About

Welcome to Lexigro

Lexigro is a new board game invented by Michael Overduin with his family and friends, and is dedicated to his parents Jan and Margaret.

We are researchers and teachers, and previously developed Geopowr as a board game about energy diversification.

We designed Lexigro to be eco-friendly and easy to make using a printer, glue, paper and cardboard or by recycling tiles from another game.

Due to its small size Lexigro is convenient to carry anywhere in a small bag that fits in a purse, and can be played on a small table.

The name is an homage to Lexiko, the original name of the game invented by Alfred Mosher Butts in 1931 that is now known as Scrabble (1).

We like Scrabble but feel that it can be frustrating and discriminatory due to the need to memorize many infrequently used words to win, potentially contributing to discrepancies between males and females in competitions (2,3).

When played socially games like Lexigro and Scrabble can help with learning (4), particularly when players work together, useful words are emphasized, and unusual words are explained.

We agree that Scrabble takes too long to play, being overly reliant on dictionaries to find and confirm words for classroom use, and fun should be enhanced (4).

Lexigro offers advantages to increase fun, reduce frustration and empower players through mechanisms including:

Players are given 8 letters instead of 7 so that it's easier to form words.
Earn bonuses with 7 or 8 letter words, or by using rainbows of coloured tiles or words sharing heart, star and diamond symbols.
We've made it easier to add up word scores due to the more accessible range of letter tile values from 1 to 4.
More math skills are integrated including square numbers and higher order multiplication visualized by boosting.
Lexigro is a 3D game - put boosters under any tile you lay to increase word scores 2-, 3-, 4-fold or more.
Boosters are shared by all players, and tiles are played openly to increase player interactivity.
Lexigro is played without a board, giving you more spatial freedom to grow words.
Letter tile numbers and values are based on their actual frequencies in text (5, 6), plus we added 3 wild (*) tiles.
Scrabble players may know that there are too many of some tiles (e.g. I) and not enough of others. We fixed this.
Lexigro harmonizes with Alfred Mosher's original Lexiko game, which was played with 9 letters and no board (1).
We're committed to making Lexigro more accessible to play, with versions planned in many languages.
For competitive play, you can play Lexigro with hidden tiles, timers and dictionaries to challenge words.

Together we feel that this adds up to a better game experience for both beginners and experts.

We want to democratize board games, and welcome your feedback.

References

1. Gryce A. 2013.10.31. Alfred Mosher Butts. Pocket Book

2. Moxley JH, Ericsson KA, Tuffiash M. 2019. Gender differences in SCRABBLE performance and associated engagement in purposeful practice activities. Psychological Research 83(6):1147-1167 and Correction.

3. Macnamara BN and Hambrick DZ. 2021. Toward a cumulative science of expertise: commentary on Moxley, Ericsson, and Tuffiash. Psychological Research 85:1108–1113

4. Warner H and Brow TP. 2005. Scrabble® unscrabbled: Adult ESL students’ perceptions of Scrabble® as a classroom learning tool. Prospect 20(2) 46-59.
5. Grigas G and Juškevičienė A. 2018. Letter Frequency Analysis of Languages Using Latin Alphabet. International Linguistics Research 1,18-31
6. Zhao N and Zheng D. 2024. An Analysis of Letter Dynamics in the English Alphabet. arXiv:2401.15560