Letters of Gold
Letters of Gold is a word puzzle game released by Brazilian studio Cupcake Entertainment in October 2013 for Facebook. In March 2015, the game reached 400 levels. The game is periodically updated, adding new "episodes" and levels.
Android and iPhone versions of the game are currently under development.
Gameplay
General
This game is a variation of word puzzle puzzle video game games such as Bejeweled. Each level has a game board filled with differently places letters, and might contain obstacles. The player can select letters horizontally, vertically and diagonally in order to create words.Each level contains a certain objective that must be completed in a given number of moves ; some levels require clearing "moss" off the board by making matches on top of them, reaching a certain score, getting top hat items to the bottom of the board, or having to clear certain numbers of letters.
Levels may also contain blocks to make them more difficult, such as boxes or bombs, multi-layered moss blocks, and others. Boosters can be earned or purchased to provide assistance during levels.
Letters
Different "special letters" can be formed by matching a combination of 4 or 5 letters. The blue letter explodes as a cross, clearing 4 letters around the colored letter. The green letter explodes all of its surrounding 8 letters. These can also be created using in-game boosters.Some letters might have a special value, that will give the user more points are marked with a small number in the down-left corner of the tile.
User might also get “Illusion” letters. These are purple tiles that change the letter they are after each new round.
The player can also use various Boosters before or into the level to attempt to win levels more easily or extend play after a lost level; Hint shows a word, Shuffle reorder all of the letters in the board, Wand turns a letter indo colored letter, Hammer clears a single piece from the board, Rainbow explodes all of the colored letters on the board. Extra Moves or Extra Time can be purchased if running out at the end of a game.
In-app purchases
The game is primarily monetized through in-app purchases.Players begin with five "lives", lost whenever a level is failed. This applies to all of Cupcake's games. When they are exhausted, users can either send requests to their Facebook friends for more lives, wait for them to replenish themselves, or purchase them. At certain points, primarily at the start of new "episodes", users must also either purchase, or receive a request from at least three friends before they may access the next set of levels. Boosters, to make the levels easier, can also be bought using in-app purchases.
The game also includes in-game advertisements to monetize on users that don't spend money into the game.
While the game includes freemium content, just like Candy Crush, 97.7% of people playing the game are playing for free, while only 2.3% pay.