Match maker 2: Update

So, mid-week I sat down and worked on my prototype for a simple word creation game using Game Maker.  The game reminds me a lot of the the non-digital game Boggle that I used to play a lot when I was a child.  But the idea for this was actually derived from a previous idea I had for my 'mobile' game, Match Maker (this project is no longer solely a mobile project).

Over the past few months I have iterated on this idea so many times.   The main reason was that I was not convinced that enough challenge existed and that the game simply wasn't fun.  This led me to two different ideas but similar gameplay methods.

The first idea was a simple pattern matching game.  The player is presented with two 4x4 boards. One is placed above the other and the one on the top is smaller.  The smaller board will depict the pattern, using blocks of colour, that the player needs to match in that level.  Each block on the larger board will randomly change colour.  Once the level begins the player needs to select each block on the larger board to correctly match the ones on the smaller board.  The player will be timed and the faster they match the pattern, the more points they accrue.  As they progress through the levels the patterns will get progressively more difficult i.e. more blocks will need to be matched or a mixture of colours will be required.  So this was my first idea.  I'm still not convinced with it, but I figured if I make a simple prototype it will help to demonstrate my idea and I can get others to play it and let me know their thoughts.

So my second idea, is very similar to the first.  In this game you have a set amount of blank spaces (the amount depends on the difficulty of the level) shown above the larger 4x4 board.  Instead of coloured blocks, the board will randomly show letters.   The player will have to create i.e. a four letter word using the letters that appear in the larger board.  Once a word has been successfully created, the four spaces will turn blank again and the player can begin to create another word.  Players will be timed and will have to create as many words as possible within the time limit in order to score the most points for that level. As they progress through the game more letters will be added into the 4x4 board and the length of the words to create will get longer.

So far I have been dedicating two nights a week to my projects so that I can play more games, devote a decent amount of time to Take Initiative and work on improving my other non-game related skills.  I hope to post an update a week detailing how this is going. 

What do you think of these ideas from what you have read so far?  Worth developing prototypes for to judge their potential?  Or should I scrap them both and start another project?  Or have you got any questions for me?  If so, feel free to comment :)