I enjoy playing letter tile games but due to a bit of a competitive streak among my friends every board inevitably ends up becoming a snarled web with every additional point a hard fought mess. WordChain instead strives to be a relaxed experience where the only goal is to keep the chain going to the next word.
Instructions: 1) Place tiles vertically or horizontally to form words, connecting to previously played words. 2) You will receive one point every time you successfully place a word. 3) You will draw one less tile than the number you placed, and one extra for every word formed above the first. 4) Unused tiles clear the board every round. 5) There are special tiles to draw +1, draw +2, or swap all tiles. Play on them to activate. 6) In any word placement there must be at least one brand new word. 7) Choose 'Give Up' when you feel you can no longer keep your streak alive.
It's simple but catchy, just like the BGM. I learned this LD that literally making your own SFX kicks butt (not found in my own game).
To make sure - so you can only place one "line" of letters each turn, right? Like if you were playing on an infinitely long Scrabble board? I was trying to place two words on different lines (but both connected to the original word) at first. If that's the case, I might even try to lock out tile placement that's not in the same "direction" as the first tiles you place each round.
The animations on the menu and in-game give it an extra touch of polish. Good stuff!
I'm not a big fan of word games, but enjoyed this nonetheless! Very intuitive and straightforward to get into the flow of.
But that's not why I'm here, I'm so here for that background music. It sounds like a half-remembered version of the Mii Channel music, with a bit of extra crooning. Brilliant! Perhaps I'd enjoy word games if they all had this BG music...
The life on the title screen is a fun extra touch too :)
Nice work on the audio ;) Although it got a little annoying after a while. Only got a streak of 11 or so before I accidentally removed a bunch of the starting words and everything become a giant bundle of overlapping tiles. Oops! Very very polished feeling otherwise for a jam game, so well done! Could do well on mobile I think!
Normally I'm not very good at word games, but I enjoyed the chill atmosphere and always had the desire to just place one more word! I liked the special tiles randomly appearing giving you something to aim towards.
I liked how smooth the interface was, but what words could have used all my Vs, Zs, Xs and Qs? Apparently "ZEN" is not a word, but I would use it to describe this game. :pray:
Good sound and music. Very clean and straightforward presentation. So much of this feels fully fleshed out and ready for a store release. Nice work.
Wasn't sure how to do more than one word at a time until I tried going parallel to the existing word. After that, it's much easier since there's more to work with. Quality of life request: Be able to move letters around in the tray without needing using the board as a go-between. Also, perhaps the ability to scramble the tray letters. (I'm the kind of scrabble player that needs to stumble upon a word chunk to build up a word.)
I like how fresh this idea is. I've never played a word game like this. For me as for not native speaker it was a bit complicated but I was so charmed by the sound and visual design, so continue my attempts. :) Really like how meaningful this game could be for children who are learning languages. Good luck and please stay safe :)
@sayumeki Heh, yeah, SFX was a pain. And yes, only one 'line' of letters, just as in Scrabble or WIF. I may experiment with what you were trying, though...
@wolfrug Yep, I can't figure out if the annoying factor comes from needing a bit more variety in the loops or if it has to do with how I edited the audio. How did you remove the started words, out of curiosity? Those shouldn't have been clickable/interactive...
@doodlebrisk Yeah, I wrote and recorded. Managed to get a decently clean audio despite a furnace, water heater, two dogs, and a baby. :p Interesting that you got stuck with those - was it just consonants in your hand at that point, or was there a vowel mix? There's a tiny little minder in the background that's supposed to give you vowels if you run out.
@joonamo Heh - yeah, despite running across 'zen' missing during playtesting I never actually thought about putting it in. I may need to tweak the number of possible ZXQ letters.
@ghostmaple Quality of life request acknowledged as a good one. ^_^ I'll be adding a shuffle button in the next version... and I have no clue how I missed adding that, the code would even accommodate it so easily...
I don't like word games because I've never been a strong speller, but I had fun with your game. It let me take my time and didn't punish me for wrong answers or even down right guesses. Also that music is great! It reminds me of the intro to The Tick! one of my favorite shows growing up! I did run into a bug, but you had already listed it so it's all good. Great Job!
To make sure - so you can only place one "line" of letters each turn, right? Like if you were playing on an infinitely long Scrabble board? I was trying to place two words on different lines (but both connected to the original word) at first. If that's the case, I might even try to lock out tile placement that's not in the same "direction" as the first tiles you place each round.
The animations on the menu and in-game give it an extra touch of polish. Good stuff!