Premium themes, zero gameplay advantage
A design-forward cosmetic layer for Word Master subscribers. Premium themes, real board style, zero gameplay changes.
Last updated April 17, 2026 · By Kurt Bijl
The theme system
A premium theme in WordSalvo is a full `PremiumThemeConfig` record, not a color swap. One theme can ship its own board texture, tile face, typeface, grid color and width, multiplier-square fills, rack shelf, and chrome palette — score bar, player cards, action pills, language chip, even the chat bubble accent. Six released theme IDs are available to paying users today, with more designs kept in the preview catalogue.
The system is pluggable by design. Each theme overlays the default visuals via a Riverpod provider chain (`premiumThemeIdProvider` → `premiumThemeProvider`), preloads its textures, and falls back cleanly to the standard board if a subscription ever lapses. Releasing another theme is a config entry plus its texture assets — which is why we are willing to keep painting new ones.
The released themes
Each released theme is a distinct direction. The goal: you should be able to tell the board style from a screenshot without reading the theme name.
| Theme | Look in one line |
|---|---|
| Kintsugi | Gold-veined dark stone. Transparent cells, muted multipliers, gold chrome — the Japanese repair aesthetic in 15×15 form. |
| Letterpress | Ink-on-wood — the only theme today that renders a real tile texture under the letter, via an opt-in `useTileTexture` path. |
| Midnight | Near-black noir styling with ivory grid lines and textured tiles. |
| Miami Neon | Hot-pink and cyan glow on a deep board, with Orbitron-style chrome. |
| Riviera | A lighter streamline-modern board with cream cells and polished resort-era color. |
| Mosaic | Moroccan zellige inspiration — warm pattern work, cream cells, and a handmade board feel. |
How unlocking works
Premium themes are included with the Word Master subscription plan — the same plan that adds post-game engine analysis, unlimited daily-puzzle retries, the full Word Book, and priority matchmaking. There is no per-theme purchase. Subscribe once and the premium themes are yours while the plan is active, plus any new theme we ship after that. See the FAQ for the current Word Master feature list; the pricing page will confirm final prices at launch.
Switching is instant. Open Settings → Theme, pick one of the released themes, and the board reskins live — no restart, no redownload. Non-subscribers can preview a released theme through the one-time trial flow. If a subscription lapses, the board reverts to the standard WordSalvo look; no saved games or ratings are affected.
Themes never change the game
This matters enough to put in its own section. Every field a theme can touch is visual — grid color, cell fill, tile font, rack texture, chrome palette. Nothing in the config API touches tile distribution, dictionary validity, scoring multipliers, draw order, or matchmaking. Two players sitting across from each other in a rated online game can be running totally different themes and the move submitted to the Cloud Function is byte-identical either way. WordSalvo is not pay-to-win, and the theme layer was built so it cannot become pay-to-win by accident.
Leaderboards, Glicko-2 ratings (1500 start, ten named tiers from Novice to Laureate), and the ±200-point matchmaking window behave identically whether you are on the default board or a premium theme. See the rating tiers page for how that ladder actually moves.
Design philosophy
The theme pipeline is deliberately slow. Each new theme starts with a full-screen concept image generated at 9:16 — the whole screen, top chrome to rack, in the target style — before any config is written. That concept gets user approval, then gets translated into an asset list, a font decision (CJK fonts are subset with `pyftsubset` to avoid 8–25 MB bundle bloat), and a locked test file under `test/config/` that pins the radii, chrome fields, multiplier alpha, and confetti palette. The goal is that each theme reads as a coherent design direction, not as tinted chrome over the same board.
One example of that craft: Letterpress renders a real wood-grain tile face. It uses a newer code path that layers the texture as a separate widget inside the tile’s Stack, so the letter and point subscript paint above the grain without the decoration race that killed text in early builds. The point: a theme is as much engineering as it is color choice.
Frequently asked questions
- how many premium themes are there?
- Six released themes are available to paying users today: Kintsugi, Letterpress, Midnight, Miami Neon, Riviera, and Mosaic. More designs exist in the preview catalogue, but the public promise should follow the released set.
- do themes give any gameplay advantage?
- No. Every field a theme can touch is visual. Tile distribution, dictionary validity, scoring multipliers, draw order, and matchmaking are all unaffected. Two players in the same game can run different themes and the move submitted to the server is byte-identical.
- how do I get premium themes?
- They are included with the Word Master subscription, alongside post-game engine analysis, unlimited daily-puzzle retries, and priority matchmaking. There is no per-theme purchase. Prices will be confirmed on the pricing page at launch.
- can I switch themes mid-game?
- Yes. Open Settings → Theme and pick one of the released themes. The board reskins instantly — no restart, no redownload. Your current game state, rating, and leaderboard standing are untouched.
- what happens to my theme if I cancel Word Master?
- The board reverts to the standard WordSalvo look until you resubscribe. No saved games, ratings, Word Book entries, or friend lists are affected by the change.
- will new themes be added over time?
- Yes. The theme system is pluggable — each new theme is a config record plus four WebP textures — so we add one whenever a design direction earns its spot. New themes ship to all Word Master subscribers at no extra cost.