Scrabble has helped scores of children and adults to add new words to their lexicon with fun. Shabdkoshish, an online Scrabble-like game aims to make learning new words in Hindi a pleasurable experience.
Sculpt of the game is modelled after the English word game, Scrabble and the player has to make as many valid words as possible, within the given time frame. All the words have to be inter-connected, and each word, letter, and symbol has points. In this system, all existing Hindi words can be formed because of the unique database which caters for Hindi letters, matras , and half consonants. The player has to aim at scoring maximum number of points by making valid inter-connected words which are registered in the Hindi words database of the game; which now has 70,000 words in it.
With a play on the words, shabdkoshish has been coined by combining two different words together. Shabdkosh meaning ‘lexicon’ being one, and koshish meaning ‘to try’ being the other; together they form shabdkoshish , which essentially means ‘to try with words’.
Developers of the website where the game is the main attraction are Peach Communications. The member registration is free, and apart from the word game, users can create their own Hindi blogs and modify and tweak the game according to their needs. The website will also shortly display shabdkoshish chunoutiseries , where registered participants can challenge each other in the word game, at the same time, from anywhere in the world.
