Letter Trek devs on GameNight: "We see this as a new, complementary addition to mobile gaming"

• Letter Trek is the newest release to make its way to Amazon Luna's GameNight
• And we got the chance to chat with the developers at Hidden Variable
• Find out what they did to bring their ideal casual puzzler to life!

Nowadays, it seems as if every streaming service is taking a crack at integrating games. Most famous, of course, are Netflix, but the folks at Amazon Luna have gotten in on the action with their GameNight platform. But what kind of big releases actually get a spot on them?

Well, we got the chance to put some key questions to the developers of Letter Trek, a newly released puzzler for GameNight. Using your phone as a controller, it challenges you to complete various word-based puzzle minigames. But how did the folks at Hidden Variable approach this, and what does it mean for mobile as a whole?

Here's what lead designer Darren Malley had to say...

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Letter Trek is a fun, addictive pair of word games that will feel both fresh and familiar. Whether flying solo or competing against your pals, both games are an accessible, playful, brain-teasing trip for the whole family.

We absolutely love word games in all shapes and sizes, so when we were invited to pitch a word game idea for Luna’s GameNight, we jumped at the opportunity to craft our new take on the classics. Our design director and resident wordsmith, Tarik Soliman, came up with a bucketload of ideas with concept artist Jake Lawrence. 

For a lot of us at the studio, playing word games with family and friends has been a staple of family holidays and trips since childhood, and there's something about playing these sorts of games that feels akin to ‘getting away from it all.’ So when Jake showed us a little drawing of a camper van with four friends grinning from its windows, it was inevitable that ‘road trip’ would become our theme. 

Our ideal audience is that of a classic board game: ‘For ages 5-105.’  If you enjoy word games, you'll enjoy Letter Trek. We initially designed the games as social experiences for multiple players, but we noticed playtesters spending a lot of time playing alone and trying to beat their previous scores. Hence, we introduced bots to make sure these solo players had just as much fun.

Both, for sure. One of the things that most attracted us to GameNight is how approachable the whole experience is. Happily, we've found that mobile gamers, non-gamers, and console diehards all feel at home with the interface. Using a phone as a second screen is quite ubiquitous now, and drawing on that to create a new kind of gaming experience made total sense. 

We've spent the vast majority of our company's history working on mobile games, and still adore the medium, so we hope not!  We definitely see this as a new, complementary addition to mobile gaming, a way of playing that offers something a bit different; playing on a large shared screen like a console title, whilst enjoying the simplicity and ease of a mobile game.

We hope so! We've developed these games for as broad an audience as possible. In the past, a lot of folks wouldn’t think of playing a video game on a Friday night. For some, console controllers, finicky keyboard inputs - even having to interact with gaming platforms - are complete barriers to entry. But everyone has a mobile phone! Loads of people watch TV! 

Interacting with the controls of Letter Trek has, by design, no more complexity than sending a text or taking a photo. Add to this the fact that GameNight is part of the Amazon Prime subscription, and suddenly we're reaching millions of potential new players. Exciting times!