Patent attributes
A gaming system and a gaming method for a reel-based game that includes a sequence of letters are described. During a game session, the selected plurality of letters are associated with a plurality of letter display elements. Additionally, each letter in the plurality of letters is compared to a particular letter limit. The operations include identifying a selected letter from the plurality of letters that exceeds the particular letter limit (or an excess letter) and replacing a letter display element associated with the excess letter with a display element selected from a group that includes a blank display element and a wild display element. The operations then proceed to display the plurality of letter display elements and the blank display element or the wild display element on the display device. The operations determine whether any of the plurality of letter display elements form a winning sequence of letter display elements for a word corresponding to a dictionary, and then determine a primary game award based upon the plurality of letter display elements.
