Time for the May update! It’s been a big month of work and progress and fun for Word Turtle Island. More powerful word capture, More helpful objectives guidance!

Word capture, word capture, word capture! It’s much more powerful than before. Hit the button or start typing any time.

Word Capture

You can now battle effectively without powers or word weapons if you press that word capture button or type those words which has the same effect. Letters become projectiles and help you survive battle and rescue those books and readers.

Word capture is the emphatic heart of the game. Powers and word weapons are still around but not all at once. More on that after more word capture news.

SLOW MOTION FOCUS

Typing a word will bring the battle into slow motion for a few seconds. This is the big advantage to typing!

Non-typers get a way to use slow motion focus too! Use the word-next button for a brief slow motion focus time. Use it as a tool in battle to sort through the action and know for sure which word you’re working with.

Use both word-next and typing and you have some powerful tools to survive all kinds of tough battles! It gives you time to think, dodge, and make your next move whether you use typing or one button to capture words.

Word Capture ANYTIME

Another new thing is that no matter when or where you start typing a word will appear. If you are near most any text in the game like an exit, a book, a creature, almost anything with text near it you’ll be able to type that text.

Fast Move via Word Capture

AND each letter of that text will become a projectile, as it does when creatures throw words at you. AND-AND when you finish capturing that word you will move to that spot. Want a fast exit? Type that exit’s name, you’ll instantly be there. Want to pick up a book? Start typing its title and you’ll pick it up instantly when you’re done typing the title.

EASIER TO GET STARTED

New onboarding and flow.

From years of testing I’ve learned how folks relate to the features, visuals, and fun in Word Turtle Island. One thing that was a sticking point for lots of folks was starting out with too many things to deal with, too much to learn.

Now you start with only Word Capture and movement. Word Capture is more powerful than before, So you are both ready for battle and more focused to start.

Level up to unlock the DASH move, ability to use WORD WEAPONS, and the automatic POWERS. Grow more powerful as you gain levels and experience.

Starting a new game is much faster with a far shorter tutorial welcome.

Compass upgraded to OBJECTIVES GUIDANCE!

The compass button would cycle through important places to go. Now I’ve added a navigation line to help clarify where the compass wants you to go next.

NAVIGATION

Your selected focus will give you a guidance arrow, any time, just press the compass button and you’ll see the path that will get you to that helpful destination.

OBJECTIVES LIST

All that is now part of the objectives guidance system which will let you choose what’s important to focus on, cycle through a list of options, then when you choose what you want to focus on the guidance line has arrows to help you navigate. One press of the compass button gives a fresh guidance line, two presses of the compass button and you now are choosing among the available objectives.

MINI MAP

The mini-map is now part of the guidance system. Any time you pick a focus the mini-map will focus too, showing you a location hint for all the items in that focus. If you want to find books, then it will only show books, or talk with characters that have something to say it will only show those.

1.0 is getting closer and closer!

This is the biggest update yet to Word Turtle Island. All the pieces of the game are almost all here, and I’ve learned lots from years of research and testing the game with folks, now my work is to connect the pieces with more fun and refinement. A few other gaps and bugs to fix too. But still, 1.0 is near in that I can both see it and feel that it’s so.

Thank you for being part of the early access community of Word Turtle Island! I so needed to get this in your hands for this past year to no longer be working so isolated. Thank you!

– Rob Stenzinger