WordGeddon by DevMerlin

[raw]
made by DevMerlin for Ludum Dare 48 (JAM)

WordGeddonMenu.png

You've infiltrated the Mad Scientist's lair - now it's time to stop their doomsday weapon! Unfortunately, you arrived too late - it's already armed, and about to drop. Decode "passwords" and hit a target score to stop it momentarily. Beat a set number of rounds to blow it up fully! If you take too long, the bomb will fall deeper to the planet's core.

Watch the timer to the side for your countdown, and try to solve the scrambles for words anywhere four to eight letters long. Of course, if you figure out an eight letter word, that's the highest score!

You can play in two ways currently - with the mouse, or by directly typing on the keyboard. Typing is faster, but both are possible. Clicking on the game should focus the keyboard on it.

The dictionary that WordGeddon uses is in English, with just over 12,500 eight-letter words alone. It's quite possible that some may be unfamiliar, but if so - don't worry. Just try to solve for a smaller word inside it! WordGeddon has a total dictionary of 41699 words!

Note: At the moment, the full core game loop is running! However, everything else is still on a to-do list, including some polish... and audio. More modes are planned as well, but for now - you can set the difficulty from Easy, Medium, or Hard.

This version will be left as-is now on Itch.io, while updated versions will be posted in a new spot!

Ratings

Overall 1687th 2.938⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1590th 2.833⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 1786th 2.417⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1835th 2.479⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1668th 2.688⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Humor 1240th 2.25⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1695th 2.646⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Given 17🗳️ 22🗨️

Feedback

MK-awesome
27. Apr 2021 · 14:46 UTC
I was not able to enter the first Code, is the Problem me? Or is that a bug?
The Grafics look pretty nice btw =)
AltTabber
27. Apr 2021 · 14:50 UTC
Good game, but extrimely hard for non-english speaking players)
Steve Dragon
27. Apr 2021 · 14:53 UTC
The core loop seems fine. It was nice to be able to answer with 4-letter words while knowing, for sure, that there was a longer one I was sacrificing for time. Made for interesting decisions. I wish it told me what the 8-letter word was every time instead of only when I gave up.

The words themselves were a little...strange. Some of them like "nonesuch" aren't in use as such, so it felt like the game had cheated me of the satisfaction of actually finding the 8-letter word. Maybe more curation there is required.

Overall, pretty decent.
T C
27. Apr 2021 · 14:54 UTC
Nice word game. Would definitely be driven crazy on hard mode, but I like being able to make any word. Was a bit confused when the game ended or didn't, but didn't take away from the fun of it. Good job!
Lélek Hunor Kadosa
27. Apr 2021 · 15:03 UTC
Nice graphics :D And a simple but good game.
It would be nice if you can erase letters in mid words by clicking on them.
And use simpler words on the medium difficulty...I'm not a native english speaker therefore I had a bounch of words that I ddidn't even know
nardandas
27. Apr 2021 · 15:06 UTC
Hard little word-finder! I tried hard a few times but had a lot of trouble getting past 4 rounds, so I played easy. I do wish that after you reached the required score you could skip to the next round, it took a lot of waiting to get further down. The animations were super fun though, I really appreciate em!
🎤 DevMerlin
27. Apr 2021 · 15:07 UTC
@lelek-hunor-kadosa Thanks for the feedback! I've got a lot more I want to add to it, and as @steve-dragon said the dictionary can be... weird, sometimes. It's thrown me for a loop more then once.
Zypo
27. Apr 2021 · 15:07 UTC
Very interesting. The theme really didn't make much sense with the gameplay, and originally I thought that I had to come up with a full 8 letter word, which was very confusing - then I read the instructions. Furthermore, once you reach the "minimum" score, you should be able to advance to the next level as there really isn't any point of moving on. Overall, great job getting a game together!!!

**SPOILER** After clicking "Give Up", you can quickly type the word and press enter for the full points.
Fribolin
27. Apr 2021 · 15:17 UTC
took me a minute to figure out, that I don't need to use all letters. After that, fun game, I had my problems wiht not being a native english speaker, but I still played a few rounds on medium difficulty.
Some soundeffects would have been nice, maybe a little music track. Those two things can go a long way in giving the player a feel of stress.
🎤 DevMerlin
27. Apr 2021 · 15:51 UTC
@fribolin Thanks for the comments on audio - that was one thing I didn't really have time to do, but will be added in. Some in-game instructions too eventually. These will be in another version I'll post links to.
CorbenG
28. Apr 2021 · 03:08 UTC
Word scrambles are always fun, and the time pressure and ability to make any word you want gives it a unique twist. Erasing could be a bit frustrating and unresponsive at times, but the visuals and art fit well. Nice work :)
🎤 DevMerlin
28. Apr 2021 · 03:13 UTC
@corbeng Thanks! I'm planning on making updates with some of the above mentions, including the ability to click to erase. Those'll be in the "published" version off Ludum Dare, so there should be some quality of life changes in the big version.
leorid
28. Apr 2021 · 04:48 UTC
Got some sexual words xD Humor 5/5 xD
🎤 DevMerlin
28. Apr 2021 · 05:31 UTC
@leorid Yeah, I need to go through and prune the list some - it's a direct reference copy of a number of dictionaries.
tetrapteryx
28. Apr 2021 · 12:22 UTC
This is a fun game! I liked that I had the option to enter shorter words just to keep things going, it made me feel extra smart when I figured out the full word, instead of dumb for not getting it.
Tomas Poblete
28. Apr 2021 · 15:13 UTC
I don't speak English natively so I had some trouble guessing the whole words haha. The option to enter shorter words is appreciated. It is an interesting approach to the theme of the jam. This concept would be very good for people who want to improve their English skills. Nice game!
Eugenik
28. Apr 2021 · 16:25 UTC
I definitely love the art style, very nice work !.
Wheffle
29. Apr 2021 · 00:25 UTC
I'm a bit of a sucker for typing games, but I have learned that I suck at scramble games. I could only beat it on easy. The idea is simple and it was a lot of fun! I liked the detailed lose screen, that was a nice touch. I think my main suggestion would be to give longer words some sort of compounding score instead of linear. I'm surprised how well the scramble works though, you can make smaller words out of the letters of almost any 8-letter word. Pretty crazy.
GullynGames
13. May 2021 · 17:57 UTC
Pretty fun game! It could have benefited from some audio, even some simple sound effects. Most of the words I entered were 4-6 letter words, and I barely got the 8-letter ones. Overall good job!
Eckkert
17. May 2021 · 05:08 UTC
It took me a little to figure out that it wouldn't take words shorter than four letters. Too bad, because I am really terrible at anagrams. ;)