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  • Word Witch - Defend your town from an enemy invasion in this Scrabble RPG! Godot Wild Jam #27

Very nice. Well polished. Addictive. Good to know how many opponents are left.

Some words were not recognized (eg. 'Fart'), and they repeat words too often but that might be intended.

Congratulations.

@jjmontes said: Very nice. Well polished. Addictive. Good to know how many opponents are left.

Some words were not recognized (eg. 'Fart'), and they repeat words too often but that might be intended.

Congratulations.

Thank you for the feedback! Both things are right, a larger dictionary should had be used and we intentionally made enemies have a limited vocabulary to make the game easier to complete for jam's purpose. But we decided to make a full version of this game, so some things will be fixed and others added. i'll be submitting devlogs to my youtube channel (although i think that's not gonna be soon), so subscribe to my channel if you're interested: https://youtube.com/channel/UCYJkQBKxQDGtgWigXYEx0Bg

2 months later

The core idea is great, but it's not executed very well.

When the opponent attacks, I have to type so fast that I'd have to program a Cheat Engine to even stand a chance. And that's saying something when I can type fast (at least everyone around me says that). To add insult to injury, the letters not only move so fast that I could never hope to type that fast when I could read them immidiately, but they also scroll so choppily that they appear to be moving every 2 frames instead of every 1 frame.

On the one hand, this combat system is necessary to make the game feel more like an RPG. But on the other hand, it violates of the slow and thinky core of the game. If I were to continue this game's development, I'd first reskin it into something that allows me to remove the Impossible Typing segments between each turn, because every game is much better if you first identify its core and build everything to strengthen that core.

Unrelated example: I'm currently making a One-Button Autorunner, but won't implement my considered Extra Abilities because they'd need extra buttons or on-the-fly replacing with swipe gestures, that would violate the simplicity that is part of the game's core.

To add back the challenge, I'd add local multiplayer, because the game would not have enough players for a sustainable online multiplayer.

I do not plan to make that game myself as I am already making a different game, but I made a Spritesheet and Mockup for a possible spiritual sequel codenamed "Word Factory", since I thought the "Word Witch" concept was great but its execution wasn't, and I also thought that a better execution required a different theme that would allow for gameplay that better serves the game's core:

My rough idea is that you'd have the Letters rolling in from the purple conveyor belt at the bottom, and you'd have to place them on the Orange conveyor belt above to spell a word and press the Orange button when you're done with the word. I made these graphics in minimalistic Pixel Art as I thought the arcade gameplay would complement it perfectly. I also designed the font to be readable at Very fast speeds as best I could.

This factory theme with conveyor belts would allow for a ruleset which could be changed by the players before every match: - The Blue Button moves the letters on the Purple Conveyor in some way. How exactly can change in different rulesets, e.g..: - - In rulesets where the letters don't move automatically, the button could reshuffle the entire set, or move away the right-most letter for a different letter which enters from the left-most position - - In a ruleset where the letters Do move automatically, the button could make the Conveyor move faster or backwards - Spelling a word on the Orange conveyor could work exactly like in Word Witch, or the orane conveyor could move automatically and you must manually move the letters from the Purple conveyor to the right slots in the right time to complete the word as fast as possible. - The Player could choose different starting speeds impacting their later progression of the score: - - At every Speed increase, their Speed Multiplier for their Score will increase by 1 - - If they choose Speed 0, they will be at Speed 0 for the first 10 Words, Speed 1 for the next 10 words, Speed 2 for the next 5 words, and so on. - - If they choose Speed 1, they will be at Speed 1 for the first 10+10=20 words, Speed 2 for the next 5 words, Speed 3 for the next 5 words, and so on. - - If they choose Speed 3, they will be at Speed 3 for the first 10+10+5=15 words, Speed 4 for the next 5 words, and Speed 5 for all subsequent words - - If they choose Speed 4, they will be at Speed 4 for the first 10+10+5+5=30 words, and at Speed 5 for all subsequent words. - - If they choose Speed 5, they will play the entire match at Speed 5 - To add stakes, I'd suggest adding a rule where wasting letters Removes the Letter's worth of score from the player's Score (A letter counts as wasted when it exits through the right side of the Purple conveyor instead of the Orange conveyor) - I just came to the idea that the game could have an optional Trash Can where the player could put themselves letters they want to waste.

I know that this is terribly overwhelming, but I suggest starting with an unchangeable ruleset that you think would be the most interesting one. I intentionally left this concept pitch open-ended to improve the flow of better ideas.