Chuckles, the Word Juggler by SecretPocketCat
A piece about juggling and touchtyping.

This is my first published game so any comments are welcome and don't forget to mention your score while you are at it.
Top score
* @jeremy-ryan - 178 *
(drop in a screenshot to claim it)


| Windows | https://secretpocketcat.itch.io/word-juggler |
| HTML5 (web) | https://secretpocketcat.itch.io/word-juggler |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/word-juggler |
Ratings
| Overall | 454th | 3.553⭐ | 68🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 144th | 3.833⭐ | 68🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 470th | 3.28⭐ | 68🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 237th | 3.864⭐ | 68🧑⚖️ |
| Graphics | 782th | 3.106⭐ | 68🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 520th | 3.04⭐ | 65🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 834th | 2.934⭐ | 63🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 83🗳️ | 51🗨️ |
It is always nice to play something that is different.
Good job.
@svenfrankson I was orginally planning to do a hex-based TBS, good thing I came up with something different then. :wink:
@tgiant Thank you. I've got your game on my list to checkout, but it's gonna take a while. So many awesome things to check out...
@sebastian-lague Glad you liked it and even happier because of the lovely feedback.
The progression goes upto 4 knives and longer words. I should have just let the jester-clown-pirate drop the missed word/knife and re-add it later. That would ease the difficulty curve and would provide more feedback to the player. Oh well...
I'll take at look at the double-backspace bug.
The words are from [this list](https://github.com/first20hours/google-10000-english). That might be why there's a lot of technical terms and abbreviations.
Didn't see anything like that in LD40 since now :3 Well done!
@gatinmnsok Relaxing? I think from 50 onwards it's anything but :smile: I'm actually pretty happy about the way the movement of the knives reflects the juggling bit of the game.
@petr-belohlavek A fellow Czech dev, I assume by your name. The difficulty curve definitely ramps up too quickly. Anyway, thank you.
@lamossus, @koficola: Sorry about that! It's finally been fixed.
@koficola: Thank you. I considered some background art, but I wanted to keep it super clean, so the text was easily(ish) readible with it moving all over the place. I should have at least chosen a better gradient, but I had no time for that anyway...
@davi: Not sure if the vocab is actually that good for learners, since the source contains a lot of technical stuff. I intend to switch to a different source in a post-jam version.
The juggling animation was fluid and satisfying though. Good job.
Congratulation on your entry.
@roland-de-tomasi Thank you, there are no shagging bunnies though... :rabbit:
@wheffle Wow, that's what I call a score! I put you into the description. Let's see if someone can top it. I doubt it, though.
A 4th knife is added at 200 and after 250, only long words are at play, so even very good typists should break a sweat :smiling_imp:
@jack-maxwell I used a pre-existing dictionary, but I was cramming stuff in less than half an hour before the submission alright...
@mase, @tuism I don't think that's doable as auto-clear could mess up a different word or would be inconsistent as all words are taken into consideration. The only autoclear is above 20 characters or along those lines, but that's just a sanity check. I considered clearing all words on a miss, but I think this nicely matches the juggling aspect - if you miss one, then it might and probably will all descend into chaos.
@eptwalabha I wanted to add more player feedback like more sounds on clears and misses, nice particles etc, but I just spent time doing other, frankly less important, stuff, so that it unfortunately didn't make into the game.
@kyle-pham I'm not sure about it being innovative, but it's def a quality-of-life feature. The only problem is, that one uses it as they aren't, well, used to it...
I wanted the music to be actually be quite upbeat and only had like half an hour to add all sound, so I don't think the selection is that bad.
@ribout-horace Thank you. I think I nailed that quite well. Then again, I can't actually properly juggle (no more than 3 anyway and def. not knives). Also, the animation should probably switch between 1-hand and cascade juggling...
@peachtreeoath Glad you liked it. Again, wanted to add that, but didn't have/budget enough time. Scope-creep anyone?
So for me it's more a psychological difficulty than a typing difficulty :-P
Terrifying clown. It was fun though, a very well implemented typing game. Great job.
I do agree with some of the other comments that the difficulty could speed up a little quicker. I would have played many more times if I didn't have to go back to the start and play a couple of minutes of the easy levels to get to the challenge!
That said, it seems like you are really listening to feedback, so if you do make a post-jam version please let me know - I'm always looking for ways to procrastinate!
@cg-fred, @krammetje I wanted to let the player start from the most knives they've had, but alas, didn't have enough time to implement that. I do agree that the 50 before the mid words kick in is a slog, but then the next step is way too sudden. It should be more progressive.
@mshopf I quite like the panicky nature of it.
@tinis-games Keyboard layout should hopefully make no difference. In any case, it's nice to see a French dev.
@eli-delventhal Well not hitting the key hard enough is not my fault, is it? :wink: And a mistake is still on the player, although I do agree the game should be more forgiving. The words are picked more-or-less randomly from 3 length categories.
@mundis Thank you. I decided I'll do a postjam version based on the ratings. If that happens, I'll rework the progression and add in way more player feedback. If it comes to it, I'll definitely let you know :wink:
### btw: 
Got the theme, not too hard (at the beginning^^), gameplay aspects, fun, nice sound and art!
Hard for a non native speaker. Would like to put my own wordlist in it :D
Come play my game if you've got the time ! : https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/40/technologis :)
@ryuzaki-mrl Glad you liked it and what a score! I put you up to the top where you deserve to be.
@behenate Me too, but don't tell anyone. :wink:
@trenogre I wasn't going for cute, but I'll definitely take that, thank you. Thrilling/exciting, however, is something I do aim for. BTW. I had to Google you to find your game, maybe you should mention it on your profile or smt along that line.
@shito Huh, interesting. Maybe I could make it blink and make the shade even more distinct from the color of the actual word. Will keep that in mind, thank you!
@muffty :hugging: If a postjam/full release happens an import feature is gonna happen for sure.
@papaver Words were to be animated on success. I wanted a simple tween and a few particles (not too fancy though to not distract the player), but alas... I should definitely have blocked the restart till the score is clearly shown. I thought of that too late, but I don't consider that a bug, so I didn't fix as I wouldn't consider that fair. You can get 4 knives, but that's only after 250 words and as far I can tell nobody reached that and I'm frankly not sure if that's at all possible.
@ozbrikk I'd think spelling is not that relevant since you actually get to see the words, but I had problems spelling out some words as well... No pun was intended. The character is just a mixture of a clown and a jester (and a pirate as well I guess) since that's my association with juggling. A bee is a great idea. I will think about that one. BTW. Where can I find your game to check it out?
@thefunattic Thank you. As far as I'm concerned, you don't even have to mention your game. I do rate the game of everyone who took the time to provide feedback, but maybe that's just me. If I don't leave a comment it's only because I don't feel I have anything to add to the conversation. It will take a while before I get to it, but I will make time to do so. (Hey, I rated over 60 games, gimme some credit :wink: )
@pcmxms Remember, you shouldn't operate heavy machinery or juggle sharp or heavy objects when under the influence of drugs. Hard games should be OK, though, so knock yourself out.
@eli-delventhal I feel like someone didn't read through the in-game instructions: :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

I do thing, however, I should have made it more clear and there should be a sound when making an error (not matching any of the words). Though, I don't get how could you type 'elebration' without noticing it sooner, but maybe I'm just not fast enough...
Typing games always tend to get me into an: "I'll just try one more time"-mentality, and so did this one.
The only thing I'd change is not taking wrong letters as input instead of making the player go back and delete everything since the mistake. So if the typed letter wouldn't be the next letter in any of the words on screen then it just doesn't get registered. nitrotype.com does it that way for example. All of that is a question of taste though, so if you like it the way it is, why change? :)
It would be nice if the words were more consistent; some of them are acronyms or abbreviations (exp, ld), some where names (claire, dave). If it were my choice, I'd only use full dictionary words.
It was a little frustrating sometimes to get the words out once you messed up --- I eventually got used to resetting with space, but it was still annoying. It would be nice if it just noticed that you were typing the beginning of a word again and reset for you.
Overall, well done! It was fun to play.

@jeremy-ryan Wow, nice. :flushed:
@wheffle, @ryuzaki-mrl Bring it on, guys.
@somethinboutgames, @jeremy-ryan I wanted players to face the music even if they can screw themselves over. Also it's meant to be educational and when you type, most times no one will magically erase your mistakes.
I'll probably try it out though. Heck, originally you'd have to commit each word with space/enter, but I removed that since it just felt like extra fluff and the difficulty curve was even worse.
@eli-delventhal Frankly I'm at fault as the designer so no winners there I'm afraid. In any case, thank you for bringing it up. :wink:
Great to see an entry that is both fun and useful. My keyboard finger placement for several years, ever since work caused me to "juggle" different keyboard sizes. This might be one of those entries that I find my self getting back to long past this LD.
@youbestrong I can't get to 100 either :cry: I'll have to work on that...
@diptoman I'll try to be better at this next time around (and for all my future games in general).