Words, Wilting
A downloadable game
In Words, Wilting you and a friend will take the role of two young lovers of the same age whose love must be concealed. To aid in this, the lovers have created a way to communicate secretly through flowers adorning their outfits, inspired by the Victorian floral language of love.
Play consists of you selecting index cards, each featuring a flower from the language you create together, and interpreting the card the other player selected, hoping to remember the hidden meaning you crafted together. You then create a scene together around what the cards meant and if the lovers remembered the language they made.
PDF: If you downloaded it before the file was named WordsWiltingV2 please redownload. Not only is the minor image issue fixed, it should now also have...Screen Reader accessibility!
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $5 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Download demo
Comments
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Words Wiling is a two-player (or optionally multiplayer) romantic game of language-building and flowers.
It's 7 pages, with some nice sketch illustrations and a clean, totally readable layout.
WW's core gameplay involves assigning coded meanings to flowers and then roleplaying scenes around each flower. This feels a little like it falls into the same trap as Dialect, where there aren't really mechanics inside of the roleplaying. You just do it, and whether or not you like roleplaying by itself will play a big role in whether you like the overall game.
However, it's also really easy to like the roleplaying in Words Wilting. You play as characters in love, communicating in secret, and that's a heck of a narrative and emotional hook.
As the game progresses, the stakes for each ongoing communication increase, until at the end the coded communication stops and your characters get to just talk without codes or obfuscations.
I *really* like this last detail. I think it makes for an excellent beat to end on, and I think the game is sweet in general.
Overall, if you like romance games, roleplaying, meaningful stakes, communication, and an emotional payoff, get this. It's well-constructed, concise, and a solid read.