How to Play KeyBricks
Learning to type? Play KeyBricks!
In today's digital world, keyboarding is a skill necessary for school and workplace success. As difficult as touch-typing can appear to those who hammer at their keyboards with only their index fingers, it's a skill that can be honed with a bit of persistence and practice.
KeyBricks is a fun game that teaches the skills necessary to become a fluent touch-typist. This game provides the player with four different gameplay options, each of which tests proficiency in a specific area of the keyboard: the home row (easy), all letters (normal), a combination of numbers and letters (difficult), and 10-key.
Objective
In KeyBricks, you are presented with a wall of red, green, and purple colored blocks. Your objective is to utilize your touch-typing skills to clear large groups of colored blocks.
Letters or numbers are encased within scattered blocks, and typing the corresponding key signals the destruction of every similarly-colored block in the group. The wall shifts to fill in the gap that was just created, forming new color groupings. The remaining letters are then randomized, and the game continues.
You start the game with five stars; these are essentially your spare lives. The game is over when you've lost all of your stars.
Occasionally, you'll find yourself without any groups and have to resort to destroying a lone block. Make sure to avoid this at all costs, as you'll lose a star in the process.
You earn 11 points for destroying a single block, 24 for a two-block group, 39 points for a three-block group, and so on.
Controls
To play the game, simply type the letter (or number) on the keyboard that corresponds to the block-group you're aiming to destroy.
At the bottom right corner of the game window, there is a drop-down menu that allows you to choose from four gameplay options.
Tips & Strategies
1. Choose an appropriate starting level.
If you're just starting to familiarize yourself with the QWERTY keyboard, start by playing the "Home Row" level. This level tests your proficiency with the home row position (spanning from the ASDF to the JKL; keys on the keyboard). Familiarity with these keys is an essential building block for growing your touch-typing skills, as you'll be learning keys in the other rows based on their positions relative to the home row.
Once you have the basics down, you can move on to the full alphabet level.
2. Perfect practice makes perfect.
As with any task that requires development of muscle memory, make sure that you're practicing correctly rather than practicing your mistakes. This game doesn't have you racing against a clock, so slow down if you find that you're making frequent errors. First focus on consistently hitting the correct keys; after you reach that level of proficiency, you can focus on speed.
