This game IS NOT Scrabble

[Typing Monkey]

I'm tired of hearing the same comment repeatedly:

the wordlist is a lot smaller than it ought to be

The word list is terrible.

THIS GAME IS NOT SCRABBLE. It doesn't accept thousands of weird words from the Scrabble dictionary. And it's right! If you want "skillfully" spell 'zax' or 'bez' please find another game.

"Showing possible words at the top of the screen is cheating," you say. NO! Real cheating is Scrabble "words" that no one ever uses.

I'm not a native speaker, but I totally agree with this comment:

So many things that are "words" are such nonsense to my plebien american ways.

The word list in the game is already too broad. It is based on 12 open source dictionaries. The word need to be included in 2 of them to be considered as valid. I think 4of12 would be better, but after so many complains about the short dictionary I made it as broad as possible. I haven't manually excluded any of the words from the list except for musical notes and some rare Greek letters.

[QuinZ33]

Funny you mention musical notes and greek letters, because they should absolutely be included. I just finished my first run, and I kept trying greek letters and musical notes. They're extremely common in word games. Odd that you broke your own 2 out of 12 rule to exclude them, when I bet they were included in all 12 dictionaries.

I understand the need to cut the word list down from similar games for game balance reasons, but I also understand people who are annoyed that this game doesn't follow genre conventions of what is and is not a word.

[Typing Monkey]

If you don't include the whole bunch of Scrabble words in the list of your game, you will be hated by word game lovers. If you include them, you will be hated by people who don't familiar with the Scrabble dictionary. So every word game developer is between Scylla and Charybdis.

You can check out reviews for the game that uses the Scrabble dictionary:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1014810/Happy_Words/

Typical review:

it's just like all the other sh** scrabble games i have found! Doesn't play by the rules, uses foreign words, lays one word along another word and some of the letters that line up aren't words!

I didn't even want to make a word game. I tried to make the game WITH words, where letters were resources. Letters are fantastic for not standard synergies. I tagged my game to target Slay the Spire and Dicey Dungeons fans mostly, not word game fans.

Odd that you broke your own 2 out of 12 rule to exclude them, when I bet they were included in all 12 dictionaries.

Yes. They were included in the dictionaries:

I haven't manually excluded any of the words from the list except for musical notes and some rare Greek letters.

That's why I explicitly said in the start disclaimer of the game that musical notes will not be accepted. Can the game have its own little rule? :)


And @QuinZ33 thank you for the review! I was in the week long depression because of the last negative reviews. It's hard to keep a clear mind, when people say your game is unbeatable with some starting decks, while it's just not truth.

It's an off topic, but why do you feel the game is not well balanced? Maybe I can improve it somehow?

The reviews are right that the game lacks some balance and some polish.

I agree the game is visually not polished, but balance... That's the thing I care about the most.
It seems like all balance complains are from people who straggle to find the useful tactics. I'm searching the way how to change the tutorial and tips. I think it's the real problem of the game.

I recommend everyone to follow these best practices:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1732090/discussions/0/3371531430930768187/

But I can't find the proper way to demonstrate these advises in the game.
Now I want to add some new items that will encourage following these practices.

[QuinZ33]

Originally posted by Typing Monkey:

It's an off topic, but why do you feel the game is not well balanced? Maybe I can improve it somehow?

The other reviewers are right that the starting decks have a pretty big spread of power in the few times I've played, especially the 2nd character with his double-letter tiles.

I believe they're wrong when they say it's "not beatable" with some starting decks, but the RNG hits a little earlier than Slay the Spire. There are some letter combinations, even if they're not "rare" tiles, that just don't often play well together. Meanwhile, in one of my games I started with a Q and a U as well as some letters that played well with them and I had a very easy early game.

I don't think there's anything you can do about it, it's a fair design choice. It's just different than what some people expect from deck builders.

[Typing Monkey]

Originally posted by QuinZ33:

Meanwhile, in one of my games I started with a Q and a U as well as some letters that played well with them and I had a very easy early game.

You can't get Q in the starting deck without U.

a pretty big spread of power in the few times I've played, especially the 2nd character with his double-letter tiles.

I agree that the power of starting decks can be different, but in fact, this difference is not that big. And you can easily remove tiles with bad synergy in the forge. Removing is almost as good as upgrading (in the late game it's even better). Early enemies are not so deadly to seriously affect the outcome of a run. But you're right, the second character is much more vulnerable to the bad starting deck. The first and third character can get only 1 rare (3+ points) letter in the starting deck in the Gifted/Cursed mode.

but the RNG hits a little earlier than Slay the Spire.

You have the Re-Roll button, so unfortunate draws can't kill you here.

I'm an A20 StS player myself and reached the Legend rank in Hearthstone many times. My game during tests seemed more consistent for me than StS. I can beat it 100% of times on Levels 1-5 in the GIFTED mode. While in StS sometimes I could not go through some Elite fights (A15-20) on the 1st and 2nd floors (I don't have a pro level in StS and don't use guides). I might rarely lose in Words Can Kill during challenge runs only (and I think mostly because of mistakes).
I'm not a native speaker, so it's hard for me to play in the Cursed/Doomed mode. But even here I can consistently win on Levels 1-3 by using short words tactics. The Re-Roll button is even more useful in these modes. I've seen on YouTube and Twitch a lot of players forget about the Re-Roll button.

[poptasticboy]

Hi, I get that this seems to be an emotive topic for you, but couldn't you allow people to play the game the way that *they* want to? If people would enjoy the game more when the word list matches what they are used to, then why not allow them to use a dictionary of their choice instead of forcing your own preferences on them?

I love the concept of the game, but I'm rather on the fence because I know how annoyed I can get with other word games, when the words that I know are valid elsewhere are not allowed in them. Will it bug me so much in this game? I don't know yet. But if you allowed custom dictionaries I would have no hesitation what-so-ever :)

Oh, and specifically on musical notes and Greek letters: as I am both a musician and a mathematician, those are particularly painful exclusions for me! :)

Further thoughts:
Upon further reflection, it doesn't even have to impact your vision of the game. You've already implemented different modes for the game. Clearly your preferred vision for the game is with a condensed word list and the word options listed on screen, and that's great... but you also already have other modes for people who have different preferences, e.g. not displaying the available words on screen.
Why not keep the standard mode to your vision, with the restricted word list, but in other modes allow players to play the way that *they* will enjoy most, by allowing them to import their own dictionaries? Isn't that a way to please everyone while still keeping the default game to your vision?

One final thought on restricted word lists:
Every person in the world is going to have a different concept of what words are commonplace and should be included. Depending on your field of work or education level, people's vocabularies vary greatly. Certain words one person uses daily, another person might never have come accross. That doesn't make those words any less real words, and to the people who use those words regularly, their exclusion will be particularly jarring. Add to this, you've said yourself that you are not a native English speaker, so perhaps your judgement on which words are commonplace may be influenced by that too.
Surely the answer is to allow players the option of importing their own word lists, so that they do not get frustrated by the absence of words that *to them* are commonplace.

[Touré]

Hey man, you do you. It's your game. A very wise TCG developer once said "Take the good and bad critics of your testers (players) very seriously, but take their solutions with a grain of salt." Maybe you can find inspiration and things you didn't think were a problem among all the bad reviews. They MAY help you understand what your game is lacking or what you can improve; but don't fret if the people complain about you not giving them the solution they THINK they want, 'cause even we don't know what we want most of the times. We are NOT game developers; we are the players. We are good at identifying problems, but not all of us have the right solution.

If you think your game is awesome the way it is, then, by all means, keep doing what you are doing. I, personally, am enjoying it so far. I am not a fan of the art style, but I wouldn't even know what graphic design to use with this type of game if you asked me. If you think something is missing or want to up the game, then all those negative reviews and comments may help you find YOUR answer (again, not THEIR answer) to the problem.

I know the reviews of the first week of an indie release make it or break it, but that's the name of the game. Take the punches and the roses with the chin high up and try to make the most out of them... or don't and just ignore them if you are happy with your product xD

Cheers for the game and happy holidays.

[Goblin Tits]

I love it that the comment near the top has "plebeian" spelled wrong. How do you spell "ironic?"