Phil Gyford

I’ve spent much of the past couple of months “project managing” or “producing” Extendaword, a web- and email-based word game for the Financial Times, which launches today. There are two versions, one for the UK, one for everywhere else (the difference being the prizes, or lack of them). Create a team with your friends (navigating through the complex marketing opt-in/out checkboxes) and come up with the highest scoring sequence of words during each week’s game.

It’s difficult to point at exactly what I did. The good folks at Incline Media came up with the initial idea. The simple and classy design is by Good Technology’s Dennis Christensen, and the coding is by the ever-delightful Internet Vision.

Which leaves me responsible for the HTML templates, working out the finer points of the rules, defining how the game should work for players (user flow, sitemap, etc.), and attempting to make sure everything gets done and that everyone’s happy. Inevitably, there are compromises but I’m still pretty pleased with how the game turned out. It’s not going to change the world, but it’s a surprisingly addictive distraction from work.