A guess-the-word game with a sinking balloon

Balloon Words is a free guess-the-word game in Games by Zaweba. You pick letters to fill in a hidden word before your hot-air balloon sinks into the duck pond, which makes it a gentle, cheerful take on the letter-guessing game many people played on paper at school. It runs offline with no adverts.

The paper version usually ends with a grim little drawing. Balloon Words swaps that for a balloon running out of burner gas and a splash in a duck pond, which is much nicer for younger players.

How Balloon Words plays

A hidden word is shown as blanks, with its category above it. Pick letters to fill it in. Every wrong letter uses a burst of burner gas, and the balloon sinks a little lower. After seven misses, it lands in the duck pond and the game ends.

Every word you guess refills the gas. Words guessed in a row multiply your score, up to five times, so a run of good guesses is worth much more than the same words spread out.

To play, click the letters on screen or type A to Z on the keyboard. Balloon Words is on the Puzzles shelf of Games by Zaweba.

Guessing smarter

Start with common letters. Vowels such as E, A and O, and common consonants like T, N, S and R, turn up in most words. Getting a few of those placed early shows the shape of the word.

Use the category. The category above the word narrows the possibilities a lot. Once you know it's an animal or a food, the gaps start to suggest real words.

Look at the pattern. A word with a double letter, or a short word with a letter repeated, often points to only a few answers. Read the blanks and the letters you have as a shape.

Save your misses. You have seven before the balloon lands. Spending them on rare letters early, such as Q or Z, leaves you little room later.

Keep the streak going. Because words in a row multiply your score up to five times, playing carefully on each word is worth more than rushing.

Good for children learning to spell

Balloon Words is a friendly way for children to practise spelling and letter patterns. Typing letters on the keyboard helps with finding keys too. Reading the category together and talking about which letters are likely makes a nice shared game.

Games by Zaweba is free software that works offline, with no adverts and nothing to sign up for. Esc pauses the game, and it also pauses when the window loses focus. The sound can be turned off from the bar above any game if others are nearby.

Your best runs

Your best score is kept for each game and mode, along with plays and wins, and the result card at the end shows your score next to your best. Those records are stored in a file in your own settings folder and never leave the PC.

More puzzles on the shelf

If you like Balloon Words, Colour Code is another guessing game, this time cracking a hidden row of coloured pegs in ten tries. Number Place and Picture Grid are calm logic puzzles. For younger players, Wild Eights and Pairs on the Cards shelf are also easy to pick up.