Ludum Dare #48compo

R.E.M. - Vocab Nightmare

by smooches

Overall★★★★★★★★★★3.76

Fun★★★★★★★★★★3.60

Innovation★★★★★★★★★★3.98

Theme★★★★★★★★★★3.64

Graphics★★★★★★★★★★3.40

Audio★★★★★★★★★★3.79

Humor★★★★★★★★★★3.20

Mood★★★★★★★★★★4.17

The night terrors are back again...

All you wanted was a good night's sleep, but as you drift deeper and deeper into slumber your mind is bombarded with all manner of horrors.

Your brain rushes to defend itself in the only way it knows how, by making you solve increasingly complicated vocabulary questions.

Enter words that follow the rules listed to stay asleep. Earn more points for longer words and increase your score multiplier by getting a word streak.

But beware... the deeper into slumber you fall, the more conditions your words must meet

Nobody sleeps forever, but how long can you last in this Vocab Nightmare?

-------

My friend Bobby has entered a game as well, we came up with them independently yet his is also about sleep, such is life. You should check it out https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/seven-sleepy-nights

Credits:
Font - Lenka Stabillo by LL

Tags: #high score, #horror, #typing

Genres: educational

Tools: Unity

Comments19

pixlark26 Apr 2021, 05:42

Absolutely loved this game. Wow it gets really hard though. The gameplay is well done and a lot of fun, and the overall vibe of the game is awesomely creepy. Really good job.

Osterzone26 Apr 2021, 07:08

Obviously deep sleep is a fantastically creative take on the theme, so well done there. I like to think of myself as having a big, meaty vocabulary so I keep playing on hard, and I get destroyed every time. Exactly what an LD game should be, a simple concept with lots of polish.

NorthernDonut26 Apr 2021, 12:09

love it. my longest word was queenfish , no spaces, not sure that is a word tho haha, i had d and l with minimum of 5 letters, i chose download and it said it wasn't a word. great game otherwise

LDJam user 23741326 Apr 2021, 12:15

Really enjoyed this game. Tried out each difficulty and will definitely go back again to try and better my score. Game concept is simple. It is an interesting and unique take on the theme 'deeper and deeper'. Great job!

glitchman26 Apr 2021, 12:22

Epic!
Good luck!))

goodwincek26 Apr 2021, 12:23

Really nice mood to this game! I am a huge fan of word games and I don't think I've played any with a "cannot contain" rule like this! It was really challenging and fun!

Kirbloid26 Apr 2021, 17:25

Clever and creative take on word games for the jam's theme! As you got deeper into the game I enjoyed how the mechanics started layering on the difficulty naturally. Was fun to try to skirt around the words available and it was able to handle me trying to cheat pretty well and punish me for it. Excellent sound design. The music and effects mixed well.

Famicon8026 Apr 2021, 17:30

fun game! Wish my vocabulary was bigger.

Ambeurk26 Apr 2021, 18:01

I love it

eboatwright26 Apr 2021, 18:32

It wouldn't load for me :frowning2:

saintchristopher77726 Apr 2021, 21:08

Awesome entry! Love the sleep take on the theme, and I never would have thought of trying a vocab game. Gets really hard pretty quick! Good simple sound/visuals too!

Smoochesauthor26 Apr 2021, 21:37

@eboatwright That's unfortunate, maybe another browser might work better? Unity's web builds are really weird and sometimes break for people for weird reasons that are hard to anticipate.

@pixlark @osterzone @northerndonut @haydads @glitchman @goodwincek @kirbloid @famicon80 @ambeurk @saintchristopher777 - thanks so much, glad you enjoyed the game!

eboatwright26 Apr 2021, 22:35

@smooches It's weird, because most other Unity games worked for me, but this one didn't. I don't know why. :frowning2:

Valid27 Apr 2021, 05:05

What a great idea. This definitely got hard and had me thinking. My longest word was only xylophone lol.

Eugenik27 Apr 2021, 17:51

I gotta say the art style is awsome!.

JLMast27 Apr 2021, 21:25

My longest word was "phonogram". Which is a word I didn't know I knew.
I like this game.

Yngvarr28 Apr 2021, 17:42

Interesting take on the theme. I like linguistic games, but this one is tough! I would like to see more visual clues for constraints, for example you could use color to indicate the word that doesn't meet the criteria or forbidden letters. The game won't lose in intensity with such clues, but it will allow players to react slightly faster.

Visuals, sounds and music are all top notch, you really nailed it! :) Solid entry, will play again!

Here's a video playthrough if you're interested:

Kraemahz28 Apr 2021, 22:25

It's apparently very hard for me to think of words that have "x, v" in them on the spot!

Smoochesauthor29 Apr 2021, 01:36

@valid @eugenik @jlmast @kraemahz Thank you all for your comments, I'm glad you liked the game!

@yngvarr I'm so glad you had a great time with the game. I think those suggestions are all pretty good ideas and I'll play around with some stuff on my local build and then consider uploading an improved edition after the rating period is over. Unlikely anyone will actually play it at that stage but always best to have the best thing possible out there for people to see just in case. Thanks again and it was great to watch a video of someone else playing, I was fortunate enough to get some playtest feedback from friends before the deadline but that video is the first footage of a stranger playing I've seen and it makes me very happy!

Other games by @smooches

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