Welcome to Transformations

Object of the Game

The playing board has between 12 and 15 Word Boxes. One Word Box at the top of the board and one Word Box at the bottom of the board have their words displayed when you start the puzzle. Your job is to place the correct words into all the remaining Word Boxes.

How do you know what word to enter into a Word Box? By looking at the definitions and the transformations.

Starting the Game

If you are playing Transformations from our ezine, The Puzzle Quest, or if you are playing Transformations from our Daily Puzzle Page, the game starts playing as soon as the applet has finished loading.

If you are playing the Transformations demo, the applet starts by displaying a welcome screen. The demo contains 10 Transformations puzzles, as shown by the numbered buttons along the bottom of the applet. Start playing one of the demo puzzles by clicking one of those buttons. After you have completed a puzzle, or if you want to stop a puzzle early, click on the 'Menu' button, and you will be returned to the Welcome screen.

Playing a Puzzle

To enter a word into a Word Box, click on the first square for the word, then type the word. When you finish one word, the program will automatically select another word. You can continue typing into this new word, or you can use the mouse or arrow keys to select a different word.

At the top of each Word Box is a definition for the word that should be placed into that box. Sometimes these definitions are a little tricky, so we have supplied two definitions for each word. If you click on a definition, the alternate definition will be displayed.

Transformations connect two Word Boxes. There are four types of Transformations, showing the four different ways the two words are be related. The Transformation types are 'Alter', 'Mix', '+1-1', and 'Hear'.

The 'Alter' Transformation is used when the two words only differ by one letter. For example, the words 'SHOW' and 'CHOW' are identical except for their first letter. The words 'BEST' and 'BENT' can also be connected using the 'Alter' Transformation. Note that the remaining letters in the words are the same letters, in the same order.

The 'Mix' Transformation relates words that have the same letters, but in different orders. The words 'STOP' and 'POTS' can be connected using the 'Mix' Transformation, as can the words 'CRATE' and 'TRACE'.

The '+1-1' Transformation is used when one of the words is one letter shorter than the other word. All of the other letters in the words must be identical, in the same order. One example using the '+1-1' Transformation is the words 'RINSE' and 'RISE'. Note that 'RINSE' and 'SIRE' would NOT be a '+1-1' Transformation because the remaining letters are in different orders.

The 'Hear' Transformation indicates that the two words sound the same, but are spelled differently, and they probably mean different things, as well. For example, 'LOAN' and 'LONE' are related by the 'Hear' Transformation, as are the words 'ROUTE' and 'ROOT'. Notice in this second case, there are two different ways to pronounce the word 'ROUTE'. One of the ways sounds identical to the word 'ROOT'.

Hints

Here are some hints that might help you solve a puzzle:

  • Start with either of the two words that are revealed at the start of the puzzle. Look at the neighboring Word Boxes. If you are unsure about the definition for a word, click on that definition and a second, usually easier, definition will be displayed.
  • If you get stuck on one path, start from the other word and work backwards.
  • Sometimes the words or the definitions can mean several different things. Maybe the word is a noun, verb, or adjective! Think about possible alternate meanings of the words.
  • Remember to examine the transformation. 'Alter' is the most common transformation, but the others do appear on each puzzle.

Control Bar

When the demo game is displaying the Welcome screen, the Control Bar contains buttons for each of the ten puzzles in the demo set. Click one of these buttons to start that puzzle.

While you are playing a puzzle, the Control Bar will display the following buttons:

Menu
Click on this button to return to the Welcome screen. Note that this button is only present for the Demo game, it is not needed for the Daily Puzzle game or for The Puzzle Quest game.
Start
Click on this button to reset the puzzle. All of your moves for the puzzle will be erased, so you can start playing the puzzle from the beginning.
Undo
Click on this button to undo your last move. You can repeatedly click this button to back up as far as you desire.
Redo
If you have erased any moves by clicking 'Undo', you can click this button to redo those moves. However, if you back up a number of moves, then make a different move, you will not be able to redo the erased moves.
Mute
If you click on the 'Mute' button, the background song will be stopped. If you click again on the 'Mute' button, a different song will start playing.

Why Buy the Game?

If you enjoy playing the Transformations demo, there are several reasons why you should consider buying the game:

  • The full version of Transformations comes with 4,000 puzzles. If you play one puzzle a day, that is a ten-year supply. (If you play 400 puzzles a day, the game is good for a week and a half!)
  • The game has answers for each puzzle.
  • The game comes with sound effects and several more songs, adding to your enjoyment of the game.

Thanks

Thank you for playing this demo of Transformations. We hope you have enjoyed playing the game. If you are interested in Transformations, please visit our website at www.coregames.com.

On our website, we offer several other games in our 'Daily Puzzle Series', along with our award winning games 'Rich Diamond' and 'The Mad Scientist'.