Watchword Press Kit
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Fact Sheet
Big Quail Games
Chayse Thompson
Strategy, Casual
Roguelike, Deckbuilding, Word Game
TBD
Digital Download
English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese
Godot 4
Mouse, Touch, Gamepad
Descriptions
Short Description
Watchword is a roguelike, word-based, deckbuilding game. Strategically use rule-breaking books, point multiplying pieces, and made-up words to score massive points and discover interesting synergies.
Narrative Description
In a fallen and future world, we have moved beyond language as a society. Books, magazines, and all literature have become relics filled with a magic that few understand. The Watchguards are a secretive society committed to preserving the great stories of the world. You have been chosen to join their ranks, but can only do so by completing a number of Trials. It will take creative use of magical Books and Letter Tiles to be accepted into their circle.
Full Description
Watchword has a unique combination of cozy yet challenging, passive yet strategic, and easy to learn but difficult to master. All of the various gameplay mechanics interact seamlessly with eachother to enable an endless number of unique builds and strategies to discover. Every run is different, but one thing is consistent. Big number MUST go BRRRRR.
Move pieces on your board to spell words that score massive amounts of points. Use magical spells and books to break the rules of the game! Invent new crazy words that don't exist, but fit perfectly with your synergies. Having a good vocabulary will certainly help you on your journey, but more important than anything is making strategic decisions to control your fate. Will you complete the trials?
Origins
I've been a fan of many different roguelikes for years. I've always thought a word-based roguelike should exist and the few that I tried just didn't scratch the itch that I had. I really wanted to make something infinitely replayable with emerging strategies and interesting synergies. Taking inspiration from many of the amazing games that have come out in the past few years in the "Big number go brr" genre (Balatro, Ballionaire, etc.), I set out to create the most wacky word game out there. One where you could misspell words, win by only playing 3 letter words, or instead play one 31 letter word to score billions of points. All of that combined with a cozy artstyle and satisfying viusals & sounds have made a game that I'm pretty proud of.
- Chayse from Big Quail Games
Game Features
- 120+ Unique book relics: No two powers are the same. Add infinite repeat letters to words with "The Good Book" or focus on using new words with "Thesaurus". Each book has a unique strength that combos well with other books.
- Hundreds of piece variations: Every letter in the alphabet + custom bigrams (Two-letter tiles like QU, CH, or EE). You can even find mysterious Symbol tiles like "!", "?" or "&" that have strange abilities.
- 100,000+ Possible Watchwords: Try to spell a special word to expand the size of your board to make room for more powerful words in future trials.
- 20+ Watchguards: Each watchguard has a unique strategy to make their trial more difficult. Watch your wallet against the Greedy watchguard and make sure you plan ahead for the Patient Watchguard.
- 30+ run upgrades: Permanently upgrade your draws, discards, hand size, and much more!
- Made-Up Words: Watchword is the only word game where you can make up words to fit your strategy. Find forbidden books that completely blow the dictionary wide open.
- Check your stats and shoot for new high scores: Go infinite and see your high scores go into the hundred of billions of points.
- Endless replayability: Watch minutes become hours as you try to fit just one more word into your board and beat just one more run.
