- Steam Deck Compatibility for Word Turtle Island: Based on My Year of Testing - 11 August 2025
Based on my testing on my own Steam Deck for over a year now, including having folks at events like Midwest Gaming Classic, VGM Con, and other indie game friendly events, the game runs and plays very well on Steam Deck.You can play via the main gamepad controls, or using the touch screen, or using an external keyboard for the typing action.No in-game text input is required and the word-action would be hindered by an on screen keyboard, so there's no on-screen keyboard support.The main way I've played and have seen others play is simply using the regular game controller input built-in to the Steam Deck, which again works awesome.Regarding the Steam Deck compatibility checklist, let's look at the Steam criteria by the numbers.Input: 3/3 depending on how Steam judges these for Word Turtle Island. At worst WTI would be 2/3.- Controller support: YES- Controller glyphs: Game UI doesn't use la…
- Word Turtle Island: Word Action Time! - 10 August 2025
Video game loving book lovers, word nerds, poets, kids 12+, and adults, Word Turtle Island is a game that celebrates words while you kick some butt with those words to rescue the most awesome library in the galaxy.Nearly four years in the making, finally available in full version 1. Exiting early access after so much work, testing, feedback, refinement.Play it as a typing practice game, or focus on the words as weapons aspect with game controller, touch screen, or mouse.Word Turtle Island is full of action, word fun, and has a cozy library where you can level up helping books, building bookshelves, and unlocking more gates to rescue more books.So happy to share this with you and thank you, what a journey it's been as a solo indie game developer to bring you this quirky action game!
- Battle Arenas New Layout and Flow for Word Turtle Island's 2nd July Update - 31 July 2025
Big battle layout and flow updates for the main 4 battle arenas a.k.a. nature dungeons where you rescue the legendary books of power. Additional updates like keyboard input typing action refinements, one button word capture AKA magic typing also activates the slow motion focus mode. Library bonus cash-in (that's when you get free level-ups for your current equipment) performance and layout improvements. Also library bonus now only cashes-in when you enter a battle gate, not inventory or market. And finally, a massive update to the curated dictionary of 10,000+ words. Getting close to ready for 1.0!
- WTI Mid-July Update: More loot and library home base fun updates! - 15 July 2025
This update to Word Turtle Island brings big fun improvements to the library home base. Paths for running and exploring via the walls layouts, new zones where you can build more bookcases for bigger faster library bonus points. Lots more loot when you return from battle victorious AND when you unlock the 100 library points bonus gate. Plus more refinements throughout. Press the compass/nav button to get an instant navigation arrow and full list of objectives. More player level unlocks and locks refinements - you start with the powerful word capture ability then - level 5 unlocks DASH - level 10 unlocks WORD WEAPONS - level 15 unlocks WORD POWERS which are automatic abilities. Plus a number of bug fixes: nav arrow no longer sometimes hides the word you're capturing, start screen ui focus occasional bug fix, volume settings save/load bug fix. The detailed list: Library home base aka the b…
- Slow motion effects, dictionary update, and more! - 23 June 2025
Word focus time slowdown is more visual, more time for focus, and keeps you safer when you're typing in the middle of battle. Plus performance improvements and bug fixes too. And a dictionary update, further refining the list of 10,000+ words in the game. Happy one year anniversary of Word Turtle Island! Thanks for being part of the community as we're getting closer and closer to 1.0!
- Powered-up Word Capture, Slow Motion Focus, Objectives Guidance, and More! - 25 May 2025
Time for the May update! It’s been a big month of work and progress and fun for Word Turtle Island. More powerful word capture, More helpful objectives guidance! Word capture, word capture, word capture! It’s much more powerful than before. Hit the button or start typing any time. Word Capture You can now battle effectively without powers or word weapons if you press that word capture button or type those words which has the same effect. Letters become projectiles and help you survive battle and rescue those books and readers. Word capture is the emphatic heart of the game. Powers and word weapons are still around but not all at once. More on that after more word capture news. SLOW MOTION FOCUS Typing a word will bring the battle into slow motion for a few seconds. This is the big advantage to typing! Non-typers get a way to use slow motion focus too! Use the word-next button for a brie…
- Create Bookshelves for More Loot in the WTI April Update - 25 April 2025
April's update to WTI brings more bookshelves to the sanctuary! Collect and level up your word weapons and powers faster by creating bonus bookshelves! Summon the option to build a bookshelf anywhere you wish in your library home base aka Portia's Book Sanctuary. Also you can now drop off books at any bookshelf you wish, instead of their main destination. Faster drop drop off with less chance for bonus. This update also includes refinements and bug fixes. Refinement example: when books are small, their title was too small to read so it't now hidden until the book is full size again. Bug fix example: the seated readers now stay seated. 10 months in early access and 9 updates! Onward and thanks for playing!
- Flexible Difficulty, Friendlier Game Beginning and More in the WTI March Update - 27 March 2025
March's update to WTI is here! Big improvements to flexible difficulty via the battle promise menu and lots of tuning which affects everything from how many opponents, how strong they are, to also how long the words are you battle with and against. Plus the very beginning is tuned to be a more gentle introduction to how the game works!
- Word Turtle Island February Update: Story, Powers, Leveling Up - 21 February 2025
February's update to WTI is here! This update adds more to story, word capture, and leveling up unlocks. Story! The whole narrative of rescue books and readers is expanded, now each Book of Power you rescue will have some story to share with you in the book sanctuary. Word capture is a powerful ability in battle, each letter becomes a projectile that helps you overcome opponents. Press the word capture button, type the word on the keyboard, or tap on with your mouse or touch screen. In this update all these options show up big and clear with the heads-up-display showing the current word capture in progress. Leveling up is more clear than ever, as you gain XP, your character levels up and now it's more clear what will unlock for you at what level. Word weapon actions and powers now show how many unlockable slots are available and is clear when they unlock so you can choose or pick up a c…
- WTI January Update: Opponents and Fixes! - 28 January 2025
January's update to WTI brings new opponents, refinements to powers, some bug fixes and performance improvements. - New opponent: Trouble Turrets that seek you out and launch book projectiles to stop Wort and attack the books and readers. - New opponent: Menacing Gateways spawn other opponents until you stop them and of course they seek out the books and readers, makes them extra important to handle as soon as possible! Also new: for the rest of the duration that Word Turtle Island's is in early access, the regular price to Word Turtle Island is dropping to $4.99 USD. Get in early! The price will increase at some point in the coming months when it's the full 1.0 version. Thank you to all of you who have supported WTI already, it means a lot! Please accept this PDF of The Book of Helpfulness, with info about the characters, gameplay tips, and a helpful guide to all the controls options.…
- Word Turtle Island November Update - 23 November 2024
November's update to WTI brings gameplay refinements. Tuning what it feels like to play. Creatures now show emotes reacting to good and bad things and showing what they're up to next. Mini-map refinement. Keyboard typing now slows down opponents, reducing the pressure of running away while typing. Word capture now keeps to only the words you can see on screen. Plus bug fixes and performance improvements. Emotes for character's intent and reactions show when opponents are up to something and when allies are in trouble, hurt, bored, celebrating, or KO'd. Mini-map refinements. Mini-map shows a radar view of your current encounter, now has higher visibility. For keyboard typers: word creature opponents slow their approach when you're typing their word, reducing some of the pressure of running away while typing. Capturing words fixed to only capture-able words visible in your current screen…
- Word Turtle Island October Update - 28 October 2024
Includes immediate typing score feedback for those who battle using typing. Easier health drops for word combos. Also includes the usual ongoing refinements and bug fixes. 4th monthly update in a row! typing score shows anytime you are typing words, instantly see your current best combo and wpm level complete summary stats now more visual word weapon dictionary update tuned theme combo timing to be easier to get a health reward drop tuning collision knock back and out of bounds recovery book sanctuary bonus cash-in countdown now faster re-introducing the spawn gate opponent opponents improved movement logic bug fix for drops near player, less likely to drop on top of player additional bug fixes
- Word Turtle Island September Update - 28 September 2024
Welcome to Word Turtle Island's September update! Many improvements, bug fixes, and a new feature: word capture one letter at a time! + Word capture one letter at a time! Each letter you capture becomes a letter projectile. + Text rendering upgraded to use smoothing + Refined word visuals to clarify what can be word captured. + Battle flow refinements and bug fixes + Faster auto select for next word capture-able word + Added small knock-back effect when running into a wall + When running in a non-full-screen window, window now resizable
- Word Turtle Island August Update - 15 August 2024
Refinements-focused full game update. Fixes such as an occasional navigation bug. Performance improvements, smaller download size, and dictionary update. Removed a potential spoiler from the start screen attract mode loop. Also improving how the game pauses and mutes audio when the Steam UI is open.
- Word Turtle Island July Update - 28 July 2024
About a month ago I quietly launched Word Turtle Island into early access. To get there was a 2.5 year path of developing and testing privately and at a few public events. Only a month since starting early access started and a fresh update is ready! New fixes and updates New instructions zine PDF download! It's called The Book of Helpfulness, named like the books of power in the game. Battle promise menu is larger, easier to read and choose what level of challenge you'd like. Bookcases in library refined how and when they will drop a book spend zone, are less greedy about wanting more books too soon. Nature dungeon battles camera zoom refinement, more zoomed in whether in portrait or landscape based on your type of device.
