Scrabble Clone Game Design

Below are initial designs of the game that I am trying to build. My hope is that there will be both a 2 person and 4 person version of the game. But, since my first goal is for my wife and I to be able to play side by side, I will be focusing on the 2 player version and add the ability to have up to 4 players later.

These designs done using Adobe XD. There are several other UI design tools on the market including the following:

• Sketch
• Figma
• Invision
• Gravit
• FramerX

My first fulltime job as a computer programmer was with an advertising agency called Campbell Ewald. My job was to write software that scheduled radio and television commercials for the 48 contiguous states. I also wrote an application that made sure we properly compensated the actors that appeared in those commercials. However, before I started writing software at Campbell Ewald, I started working in their help desk. It was here that I learned some of the design tricks of the trade.

I learned Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere and InDesign. I am terrible at Illustrator but am still somewhat capable in photoshop. The familiarity with Adobe’s suite of products is why I chose Adobe XD. Because building this game is the most important part of this journey, I chose the tools with which I was most familiar. It may very well be that Sketch or any of the other tools would be better. But, I wanted to reduce the barriers to getting started. Trying to use tools that I am unfamiliar with to get started had a much higher chance of me deciding to not move forward.

So, if you are following me on this journey and you don’t know how to use any design tools, paper still works. In fact, I did my first designs of the images that you see below on paper before moving them into Adobe XD. The lesson here is to avoid unnecessary friction on your journey. There will be more than enough friciton-causing challenges along the way that will require you to push through.

Game Images