Last week, we introduced Reef Rescue to the world, an immersive family game about adventuring into the Pacific Ocean to save a rainbow of marine creatures from the impact of humans. You can read the rules to Reef Rescue here.
This week, we have some great news for lovers of word games such as Scrabble, Boggle and even Wordle. Our second game launch of 2022 is for the co-operative word game Alphabeasts Attack!. This is also Origame's first fully co-op game. In Alphabeasts Attack!, players defend Earth from the onslaught of the Alphabeasts by thinking of words that can defeat as many Alphabeasts as possible. Alphabeasts and Alphabosses can only be defeated if the player's word contains that letter or condition. Every game of Alphabeasts Attack! promises a fun and unique adventure with words, strategy, and friends.
Just like what we did in last week's Reef Rescue article, we want to give you more behind-the-scenes nuggets behind the making of Alphabeasts Attack!, so here are five fun facts about the game:
1. The designer of the game, Daryl, is a huge fan of word games (in addition to being a professional linguist). He realised that people don't play word games very much because the result of the game is usually determined before you even start playing the game. Inspired by Letter Jam, he designed a co-operative word game that EVERYBODY can play and feel intelligent together. No matter your word proficiency level, you'll always feel smarter after playing and experiencing 'aha!' moments of revelation, especially when overcoming situations of stuck-ness. If you enjoy Alphabeasts Attack!, please let him know and he'll design more word games for you.
2. One initial misconception players and playtesters have when they first play Alphabeasts Attack! is that you need all the letters for the word that you make (e.g. to make 'DIVE' you need all the letters 'D', 'I', 'V' and 'E'), as many traditional word games such as Scrabble, Boggle, and Bananagrams follow this philosophy. Alphabeasts Attack! allows players the freedom of choosing any word from their knowledge that fits the conditions (e.g. you can come up with the word 'QUARTERMASTER' with 'Q', 'M' and 'T'), so you can let your imagination take flight without feeling restricted.
3. The talented artist @hello_jayne who designed the cover took inspiration from Attack on Titan, a popular manga and anime series. Just like how the Titans ravage the last remaining walled cities of humanity, the Alphabeasts exact the same ferocity against Earth in Alphabeasts Attack! If you pay attention to the silhouettes in the foreground, the last remaining fighters (which you play in the game) are wielding items that you'll find in the game box.
4. The cards were designed by a different illustrator, @yy_wing_yy, whose bright and colourful renderings make the Alphabeasts come to life. Each different class of Alphabeasts have their own personality and defining characteristics - see if you can find them all! Most of the illustrations came to her very naturally, except for the 'F', which she struggled with for a long time :)
5. Alphabeasts Attack! was originally designed for word game lovers, but because of the simplicity of the rules, we realised that kids could also enjoy the game. We thus created an extra set of rules which we tested with children, so you can play the game with almost everybody! There are rules in the game originally designed to prevent 'alpha gamers' (gamers that take over co-operative games and solve everything themselves) from making play less fun for others. These same rules now allow parents to help their kids along without solving everything for them. From time to time, parents may also need help from their kids!
Here is the promotional code for 10% off Alphabeasts Attack! that will last from now until 7 August: "launch10off"
Be one of the first in the world to play Alphabeasts Attack! at the very affordable price of only $19.80 - less than the cost of 2 movie tickets.
For more information, this is the official webpage for Alphabeasts Attack!
You can read the rulebook to Alphabeasts Attack! here.
See you next week for another 5 fun facts about our third (but not the last of 2022!) game in our very varied 2022 catalogue, The Korean Wave, an expansion for fan-favourite Wok and Roll. If you're a strategy gamer that loves lots of combos, or just someone who is really into Korean cuisine, you'll want to tune in for this!