Wordatro!

Look this isn't an expensive game but it's just not ready yet. Tons of simple QoL features like looking into the bag so you know what you're rolling for not available. But the worst sin is having multiple legal words not recognize. Zipline? Waifish? Poutine? All not accepted and that's found with little over 2 hours of playing. Not cool. Not ready.

great idea for a game, I played for 21 minutes. Not sure why it says 0, but in my 1 1/2 runs I did in 21 mins I did win the first, but on the second I lose because of words not being recognized. I have found so many words that aren't recognized as words. Great examples in my finding are Powers, Cower, Cowers, Debt, Debted, Dieted, Diet, Bided, and many more. Those are just some off the top of my head. Chasing a particular word that absolutely exists and losing because it isn't recognized by the game is awful though, and needs to be fixed you cannot have a game based around knowing words yet have such incredibly basic words missing from the dictionary. I love the idea the game has going for it, but I will not be playing again until there is some kind of update to its dictionary.

Lots of potential but needed more time in the tank. The implementation of endless mode is pretty much nonexistent which I would consider a must for a game like this, and for a game that in theory seems like a "roguelite deckbuilder" you don't really have that much influence over the letters in your bag. I think with a patch or two this could easily be a recommend but I would say wait and see given that there's another very similar game out soon.

Game is missing two big things I can see. Firstly, the dictionary seems to be missing some words (Yes, I had the English dictionary on, and multiple words in the dictionary were not marked as valid), and secondly, the ability to properly manipulate the weighting of letters in your tile bag. The big thing with Balatro-likes is that they have multiple points of manipulation to increase score, regular score, score multiplier, then cards/dice/tiles/letters, whatever the medium of the game is. While you can increase the value of certain tiles, you can't seemingly manipulate to any real effect how many of each type of tile is available, allowing you to influence the sort of scoring words that can be made. I don't think it's a terrible implementation of "Balatro x Scrabble", but it just seems very minimal, and lacking in any sort of spice, challenge, or personality.

To anyone wanting to use the steam deck: It's pretty decent for steam deck, but its better if you use a stylus of some kind, as it was not made for a controller so you can only use a joystick and the right trigger button. It is way more fun if you just utilize the touch screen. Crashed a little at first, but it is fun and I'm sure the technical issues will improve in the future. I noticed the first couple of times I opened the game it kept crashing after every round, and there was another bug (not sure if this was steam deck specific or not) that involved getting stuck in the settings menu. Every button in the settings was working except for the "return to menu", and I had to quit and restart. It has since stopped that and I haven't run into any issues again yet. This is a game I was looking forward to so I'm willing to give it a chance despite having a few bugs. It's very fun so far; I can see the potential. Also, It is definitely more relaxing than most other roguelikes which are a bit more intense. If you are a fan of word games it is worth checking out.

I played the demo when it came out, and I was immediately obsessed, excited, and engaged. I've achieved C++ not once but twice in Balatro, so having a word-based version of Balatro was something that I was 100% ready for! So, of course, I bought this game the minute it was released. Unfortunately, for a game that is clearly a Balatro-like and even borrows its name from Balatro, this game is severely lacking in content. Like... massively. I was expecting there to be boss levels, various challenges, and several different levels of difficulty. Instead, this game in its current state is a glorified daily puzzle game. Imagine Wordle with a rogue-like twist and 5 levels of difficulty. The game has five levels of difficulty (tutorial, easy, medium, hard, and pro) and a daily high-score challenge. In the high score challenge, everyone gets the same letters, and you compete to see who can obtain the highest overall score. In the regular mode, you try to beat a certain number of rounds and get a certain score (depending on the level of difficulty). I've already defeated 4 of the 5 levels of difficulty and am now working on beating the pro level. In other words, you can effectively complete the game in a day or two. It is disappointing given that it would be incredible easy to just imitate and appropriate Balatro's system for this game. For example, instead of decks, there can be different word bags. One word bag could have more vowels, another could have more consonants. One bag could be missing half of the alphabet while another bag has the other half. One bag could have only special letters. There are many variations that one can dream up for ways to increase the amount of content in the game. Another thing is the lack of "boss levels". The only challenge in the game is that the score goes up each round. I was definitely hoping for Wordatro's version of boss blinds, especially since the demo had glimpses of that. If I recall correctly, the demo had a level where you had to play words with double letters, and another where they chose the starting letter of your words for one round. So, why is this not in the full game? There could be a boss level that halves your points. There could be a boss level that doesn't count score from a random tile for each submitted word. There could be a boss that requires each word to start with a vowel. There could be a boss that doesn't allow a certain letter to be used. Again, the possibilities are manifold. As for the cost, this game is about $9 dollars. Balatro is about $15. It took me months to beat Balatro. It will take me under a week to beat Wordatro. So, yeah... you aren't getting your money's worth here. $5 or less seems much more reasonable. Now, is it fair for me to compare this game to Balatro? I think it is since it borrows its name from Balatro and definitely takes inspiration from Balatro's gameplay. But, even if I take away any comparison to Balatro and just look at it as its own thing, I'm still not satisfied with it. Not enough content, too expensive for what it has to offer, and minor annoying bugs such as valid words that are not accepted (although, the dev has said that they are working to fix this.) Two words I tried on the demo that didn't work were "zen" and "plushie". Okay, with all of my complaints out of the way, it is time for some credit where credit is due. The gameplay is genuinely fun. It is REALLY fun. I love the actual gameplay of this game. Creating words, using the special letters, being strategic with finding the best synergy of power-ups, and thinking through all of the various words you can play before submitting one; I love it. Also, the design of the game improved a lot after the demo. The demo gave me Canva template energy, but the actual game looks much better and more polished. I like seeing all the words at the end of the round. So, in conclusion, the bones of the game are great. All of the groundwork is there. But until this game has more content, I can't recommend it. Is it hella fun? Yup! But, you can get a similar experience by just playing Wordle, Swople, Thirdle, Betweenle, Fusedle, etc. for absolutely free. Please, dev, add more content. Give us more to play with here.

Game as a concept is cool but it doesn't recognize half of the words I try to use, even a word as simple as hay wasn't recognized for me.

I enjoyed the demo and was looking forward to the full release, but in barely half an hour of playing I've already encountered a bunch of common words that the game doesn't recognize. Until the dictionary is improved, I do not recommend playing this game because it is very frustrating to have common words be denied.

Really liked the demo, but don't know what's wrong with the full game. The library seems terrible. The first word I tried to play was 'pooch' -- which was rejected. Changed it to 'patch' and went the second word. Tried 'scandal'-- which was also rejected. What? I'm not going to return it yet because there must be something wrong, but if it's not fixed soon I will. Right now I can't recommend it. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3510859940 The other word-Balatro game coming out soon (Word Play) let me use the word 'bejeezus' in the demo. That's a robust word library! ------ Update: the game started with the French dictionary active by default, even though the menu language was English. So far seems ok, so I'm changing my recommendation.

It’s educational, satisfying, chill, challenging and addictive. Didn’t even know all that could fit into one game. It's probably the only game that will make you want to open a dictionary. 10/10 banger.

What is the point of a daily leaderboard that is just plagued with people that google word combinations. Literally my only gripe with the game. There's no point in doing any dailies.

It has so much promise, and I really want to see it get better... - Either needs balancing so that 5 vowels don't take 75% of the 10 letters you get or have weighted 'bags of letters' that can adjust this (this is specifically for English play, as other languages may like 10 million vowels) - Better balancing of perks for score scaling, it feels very lacking and awful at the beginning and *more* game plays don't make it better because it doesn't unlock anything (see previous point) that could change the game play - Being able to see into the bag to better plan words - English dictionary is SUPER lacking....geeky is a word :( - Dark mode please, it's much easier on the eyes especially when playing word-related games! It would also be fun if there was an endless mode as well.

Has massive potential but just isn't satisfying yet. Feels really weird to get punished for longer words due to the low base values of most letters, and unless you get good augments you're sol in a lot of cases unless you're some sort of living dictionary. Also severely lacking in actual content, this feels like an early access first public draft not a full release for $10.

Fun cross section for fans of the rogue-lite and word game genres

Cute game, solid gameplay loop. Easy to pick up and put down.

Updated Review: Only one day later, I woke up to a response from the dev AND an update that fixed the crashing. I even booted up the save I had that would crash on the same spot every time last night and it is running perfectly now! I've changed my review to positive now. I can fully review what I've played so far. I LOVE games like this where you have to spell words, and this games scratches that itch like nothing else I've played. I do think there is some improvements to be made adding new words to the dictionary, but I'm sure that will be done down the line as well. I am now VERY impressed with the dev, having quickly fixed the crashing problem. For now, I am addicted and it looks like I've found my new obsession. Thanks dev! Original Review: This game has potential. Right now, the crashing makes it almost unplayable tho. I'm not refunding in hopes that it will get better with time. I will change my review when the updates fix this problem.

its really fun and satisfying just for a lil brain stretcher. i wish the global ranking would also show us the specs of the top10 runs so we could see how they get 400M points or whatever lolol

This game is already in a fantastic state despite only just recently officially releasing. I had about 17 hours on the demo before finally purchasing the official release, and I'm blown away at how much the game is continually developed each and every day by the developer(s). There have been several bugs fixed within a day that I've seen from their official Discord channel. They even use the feedback there to help with things like expanding the game's dictionary. I only foresee this game getting better and better with time, and I'm really looking forward to seeing it earn its growth in both content and audience. Definitely recommend.

I love wordle, I have multiple hundreds of hours in Balatro, Slay the Spire and other card based roguelikes so this should be a slam dunk, right? Nope. Bugs, if you leave a game midway through with letters in the middle space you will rejoin the game and they'll all be gone usually leaving 3 random letters in your hand. Great I didn't want to resume a game in progress, I'll just go fuck myself. The tutorial bugs out multiple times in the it will not allow you to validate other words, some commenters are saying "that's because the game defaults to French" No it doesn't, it asks you what language you want the game AND the dictionary in before the game even begins the for the first run. Beyond that it is painfully slow, everything takes longer, it doesn't feel snappy, and the constant bugs and UI elements that just decide to not work really made a game that when I saw it, I thought "fuck me, they've made a game literally for me" and instead of everything I wanted it's all I would avoid. Such a disappointment hey, like it was right there. You could've theoretically had it like right there.

I like this game. Harder than the original Balatro, but wow, does it hit harder when you score a million points with one word. One complaint I have, though, is that I'm worried that in the Daily Challenge it is possible to score so many points that the game glitches out and your score doesn't register. (One time, I scored 200M+ and then the game crashed with no way to resume because I wanted to see my tile bag, then I thought it didn't register yet again another time when I scored 160M+, but thankfully I did see it after a refresh.) Slight UI problems regardless, a good take on the Balatro-like!

Nah I'm refunding this. A word game is only as good as it's dictionary. Boop and Vape aren't words? Really? It has some of the most niche and variant spellings but not words I would personally consider very common. Plus there's just a lot of stuff missing. Like the "roguelike" options are mediocre. You get very little chance to change your deck or run. And I think some of the more interesting things that can be done are learning. What was the longest word I could've gotten? What are all the words that were in that combination?

Honestly a good game if you like either Scrabble or Balatro. If you like both like me its an incredibly good game

As a fan of words with friends and balatro, this seemed like an obvious choice. It doesn't feel quite complete yet, and there are several words that do not seem to function and some that are outright hilarious that still work. I enjoy the game and trying to compete for the daily high score is always fun, but there are things I would love to see in the future: Visual indicator for certain buff cards (NRG comes to mind) Additional buff cards - high risk high reward stuff, more energy options, better tile manipulation, etc. Seed feature to challenge friends outside of the daily A timed mode to prevent fiddling with tiles to find the best words would be a good challenge. Steamdeck support would be incredible as well. Overall this is an incredible game for a solodev project and I knew from the demo that I would like it.

While a solid base from which a good game COULD come from, Wordatro just lacks content and variety. After a few rounds, you'll have seen everything. Not worth the money as of time of writing, but keep an eye on it. Also the ux kinda sucks, please make the tile bag accessible from the main screen and rerolls less annoying to do.

Really nice game ! It's simple, smart and catchy. But i'm scared i'll get addicted very quickly...

Wordgame addictif, l'interface est bien pensée et le système de jeu intuitif donc prise en main rapide. On a vite envie de faire du scoring. En négatif la musique est répétitive et il manque un mode versus à 2 ou 4 joueurs en temps limité.

A soft-recommend really. Do I enjoy it? Yes! Would I recommend it? If you like word games, probably. But it's a little too classical and "boring". Just go and play "Word Play" - it's just so much more and better. That said, this is a small game - has a purpose, adds just a little bit variety, but don't expect this go on a crazy spanning roguelike trip - it doesn't. It's rather nice and simple, and that's definitely enough. Fun to jump into from time to time, to rack the brain.

Very fun as it is and a lot of potential, but definitely needs some more polishing to increase replayability. I would like to see meta-progression and varied challenges (à la Balatro). I end up always going for the same augments because they're the only way to scale properly and get to the endgame, especially in higher difficulties. More augments and/or rebalancing some of the existing ones would be welcome for more varied builds. The augments that increase points are almost worthless at the moment, for example.

If you're into word games that challenge your brain while keeping things fun, WordAtro is an absolute must-play! It's a mix between Scrabble and Balatro, and it's the perfect balance between relaxing gameplay and real mental stimulation!

Game doesn't recognize multiple valid words. I keep inputting words and nothing. I don't want to spend time in the game guessing at what it thinks are real words.

Absolutely does what it says on the tin. A word game is a breath of fresh air in the roguelite space and the runs are kept pleasantly short (unless you absolutely insist on spending ages thinking about your next word). And I'm not particularly good at word games. Most of the bonuses are pretty exciting. Resource management is important but simple. At first I thought improved letters (the colored ones) were a little too "fire & forget" for my liking but they actually encourage thinking of words that will allow you to place those in [i]specific[/i] spaces to maximize your points. I find it particularly exciting to turn it into an impromptu coop game by showing/streaming it to other folks so everyone can think and exhange ideas.

The gameplay is really fun, the developer just needs to work out the technical bugs. It often doesn't accept letters I click on, I even had a run where the second slot got glitched and I couldn't enter any word and I was on the next to last round.

Wordatro is a fun little game, cute enough with its premise and cheap enough to excuse some shortcomings. There's still some things that ought to be improved, and the game could use some more meat on its bones. I think right now my main issue with the game really is just that some bonuses are useless, either because they don't provide enough or are too conditional. For instance getting a permanent stacking bonus when you draw a Z is mostly useless since the bonus is too small and you have to DRAW the letter, not start with it or create it. It's altogether a fun little thing to toy with and kill some time, not quite the massive addictive draw as its source of inspiration but still solid enough to warrant adding to the library. More or less the same vibe as playing one of those scrabble apps for a bit.

as the name implies its very akin to balatro, but with words! its as if boggle and balatro fell in love and out popped wordatro. definitely needs some refinement as development goes on but as is, its a very fun and interesting game!

It does what it says on the tin, though I think the Balatro-esque gimmick runs thin as there aren't really many ways for the bonuses to make it all that interesting. I also think the Pro mode is pretty dumb. Most of the time you are just not gonna get the rng required to get out of the early stages of the round.

Game is fun and worth the money if you like Balatro and word games. I was really interested in the daily challenge but of course it’s easy to just use google so you’ll never get a fair comparison of how you stack up to other players. Nothing the dev can do about that though. Fun game and look forward to some updates

It's a fun, chill game with relaxing music. It has a lot of options for difficulty level, too, which I appreciate, so you can make it as stress-free as you like. Or you can do the daily challenge, if you're more competitive.

Excellent for anyone that likes word games! There's several difficulty levels for a scale of casual to challenging along with a daily challenge mode to keep things fresh (on hard mode). The background is a bit flashy during play, but that can be turned off in settings, and the game otherwise has fun visuals. I think that this game feels best balanced on hard mode, but medium mode makes it easier to go for some of the achievements. I think it is well worth the listed price. I did also play the demo for 18.5 hours before the full game released. Even in the full game, a run is not a huge time commitment, so it feels easy to play. Time will tell, but I think this is a game I will keep playing for a while.

Wordatro! is a decent Scrabble variation where you need to survive a number of rounds by meeting the target score. You increase the value of individual tiles you play, as well as collect items that perform effects such as multiplying your score or adding wildcards to your pool. Probably plays best with a keyboard, although it works fine enough with the mouse. Nice special effects. Some fun achievements to track down, although most will simply be unlocked with enough playtime.

Incredibly fun and a great way to pass the time. Well worth the money.

The game is pretty fun though, as many have pointed out, the dictionary could use some work. More than that though I would really like an endless mode. It's sad to have a good run going for it to end a round or two later.

It's fun for a short while and has potential but needs more added to it, i'll barely give it a thumbs up. There's Easy, Medium, Hard, Pro levels of difficulty and Daily Challenge. Once you've completed the non daily modes there's no incentive to replay them because there's no high score board for each of the levels, except the daily challenge and there's nothing new to unlock when you beat it, Pro mode is too brutal. I'd recommend only if you like doing daily challenges.

This game is for people who feel constrained by traditional word games and want to flex their big vocabularies for hours on end. The music is also very good. I will be playing all summer. Runs beautifully on Steam Deck.

Like most games of its kind, it is fun and addicting. Good combination of roguelike gameplay and word games. Only complaint is that I wish it had more game modes.

This game is virtually unplayable with the number of vowels it dumps on you. The rerolls are useless. I spend all my rerolls turning I's into O's and can't pass the lowest score requirements with words like "OUR" and "ROE". Fix this please. I've been waiting for a game like this and I want to love it so badly. But it just sucks right now.

The balance and the score requirement are way too strict, even on medium difficulty. Also, the majority of the perks you can collect in a run feel underwhelming and weak, leading to very strong influence of RNG on your success. I personally encountered multiple situations where I had letters like "I I I E E A A" in my hand, and considering how valuable and rare the rerolls are, the game just boils down to dumb luck most of the time. Definitely needs more time and effort put in, but I like the idea.

Roguelikes keep coming out with absolutely no run variety, and this is one of the worst examples. It genuinely just feels like shlock to me, which I'm pretty saddened to say. I want this game to work, it just doesn't for me. Having one or two runs' worth of replayability isn't acceptable for a ROGUELIKE, which I'd want to be able to put 100s of hours into, like Isaac.

TRGEAMGME [...] GREAT GAME The demo was a blast! And the game is even better since release, go play it!

Played the demo for a few hours and found it to be an excellent, silly game for unwinding and listening to music. I envision roguelike Scrabble consuming much of my time, and can only hope that Le Poulet introduces new modes and features in the future!

Game is a decently fun mixture of Balatro and Wordle / Scrabble. I got it for $8 so can't complain too much but there is one major gripe I have that is pushing me to not recommend it in its current state. When you move from one round to the next (think Small Blind / Medium Blind / Big Blind in Balatro) your hand does NOT reset. So whatever letters you had left in your hand at the end of one round carry over to the next. This is just a massive oversight by the developer and makes the game unfun. I don't want to use the same letter set I just ended with. That letter set is bad because I already had to scrape together words from it. Why would you not reset the hand after each round? Just dumb game design. Other than that you'll probably get $8 of fun out of it. But I wouldn't recommend. Just play Balatro.