Kirkkonummi, Finland – Whopping Apps today is proud to announce the release of Guess & Spell Halloween 1.0.1 for the iPad, an important update to their simple and entertaining spelling app for kids that sports a spooky Halloween theme! The game helps children to learn how to spell words by asking them to guess the displayed image and then spell it out on-screen using the supplied letter blocks. Halloween is all about parties and fun, and Guess & Spell Halloween continues that theme, but with a strong educational twist.

Guess & Spell Halloween offers 60 different images and words for kids to guess, and the gameplay can be set to various lengths. Once an image is displayed, players try to spell the answer to the image clue by tapping on the correct letters. Once the word has been correctly entered, the game continues with the next image clue. If the word is entered incorrectly, the child is prompted to try again. The game ends when all of the images have been guessed. The game doesn’t keep score; it simply concentrates on providing a fun learning environment for children.

“With the Guess & Spell series of apps, we aim to make learning fun for children,” says Mikko Toykkala, owner of Whopping Apps. “By including colorful graphics, fun sound effects, and gentle spoken prompts, Guess & Spell Halloween puts the emphasis on learning, not on keeping score. It turns the iPad into an entertaining learning experience, with a timely Halloween theme, that kids will love!”

The game has 60 different images and words to guess. You can set the game length in the settings. All these settings are behind a hidden parental gate, and you even disable the teacher’s/parent’s menu from the device settings. You can also switch the sound effects on or off, (spoken hints are still heard), but also mute the whole device if you want to keep the gameplay completely silent. The teacher’s menu includes a three-minute instructional video and written instructions for adjusting the settings.

The app’s outstanding feature is its scalable and adjustable hint system. Parents can tweak the settings to suit their child’s age and capabilities. This makes the app perfect for pre-Kindergarten kids with practically no reading skills, all the way up to 2nd graders with full reading and spelling abilities.

Guess & Spell’s Hint Game System Works Like This:
* The speech synth speaks the secret word
* Players can “bomb away” some of the extra letters
* Place a correct letter. The hint places a letter in its correct space

The game can be configured as to the amount of hint letters, so it can be set that it always gives two letters – no matter how long the word is – but also so that at least one letter will be left empty, no matter how short or long the secret word is. Hints can also be set to appear dynamically, when the child guesses wrong.

The game’s settings are hidden in the iPad’s Settings menu, so adults can adjust the difficulty of the game according to their child’s capabilities. Here, adults can adjust the gameplay length, the language, rate, and pitch of the speech in the game, and also adjust the hint mode by setting the maximum number of letter hints, speech hints, and more. The teacher’s menu button can also be turned on or off.

Spoken hints can also be set to become available after the first wrong guess. If the player hears the word, but is still guessing wrong, bomb away letter hints will appear. If the guess is wrong again, then the place letters hint will appear. The settings can be individually disabled or enabled, to set the challenge to whatever level is preferred. The speech synthesizer settings are also customizable, and can be set to various English accents, including US, UK, AU, IE, and ZA accents.

Guess & Spell Halloween is just the first app in the Guess & Spell app series. Whopping Apps is working on Guess & Spell Animals, which will include over 150 images and words about animals. More apps are on the way. Version 1.0.1 streamlines the app icons and contains small bug fixes.

Device Requirements:
* Compatible with iPad
* Requires iOS 6.1 or later
* 63.6 MB

Pricing and Availability:
Guess & Spell Halloween 1.0.1 is only $1.99 USD (or equivalent amounts in other currencies) and is available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Education category. Review copies are available upon request. A free version of the app – Guess & Spell Halloween LITE – is also available in the App Store.

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Guess & Spell Halloween 1.0.1
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Appsipaja Oy is a Finnish-based development company, founded in 2011. The company has published apps for iOS and Android under the brand Whopping Apps. The company’s apps have been downloaded over a million times. Whopping Apps has a solid fan base, and also offers a merchandise store with cool kids’ t-shirts and other apparel. The developer is a father of three small children (ages 4, 6, and 8), so the the spark of creating his apps comes from within his family. He uses his in-house child labor team for beta testing and content evaluation, and they love to hear all the user feedback they receive for the apps. Copyright (C) 2015 Whopping Apps. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPad and iPod are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.