There’s a new spelling-based, roguelike video game out on the market, and as a certified word nerd, it's got my stamp of approval.
I’m the type of person who’s still playing Words with Friends in 2025, so when my coworker alerted me to the release of Word Play, what he described as the cross-section of Scrabble and Balatro, I had to give it a go. And for only $7, that “go” has been well worth it.
If you’ve ever thrown down on a Scrabble board, Word Play will look very familiar. But even if you’ve never held a word tile, the premise is fairly simple: You must create words using a set of 16 letters from your tile bag. Whenever you spell a word, those letters are cycled out and replaced with new ones. Each letter scores points depending on the rarity of that letter (Xs and Js score more than As and Rs, for example).
That’s the basic gist of Word Play, but it doesn’t stop there. Each run has a set number of rounds that each requires you to score a certain number of points within a certain number of attempts, or what the game calls a "Play." Complete a round, and your tile bag is reset, and you gain an additional set of Plays. As a roguelike, Word Play has deckbuilding elements—though, in this case, your “deck” is your tile bag—and you can add letters or special tiles to your bag.
You also have three main ways of improving your tiles and your ability to score points: Modifiers, Upgrades, and Gifts. Modifiers change the way points are scored and stay with you throughout your run unless you sell them. Upgrades “level up” tiles to give them new abilities that may double the points awarded for playing that letter. Lastly, Gifts are one-time rewards, such as additional Refreshes that allow you to exchange letters for different ones.
After completing a round, you’ll get to choose one randomly generated reward based on the three types of upgrades. You can choose to sacrifice a Play to re-roll or skip the rewards entirely to gain more Refreshes. If you pick a Modifier that ends up hurting your chances of winning a run, you can always sell and replace it with something different.
Word Play normally sells for $8 on Steam—a modest price for a game with wicked replayability. But it's currently on sale for its release at just $7, and if you're someone like me who adores spelling and roguelike games, you're sure to love this one too.
The post This new indie word game feels like Scrabble and Balatro’s lovechild—and it’s taking over my life appeared first on Destructoid.
