GUBBINS – It’s a word game
By: Studio Folly
Believe it or not, I still play Wordle every morning. So you can imagine that I’m excited to see new word games announced, especially when they’re as charming as the upcoming GUBBINS from husband-and-wife developers, Studio Folly. I got a preview build of the game and had a chance to spend some time with it and record a bit of gameplay. It’s advertised as a cross between Scrabble and Solitaire, and it works well, but it’s the gubbins themselves that really steal the show.
The way the game works is that you have a deck of cards at the bottom (that’s where the Solitaire bit comes in). The cards are made up of letters, sometimes single and sometimes in groups. You need to place the cards on the board to try and make words. As you do so, more cards underneath will be revealed. Unlike Scrabble, you don’t get points for placing the words, but actually for clearing them. This means you don’t have to worry whether all the letters you placed make up words. So it feels a bit more relaxed.
Now, here’s where the gubbins come in. They’re special cards that can be either good or bad and have certain properties that can help or hinder you. For instance, the pencil gubbin works as a blank and completes a word by filling in a missing letter. But skateboard gubbin randomly kicks a letter to a different part of the board. As you play, you’ll unlock new gubbins that can appear in your deck. They really change up the game. But what’s really magical about them are their animations. The gubbins run across your screen when they’re activated and it’s just delightful. I can’t wait to see more of them as I continue playing.
There’s no release date yet for GUBBINS, but I plan to spend more time with it meanwhile and will definitely let you know once I have more information. In the meantime, feel free to check out their website for more adorable animations.
