Obvious references to existing games in new game

I don't know that you need to change the tile-lettering system for any protection purposes, but I would myself for other reasons. It is not a word game, so the distribution should be something that makes sense logically and is quick to grasp. Right now your distribution is this:

A9 B2 C2 D4 E12 F2 G3 H2 I9 J1 K1 L4 M2 N6 O8 P2 Q1 R6 S4 T6 U4 V2 W2 X1 Y2 Z1 BLANK2

... your numbers probably make sense to go with the balancing of your game, although you'll notice that there are no tiles with 11,10,7, or 5 instances... this system as it exists is supposed to reflect letter frequency in English and is balanced fine for Scrabble (I'm always looking for another "K" myself!). I'm sure that you have made it work for your game, although I would have chosen a more incrementally regular system.

If you choose to retain the numbers you have, I would relabel the tiles as such:

A-B B-M C-N D-H E-A F-O G-L H-P I-C J-W K-X L-I M-Q N-E O-D P-R Q-Y R-F S-J T-G U-K V-S W-T X-Z Y-U Z-BLANK BLANK-V

This will give you the following distribution:

A12 B9 C9 D8 E6 F6 G6 H4 I4 J4 K4 L3 M2 N2 O2 P2 Q2 R2 S2 T2 U2 V2 W1 X1 Y1 Z1 BLANK1

What this says to the player is: The closer a tile is to the top of the alphabet, the more instances of it there will be. This is a system that makes a lot more sense from the player perspective, I think.

This is a great example of the dangers of using specialized game components to base part of your game on. I appreciate that taking bits from other games fits in with the theme of your game (very appropriate, actually), but you are limiting yourself to an irregular distribution that was created to fit the specific purpose of letter frequency. Irregular distribution is fine - in fact I am sure that it is necessary - but a PLANNED irregular distribution would be much more effective for you than a hijacked one.

You will have to custom-order tilesets when you produce your game anyway.... why not create a whole new system with a distribution that makes sense for you?

~Josh