Fridge Words is the first word game I designed. Players manipulate refrigerator magnets to form new words. The setting is a 1950s kitchen, complete with an authentic avocado green refrigerator.

Players receive 5 to 7 Fridge Words each round, and must spell words in the Golden Rectangle. Fridge Words can be dragged left and right, up and down. Blank space is OK, so shorter words can be spelled.

Blue-and-gold Magic Letters appear from time to time, and double the score for any word the player makes using them. If the player manages to fill up the shopping list on the right, he gets an extra 500 point bonus!

The idea for Fridge Words came to me at 2:00am after I had consumed a hot chocolate and couldn't sleep. Why I think about refrigerator poetry when I can't sleep is anyone's guess.

The original public domain word list for the game contained over 170,000 entries. Since only words of between 3 and 7 letters are used, we reduced this list to some 53,000 words. I had the programmer build a tool to let me browse the word list, and select those words that were suitable to become Fridge Words the player could manipulate. We ended up with 2,300 such words in the game.

Fridge Words Credits

Flash Programmer: Rick Hocker Game Art: Chris Wieber, Wil Teran Sound: Chris Wieber Game Designer, Producer: Tom Jacobson Word List: ENABLE word list by Mendel Cooper

©2002 Tom Jacobson. All rights reserved.