Scrabble Kittens

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  Scrabble Kittens Logo

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  Scrabble Board (Main Game)

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  Scrabble Maths

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  CatWordle

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  Cat Karaoke

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  Cat Connections

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  Cat Quiz

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  Cross Stitch Cat

Inspiration

We wanted to make learning fun for kids. Scrabble is a brilliant game for building vocabulary, but it can feel intimidating or boring for younger players. We asked ourselves: what if Scrabble had surprise mini-games, a cat theme, and the excitement of not knowing what square you'd land on next? That's how Scrabble Kittens came to life. Equal parts word game, mini-game collection, and chaotic cat energy.

What it does

Scrabble Kittens is a two-player networked word game built for kids. Players take turns placing letters on a 10×10 board to spell words - just like Scrabble. But land on a special square and everything changes. You get launched into one of five cat-themed mini-games: 1) Cat Karaoke: sing along and earn bonus points 2) Cat Wordle: guess the hidden cat word 3) Cat Spelling: spell it right under pressure 4) Cat Maths: quick fire number challenges 5) Cat Connections: group the words correctly

How we built it

We built the game in Python using Pygame for the UI and Flask hosted on PythonAnywhere as our multiplayer backend. Each player runs the game on their own laptop - the server stores the board, racks, and scores between turns, while all game logic runs locally. Players connect using a 6-digit join code.

Challenges we ran into

1) Syncing game state across two laptops in real time 2) We hit bugs where turns wouldn't switch, scores came back as strings instead of integers, and the board wouldn't update correctly between players. 3) Coordinate five separate GitHub branches during the course of the hackathon, which meant constant merging and communication

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The game correctly validates every word placement, syncs the board between two machines in real time, handles all edge cases like passing and quitting, and has a polished Pygame UI with animations. We're especially proud of the mini-game system and the fact that the whole thing actually works end to end.

What we learned

1) To be creative and make child-friendly UI 2) To make games interesting for kids learning 3) To collaborate well with the team

What's next for Scrabble Kittens

1) Launch on itch.io as a free download and gather feedback from real kids 2) Explore school licensing partnerships for use as a classroom literacy tool

Built With

• flask
• github
• pygame
• python
• requests