Absolutely beautiful. Played for far longer than I intended and got really quite good at it (I do play a lot of word games). Very satisfying and truly innovative gameplay - as I played I kept thinking of new possibilities, most of them probably not feasible: could you get challenge players to match certain criteria for extra points (eg. use 'scary' words or a subject-verb-object structure). When a game has me buzzing with ideas like that, it must have been successful. Full marks for everything except graphics (I don't think you'll be too upset by that!) and audio (lovely and moody but I played long enough to want some variety). Thanks!

The whole vibe of this game was great. The music was relaxing, the visuals were relaxing, and the game play was relaxing. Also the idea was super unique. Really great job. Woulda given you a 5 on mood if I could.

Okay, this game is great. I feel so dumb though, I suck at anagrams. Really a good brain-teaser.

I think the art looks tidy and consistent, which made the game pleasant to play.

I was not able to solve a single puzzle, despite me usually enjoying word puzzles. My primary problem was figuring out which book would bind with which, in a selection 4 to 5 books with fairly long words. And on top of this, the timer was adding what I perceived to be needless distraction to what I saw as an already pretty demanding task.

In simple terms I'm not intelligent enough to play your game.

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EDIT:
I played this game again, after seeing the video example and realising I could make as many words I wanted. All of a sudden the game made much more sense and was much more approachable. I reevaluated it now and I can see myself really properly enjoying it.

Interesting concept... hard game for anyone who's worst subject was spelling.

@mike-inprinciple I'm honored you came back for another shot! I could see how that's confusing... the game could benefit from an actual tutorial.

Well, this was a lot of fun. I made it to 364.65. My only critique would be to maybe add some more visual variety, after doing it for a while, it sort of all blends together.

@squirmonkey Oh, the plans I had! Randomized cover textures, font effects, flourishes, author names, stuff going on in the background... now that I have more Unity experience, I hope I can get more polish into the next one.

That was fun, now my brain hurts :P really original and intersting game, spent longer than I planned playing it! Good job

Very unique and genuinely fun! I was really confused at first but a really interesting game once I figured it out.

I'm not very good at this game, mainly because english is not my native language. Otherwise, I loved the idea of using a bookshelf for this theme, I myself wanted but couldn't find a nice mechanic for this aesthetic. Really solid entry with very relaxing music. Congratulations!

@le-slo That's the risk I run when I keep making word games... I hope you were able to enjoy it anyway. I'm not very good at it either. :)

"If rip sip expect fishy trap song"...

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IQ increased!!

Really cool game, unique, easygoing and gets hella tough along the way! great job! :ok_hand:

@m8rix The game is programmed to only accept brilliant anagrams. There must be something to it...

I am not good at anagram (and it's worst in english haha), but love this idea ! Nice work !

This was a lot of fun and a relatable subject xD I'm not that great at anagrams, so I only managed the books with short titles...

Very cool and concise idea. The only negative-I am Russian and could not make any anagrams.

@petra Note to self: make a more international-friendly game in December...

@caeonosphere That would be cool. I'll definitely play.

Loved it! Great use of the theme for both running out of letters to work with and running out of space on the book shelf. I found it pretty difficult but I don't think that's an issue at all, my vocabulary isn't the greatest lol! The graphical presentation along with the music made it very relaxing even though there was time pressure. Amazing work!

@ossi: Thanks so much! Book buddies unite!

Feels like scrabble but you play multiple people, simple yet interesting.

But I guess I'm not very good at this :sob:


Oh and maybe add mouse control like dragging and picking? The current one feels rather awkward to me..

I found myself stuck in your tinyverse immediately, a simple, yet really addictive game. The "studying-relaxing" type music fits perfectly, it was a wonderful way to boot up my brain in the morning. Absolutely good interpretation of the theme, well done mate! :)

Neat idea! I like how minimalist it all is, even with the soothing music and all, all feels very tidy. English is not my native language so I guess it got hard pretty quick for me but I still feel like it would be more enjoyable if you could sacrifice some points and plainly remove the last one or two letters if you want, I got stuck multiple times with a single Y or C and it felt like even though I had worked my way through multiple words, it was all for nothing :/

The controls felt nice to me, I understand some people may find it clunky but mouse control would have made me go back and forth between mouse and keyboard, instead I could just keep my hands on the keyboard and it felt good :)

Also I love the way you count points with IQ, it's such an absurd metric it made me laugh! I couldn't get beyond 150!

The first game of this jam I've actually restarted 4 or 5 times just to see if I could do better :P

@lucien-catonnet That's a good idea, allowing some extra letters at the end in exchange for points. I struggle with the game myself, and clearly I underestimated the number of non-native speakers that would be playing. My game design instincts don't tend towards leniency, but a little could have gone a long way here. Lesson learned!

LOL, playing this one again. :)

My, that was incredibly tough! Wish there were a 'slow mode' for useless people like me. XD
Absolutely brilliant concept, though I felt it was almost more running out of time than space.

Got an IQ of 267. This is a solid entry. :D

@mike-inprinciple And that's a solid score! My best is somewhere around 250.

@caeonosphere Play this one! https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/writespace

Good practice to my english. Brainfuck.

This game is amazing, I only did a very little score but you get better everytime you play and that feels great. Good music that helps you stay focus. I really love the concept. Great work.

A really clever idea, good use of the theme. I love how simple yet addictive the gameplay is !

Here are my best ones:

- vermin + hear → ham verrine (except **not** because [verrine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verrine) was not in the word list…)
- the unthreaded boron + cashmere → burned cheated moron shat here
- astral subgenus + vermin → genius mars travel buns

An enjoyable little game, nice idea :smile:

@samh Great ones! “Verrine” is missing from the Scrabble dictionary; I should have used a union of several dictionaries. Another lesson learned... although I’m gonna try to not make another word game next time, since I did last time as well. :sweat_smile:

Challenging game! I included it in my compilation video series of the Ludum Dare 42 compilation video series, if you’d like to take a look. :) https://youtu.be/WOSoM8jnjZc

Very innovative gameplay! It would be cool to see my created anagrams as new bound books or listed out as well as the point values of each one!

@rosypenguin Thanks! I'm planning on releasing a post-jam version with that addition, along with some others.