Clue Scramble

Clue Scramble is a word-unscramble activity. Players are shown a word with its letters jumbled up, plus a short clue, and they race to type the word it spells. The clue matters: an anagram on its own is ambiguous ("listen", "silent" and "enlist" share the same letters), so the clue tells players which word you're after.

How players experience it

1. A row of jumbled letter tiles appears, with a clue underneath (shown with a lightbulb).
2. The player types the unscrambled word into the answer box and submits.
3. If you've built more than one level, players work through the levels one at a time at their own pace. A progress indicator shows "Level X of Y", and each answer is checked on its own before they move to the next.
4. When they've been through every level, they see a "X of Y solved!" summary and wait for the results.

Matching is forgiving: it ignores capitalisation and extra spaces, so players don't have to worry about getting the formatting exactly right.

Setting one up as a host

You build a Clue Scramble level by level (up to six levels):

• For each level, enter the word players should land on. Its letters are shuffled automatically. The word itself stays hidden from players, and you can click the scramble preview to re-jumble it.
• Add a clue for each level so players know which word to find.
• Also accept (optional): add alternative spellings you'll mark correct alongside the main word.
• Don't want to think one up? Use "Pick a word" to choose from a built-in collection of words-with-clues, or "Surprise me" to drop in a random one.
• Add or remove levels to make the activity longer or shorter.

Use a word of at least three letters. Anything shorter and the scramble gives itself away. Answers stay hidden until the reveal; players only ever see the jumbled letters and the clues.

On the big screen

On the presenter/shared screen, Clue Scramble shows the whole ladder of scrambles and clues with a nudge to "unscramble them on your device". The typing happens on each player's own device.

Tips

• Write clues that point at one word. Since the letters can spell several things, a good clue is what makes the round fair.
• Ramp up gently. Start with a short, easy word on level one and build toward trickier ones.
• Use "Also accept" for words with common variant spellings so nobody's caught out.