Farragomate is a word game where you pick words on a board and arrange them to make funny or clever sentences which everyone else in the game then votes on. Points are awarded for getting votes, winning, or voting for the one that wins.
I originally created Farragomate over one year ago after I was contacted by an group who use to play a game called “Psychobabble” but were angry after it got shut down. Based off a description given by the players and thinking that it would not be too hard to make I created Farragomate and over time tailored it to the players who are still using it to this day.
With this remake I had two main goals. First I wanted to make it more tactile to use and easier to pickup and play if it was your first time playing. Secondly I wanted to improve it for the more regular players by making the pace of the game better match the speed of the players and to give the players more options.
When you launch Farragomate you will have the option to join an existing room or create your own, this is something very new to how it currently works where there are some pre-defined rooms that you pick from. As the creator (or “host”) of a new room you can select from a whole bunch of options to make the game run the way you want it.
Once in a game you will see a common top bar which contains a timer that tells you how much time remains on that section and a ‘Done’ button (which is a new feature) that lets you say that you are ready to move on, if everyone in the room clicks it before the countdown finishes the game moves on.
In the old Farragomate the length of each part of a round (Create -> Vote -> Results -> Repeat) was fixed, in this new version the length of some of the sections is dynamic, the more in the room the longer you have to vote (as there are more sentences to vote on) for example.
The screen where you create your sentence has been made to look more real with white tiles on green felt, you simply click on words or drag and drop them inside the green box. You can drag words to re-order them or drag them out to remove them. You can use the same word several times if you wish and the names of the players in the game can also be used in the same way.
Up to now a theme was set by typing “/th This is my theme” or “/tr” to select a random theme. In the new version 3 random themes are selected and every player gets to vote on one. The theme with the most votes is used for the next round.
There are several other small tweaks to the game play and I am considering making it “best of X rounds” instead of “first to 30 points” to make games of different sizes last about the same amount of time. I would of course let the host set the value of X when making the game :o)
Farragomate on the CC2.0 is currently in BETA and will go live shortly after the launch of the CC2.0 site. There is already a Farragomate Group on the CC which was created by one of the players, this is a great group to join if you are interested in knowing more. As always comments and questions are welcome, you know what to do!
Tags: Farragomate, Game Preview
August 18th, 2008 at 6:02 am
Woot! Sounds great critters!
Will the game be out for all members when cc 2.0 is released?
August 18th, 2008 at 6:07 am
Shortly after yes.
August 18th, 2008 at 6:43 am
A couple of qestions
1.is the new multiplayer lobby where you make the game is it in flash
2.and i wont hold it to you but about how long until cc2.0 (make sure you put the words think or hope)
August 18th, 2008 at 6:58 am
Great! I played the old version and I can’t wait until this is done!
I hope CC2.0 is released soon =P
August 18th, 2008 at 7:28 am
This game is far too addictive.
It has really impacted on how quickly my renovations have been going. Hence the sudden drop in twitters about my progress.
Can’t wait for it to go live site wide.
August 18th, 2008 at 7:42 am
@Gamepro1080: 1. The lobby is in flash, and you do not reload the page going from lobby to game and back to lobby, it is all one file so you can embed it on your site / portal and have the same functionality.
2. No idea… when it’s done
We are waiting for the design to be finished and there are some big-ish things left to do on the site, both these things are hard to estimate.
@Nicknam4: Cheers, so do I!
@MrsGrrr: Your opinion is bias
but noted, thanks.
August 18th, 2008 at 7:58 am
Life is nice.
August 18th, 2008 at 9:37 am
yup it is keep the good work up Criiters (but dont over work as we would have to wait for you to recover
)
August 18th, 2008 at 9:38 am
Critters,
Will the new version have a chat area similar to the old one?
There’s been some chatter about it.
David.
August 18th, 2008 at 9:39 am
Theme: Excitement.
August 18th, 2008 at 9:43 am
Wow, now how about some minions previews huh?
August 18th, 2008 at 10:04 am
@DavidsNite: I have just been working on a new version of the chat that is way better than the old one… it keeps the chat at the top of the box so people on smaller screens can see it, people spamming won’t wipe off your message and it is very easy to see who said what. Should have it in the BETA in a day or so.
@Smithy: Minions preview next.
August 18th, 2008 at 11:55 am
Critters could we perhaps have the name of the Adult version changed to something that makes us feel less dirty than we are playing it.
Maybe simply NSFW, or the Foul Language version or something
August 18th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Don’t you like feeling dirty?
I was thinking some may not know what NSFW stands for… that said we could just add “strong language”. Good feedback, thanks.
August 18th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Thank you Critters for doing this for us …you have been there from the beginning of our demise of babble…you never forgot us and for that I am thankful. I hope everything goes well for you,
Smokey…aka…Stace
August 18th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
Umm, why can you start a Farragomate game for 2 players?
August 18th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
i cant wait for minions preveiw i just added 4gb of ram to my desktop so i know i can play it
(yes added it just for minions)
August 18th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
oh forgot to say.
me and a bunch of my freinds from school love the collective but we all said that we would all save up for the eee and buy it so me and 8 or 9 of my freinds are wondering will the new farragomate fit on our 7 inch screens or at least close
August 18th, 2008 at 11:53 pm
@Gamepro1080: Dont take my word for this, but I remember reading somewhere gritters are testing game sys reqs on a eee, So they might be considering size for it too.
August 19th, 2008 at 1:25 am
All our games are 700×500px and then there is a small bar at the top and chat at the bottom, but the game fits on the eee (if you F11 the browser)
To be honest though the eee is not quite up to the job of playing most flash games, sure it will play farrago well but minions brings it to its tiny little knees 600 to 990mhz is pushing it.
August 19th, 2008 at 2:54 am
games work nice acer aspire one!
August 19th, 2008 at 3:50 am
*hopes that minions will run on his 1,333ghz (512 MB ram)*
August 19th, 2008 at 5:57 am
I dont know what NSFW stands for!!
But i do understand ‘adult version’
August 19th, 2008 at 7:22 am
Wait! Would minions run on a 1.49ghz Mobile Celeron (r), 356mb ram?
August 19th, 2008 at 11:25 am
Looks great! A couple of thoughts I had:
1. The screenshot shows 10 as being the largest number allowed in a room. I’d sure prefer it to be higher. 12 as a minimum, even higher would be fine. 15 maybe? (BTW, I agree with an earlier poster that is it pointless to have the room set for 2.)
2. Looks like we don’t get to set our own themes, but only vote on some random ones. I sure would prefer to have a way to enter in our unique themes. We themers often like to tailor our themes to the current topic of chat, or to pander someone. I’d hate to lose that.
Keep up the good work!
August 19th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Theming is definitely more fun when you can create your own and react to the last one or two. For instance, I asked, “Rejected Stephen King Titles” and the answer came up ” THE SIT ” - so that the winner was able to suggest next, “What’s the plot for THE SIT?”
Sometimes it’s good to limit the number of people in a room to 12, as the current farrago barely fits 12 entries on my screen, to include the chat line as well.
Sure would like to see someone proofread the suggested words a little more. Although some are okay, too many misspelled words get through and make no sense.
Lastly, will those of us who have INBOXes on the CC be informed of the CC2.0 and subsequently the new Farrago, or will we have to continually check the CC site?
I have so much fun playing this game, I laugh until my sides hurt.
August 19th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
Sluggo after playing farragomate with 10 people at once, i found even that to be too big to be much fun, i’dve rather split the game into two at that point, but it didn’t stay full for too long.
of course its not up to me, but i think 10 is a fine maximum. it was 12 previously btw.
August 20th, 2008 at 6:30 am
Hey Critters!
Once again..thanks for all you have done for the Themers of the world!
I had a chance to try the new version. I love that you added the the sentence previewer! Seems like a healthier choice of words, too!
Here are my questions/requests:
1. Is it possible to make the chat a darker color so that it’s easier to read?
2. I noticed the “e” and the “w” were gone…can you add those back?
3. I agree with Sluggo…the majority of themers prefer to create their own theme. Maybe you could make it so that “/thr” prompts the three randoms to vote on, otherwise we can type “/th” for our own theme?
4. Will there be private chat (or whispers) along with the main chat?
5. Will the host have the ability to “boot” a troublemaker out of the room?
6. can you change the voting to where we can change our mind and not be committed to the 1st one we clicked on?
@ kiko: in response to your statement about 10 being too big. 12 is a great number - 15 would be even better! In the true nature of the game, when the themers want to theme, the more the better. We remember the days of people sitting out in the lobby because the room was full. Yes, you can make another room (which we did), but we enjoy playing all together. I do think that more than 15 playing may get too overwhelming and would definitely require a longer timer…but a theme room with 2 people, there just isn’t any sense to that - not for a real game anyhow.
Back @ Critters *I would love it if the host could decide how many players in the room - since there are people out there that may only want a 4-5 player room.
Keep up the good work!!!!
August 20th, 2008 at 6:50 am
1. Chat is going to change a lot over the next few days.
2. “e” and “w” will be added back in when I make room.
3. I don’t like the /thr /th commands so I am trying to come up with a better solution… watch this space.
4. No private chat in game, but our site supports 1on1 chat to the right of the game.
5. Yes, the host will be able to boot, but the host may leave so not sure how best to deal with this yet.
6. Yes, I will change the voting so you can change your mind.
10 per game seems good now, I do already have the vote + result time scale depending on how many people are in a game, but the main reason for not having 12 or 15 is the lack of room for well spaced farragos.
7. The host can set the number of players in a game when they make it to 2, 4, 6, 8 or 10.
August 21st, 2008 at 6:36 pm
i have no idea how to find this game in casual collective. HELP
August 22nd, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Streetcar: It’s not yet released, it will be out soon. How soon, I don’t know.
MrsCritters: NSFW stands for “not safe for work”. It’s largely another way to say Adult, although some non-adult things may also be unsuitable for an office environment, depending on how conservative it is.
August 23rd, 2008 at 1:51 pm
its only in the new cc2.0 alpha, you have to be invited to be able to play :\
August 24th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
I’ll just stand over here in the ‘don’t know what Farragomate is corner’ but have gone in search.
I’ve also lost the reason why I became an upgraded member, but hopefully that will turn up.