releases them all at a constant rate. If one of the balls reaches the top, then you lose 10% of your score and the game is reset.
7. This is the timer and the bomb holder. The level of liquid in this object is the amount of time passed. When it hits the top, the game is over. It also indicates how many bombs you have. Bombs are generated by popping more than 4 balls of one color. You can bomb the other players as shown above and it drops black balls on their screen. The black bombs can only be removed by popping other balls around it. In Nice games, bombing is disabled, in Mean games, the bombs are enabled.
8. The chat screen allows you to talk to other players. All you have to do is simply type in a message and press enter, this is not recommended when attempting highscores. If you want to play the game without other players, create a private game in the game lobby.
Popout
This is the Bejeweled clone.
Scrambler
This is the Text Twist clone.
Sketchorama
This is the Pictionary clone.
Slingshot
Commonly known as the "secret" game, Slingshot was used as a way of advertising Spogg as a simple single-player game. It can still be played by following the link of The Title above. Shoot Ted from the sling and hit the pendulum to acquire points. The more often one hits it, the faster it will swing.
Spellbound
This is the Boggle clone.
Spogglitaire
This is the Solitare clone.
Yacht
This is the Yahtzee clone.
Controversies and drama
Rebus in Sketchorama: There has been a controversy lately whether rebus should be allowed. Rebus would be spelling out the letters in the "secret word" by drawing a picture for each letters in turn rather than drawing an actual picture or clue. Example: Drawing three lines to represent three letters. Then drawing a hand on the first line for "H." An apple on the second line for "A" and a tree on the third line for the letter "T." Effectively spelling out the word "hat." It is not technically against the rules although many feel it is cheating.
Factions in Multris: Due to rivalry between certain players, groups were formed and tactics - possibly unfair - have been used against each other. One of the most common is known as targeting - sending bombs to a player who is not in the lead.