Keep "IT" Alive

by robodoig

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.57

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.34

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.87

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.94

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.03

Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.44

Humor★★★★★★★★★★2.07

Mood★★★★★★★★★★3.42

A minimalist word game for Ludum Dare 46

HOW TO PLAY

The goal of the game is to keep a word alive through successive rounds, beginning with the word "IT", and continuing for as many rounds as possible

Each round you get a new set of letters that you can swap in to make a new word before the timer runs out

Once you have made a new word, press ALIVE to progress to the next round

You can also press KEEP to carry letters over to the next round

As you progress through the rounds, you start to earn powerups which appear at the bottom right:

- Extra time
- Change letters
- Extra vowels

TIPS

- The KEEP button is useful for making it further in the game. If you make a word and realise you can extend it with the remaining letters, press KEEP to hold those letters for the next round
- If you're stuck, use your accumulated powerups. Give yourself extra time or new letters

TOOLS
- Unity 2019.2.0f1
- Pyxel Edit
- Ableton Live
- "Better Minimal" for WebGL build https://seansleblanc.itch.io/better-minimal-webgl-template

Let me know how many rounds you make it through!

Note: web version is temperamental on mobile right now.

Tools: Pyxel Edit, Unity

Comments31

peterfiftyfour21 Apr 2020, 09:07

This is pretty hard! I got to 37 but it was getting so fast I couldn't keep up. At that point the letters start to go off the edges. Might be good if they went to a new line. Also a shuffle mechanic for your current letters might be nice just to help generate some ideas.

Defiant Genesis21 Apr 2020, 20:29

It was a cool game. I liked your take on the theme. It was challenging but addictive. The standalone version didn't work for me for some reason, it seemed to have to do with the resolution. I use an ultra-wide monitor, so that might be the problem.

Fire_phantom721 Apr 2020, 20:29

I might just have a minuscule vocabulary, but I had no idea how to add onto the word after a couple rounds.

Kiln21 Apr 2020, 20:30

Very hard game, but nevertheless an interesting concept! I liked the audio cues, very fitting with the pressure of the game.

sadpanda21 Apr 2020, 20:31

Cool and addicting concept

BitPokit21 Apr 2020, 20:32

This is one of my favorite entries I've played! I love the style, sound, mechanics, and concept. Excellent game! :)

Gabriel Pittol21 Apr 2020, 20:32

Pretty nice, and pretty hard. The idea and the sounds were amazing.

Azo21 Apr 2020, 20:32

Obviously I need to get better at word games!! this was a simple but fun submission. great job!!

ankou21 Apr 2020, 20:33

This is a pretty neat idea! Very minimal while still being a good challenge. The audio design really adds a lot to the game.

AdamV21 Apr 2020, 20:35

Interesting idea! I might be missing something, but is there a reason to go for longer words? It seems like it would be optimal to stay with 3 letter words as long as possible. Also sometimes there were blank tiles, are those for deleting a letter?

yscik21 Apr 2020, 20:35

Nice!
For a bit more challenge on on-theme-ness, you could add a rule where at least one letter must be kept, or a random letter from the word. (But remove the timer)
Was not trivial at first that I can replace existing letter and not just have to extend at the beginning and end, which was hell :). Keeping it at three letters forever howevers makes it a bit easy. (Except for the timer)
Not sure that more and more letters being available is intended or a bug, but that should probably be limited, or tied to current world length?
For the power-ups, some attention-grabbing animation might be good, I completely forgot about them.
Overall great idea, well executed!

Stadoblech21 Apr 2020, 20:39

im bad with world games. But from audiovisual perspective, this game is absolutelly blast. I love it! :)

chrismcco21 Apr 2020, 20:40

I played to round 27 and enjoyed the increasing challenge. It took a few tries to figure out that you could replace the existing letters, not just place them in the spaces, and that you only needed to make a word and not fill all spaces. Neat idea, and love the audio and ambience.

Luke Perkin21 Apr 2020, 20:40

Reminds me of a card game called WordStacker. Nice interpretation of the theme. Got to 11 rounds :)

RoboDoigauthor21 Apr 2020, 20:40

@adamv You're right, I had intended to balance that aspect a little more but was running low on time. The main incentive for longer words is that at some point it is necessary to avoid repeating a previous 3 letter. If I'd spent more time on it I would have put in some more incentive to create longer words, e.g. you only get bonuses or powerups for words of a specific length.

PaperclipBadger21 Apr 2020, 20:41

At first I didn't realise that you could replace letters, which made the game very difficult indeed. Once I figured out the rules, pretty good!

Pretzol21 Apr 2020, 20:41

This is probably the best take on "Keep it alive" I've been in this jam so far. The concept was really cool! Although, I thought some of the sounds were a little scary, especially the buzz when you mess up a word. Still, this is a rad game! If there was a mobile version I bet it would be popular.

RoboDoigauthor21 Apr 2020, 20:42

@yscik Thanks for your feedback! The ever-extending letters was also something I wanted to fix, you're right that it should probably be capped or tied to performance in some way.

RoboDoigauthor21 Apr 2020, 20:42

@yscik Thanks for your feedback! The ever-extending letters was also something I wanted to fix, you're right that it should probably be capped or tied to performance in some way.

karln21 Apr 2020, 20:45

18 rounds

I love the interpretation of the theme on this one! Nice atmospheric sounds and effectively simple visual aesthetic too, nice work!

AdonisDevs21 Apr 2020, 20:46

I got 38 rounds! I really like this. Great word play and interpretation of the theme :)

Lars-Erik21 Apr 2020, 20:47

Nice entry. For a while, I was convinced I had to keep "IT" in the middle. After reading the comments, at least I got to 7-8 words. :P Agree with others that making bigger words were pretty much suicide without reward. All in all very good submission, and high potential if gameplay can be sustained for longer with longer words.

Learus21 Apr 2020, 21:05

Cool idea, but I couldn't get past the second round. Either my vocabulary is so bad, or the randomness is too much. There were some times that i could not find any word for even the first round! Was there a way to get rid of letters in the current word, that I was not aware about?
I really liked the audio. It was very fitting given the pressure and the challenge this game has.

Lery21 Apr 2020, 21:08

I was able to hold for 15 rounds only, but then I didn't want to try again since I didn't know how far from the end I was. :sweat_smile: That's not an easy game, BTW.

RoboDoigauthor21 Apr 2020, 21:09

@adonisdevs new record!

kaelXD21 Apr 2020, 21:20

game was pretty fun wish my vocabulary was better haha

Fractal Flower Girl21 Apr 2020, 22:10

It was a creative way to use the theme. I got to round 20 playing with my family. I liked the audio.

ZaiusPanda21 Apr 2020, 22:49

Simple and clean. I liked it so much! So adictive.

makiyoshi22 Apr 2020, 01:07

The best I did was 31 rounds. I had a lot of fun! It's very challenging and engaging. I lost because "rome" was not considered a word, lol. The use of the theme was very creative, overall it's a great game! The minimalist interface is also really good. The only issue I had was the tutorial's text layout, it's readability was a little lacking (and it wasn't very clear that letters were replaceable). Aside from that, I think you did an amazing job! Congrats. :D

erebus22 Apr 2020, 10:39

Very cool concept! Thanks for bringing it by the stream!

Aurel30024 Apr 2020, 18:56

We streamed your game with Danae: link to Twitch VOD (approximate timestamp)

I love this type of games, although I certainly did not do very well x) The concept is nice and simple. My one big issue is maybe the fact that it was not clear to me that `KEEP` was a check box rather than a button. I expected the letters to be kept when I pressed it. Also it seemed to me that the game did not check that a new word can definitely be made out of the letters provided?

Other games by @robodoig

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