Word-play games

Recommendations by Emily Short

Games where the text of the game is part of the puzzle.

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1. Ad Verbum
by Nick Montfort
(2000)
Average member rating: (132 ratings)

Emily Short says:

A classic Nick Montfort game that will test your ability to come up with commands that fit different strictures. Elevates "guess-the-verb" into a genuinely entertaining challenge.

2. Letters from Home
by Roger Firth
(2000)
Average member rating: (17 ratings)

Emily Short says:

An IF game that's half crossword.

3. Goose, Egg, Badger
by Brian Rapp
(2004)
Average member rating: (20 ratings)

Emily Short says:

Toys with the way in which some words are both nouns and verbs in English.

4. Puddles on the Path, by Anssi Räisänen (2003)
Average member rating: (3 ratings)
Emily Short says:

Solutions to the puzzles in this game require the player to remember and use famous proverbs and sayings.

5. The Gostak
by Carl Muckenhoupt
(2001)
Average member rating: (86 ratings)

Emily Short says:

The entire game is written in an unfamiliar language - or perhaps just a dialect of English in which all the vocabulary is different - and a large portion of the challenge is in figuring out enough about what's going on to be able to interact with it.

6. Large Machine, by Jon Ingold (2001)
Average member rating: (7 ratings)
Emily Short says:

The machine in question is able to interact with the names of things...

7. The Edifice
by Lucian P. Smith
(1997)
Average member rating: (82 ratings)

Emily Short says:

Contains the famous Nalian language puzzle, in which the player must learn to communicate with a Stranger in the words of his own language.

8. Beat the Devil, by Robert M. Camisa (1999)
Average member rating: (15 ratings)
Emily Short says:

Mostly more conventional stuff, but includes one puzzle about changing the name of an object in order to change what it does.

9. Suveh Nux
by David Fisher
(2007)
Average member rating: (225 ratings)

Emily Short says:

In Suveh Nux, the challenge is to learn a language of magic with which to control the items around you. (In that respect, it's closer to The Edifice than to the other games on this list.) The puzzles are elegant and consistent.

10. Leather Goddesses of Phobos
by Steve Meretzky
(1986)
Average member rating: (67 ratings)

Emily Short says:

Not all word-play, but does include one puzzle that turns on changing the names of items to turn them into other things.

11. Nord and Bert Couldn't Make Head or Tail of It
by Jeff O'Neill
(1987)
Average member rating: (57 ratings)

Emily Short says:

A not-always-totally-successful collection of short games based on common sayings, homonyms, and other linguistic peculiarities.

12. Earl Grey, by Rob Dubbin and Allison Parrish (2009)
Average member rating: (27 ratings)
Emily Short says:

Lots of puzzles involving letter removal to change one object into another. Sometimes deeply odd, but the puzzle style is consistent.


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