Developer NimbleBit announces Apple Watch support for upcoming letter puzzle game

Source: Touch Arcade

Third-party app developer NimbleBit, known for 8-bit style real-time simulation games, announced on Wednesday that its upcoming project will be one of the first game titles to hit Apple Watch's diminutive screen.

NimbleBit first announced iOS word game Letterpad two weeks ago in a call for beta testers, and today revealed plans to offer support for the as-yet-unreleased Apple Watch, reports Touch Arcade.

Along with the news, the developer also released renderings showing what players can expect from the game as played on Apple's wearable, which will come in 38-millimeter and 42-millimeter sizes. As noted in Apple's WatchKit SDK, apps are constrained to 340-pixel-by-272-pixel and 390-pixel-by-312-pixel resolutions, a tight squeeze for any sort of gaming experience.

As Apple Watch is not necessarily designed to be a gaming platform, it remains to be seen if the device — or its users — will be able to handle extended play time, especially given the form factor's Lilliputian dimensions and questionable battery life. Apple has not yet disclosed how long Apple Watch will last on a single charge, though CEO Tim Cook estimated in October that owners will "wind up charging it daily."

Letterpad could be a good fit for a first-generation Apple Watch, however, as gameplay does not appear to be especially processor intensive. The object of the game is to create words relating to a specific topic using only a grid of nine letters. In general, word games can be formatted into bite-sized segments, with players perhaps breaking a single puzzle into multiple sessions to be completed during train commutes or random downtime.

NimbleBit is reportedly close to finishing the iOS version of Letterpad, though a firm release date has yet to be announced. The company offered no delivery estimates on an Apple Watch iteration.