MontrealX – Words Are Power (StudioT Adam)

“In 1946, you return from the front as an established war correspondent.

“In 1946, you return from the front as an established war correspondent. Something fishy is happening in Washington D.C. and you intend to get to the bottom of it. Unfortunately, everyone seems intent on keeping you from completing your work… on the Hill and at the office.”

Words Are Power is a feminist word game that wants to raise awareness about gender issues facing women in the workplace. (Don’t you dare close this tab. Keep reading.) According to the developers at StudioT Adam, “the plot and characters are based on academic research assembled for the project.” While they believe the gender issues are more easily highlighted in a historical context, the team is confident that they remain no less true today.

The game plays out over episodes, likened to TV shows such as Game of Thrones because “it’s not about winning, but the continual struggle and the addiction to hope.” Each episode tasks players with exploring scenes and ultimately facing difficult choices. The are no wrong answers in Words Are Power though, and each choice made will affect the story differently. The overall plot can be looked at as a “season”, with choices impacting every episode until culminating in a climactic finale.

Players progress the story each episode by playing through a number of game modes and special events. Most start off by hunting for clues, before transitioning into an “Interview” mode, where talking to other characters can generate new leads. This plays out in a style to similar to Scrabble – or Words with Friends for you modern day kids with your fancy technology – as the objective is to place tiles on a board to form words for points. The higher the score players rack up, the further they’ll advance through the episode. “Interrogation” is a slight variation of this formula. The difference is that the board is covered in “fog” and, placing tiles will reveal more spaces, with the goal being to attain a target number of spaces. The Interrogation game mode will pop up whenever a character has information they’re hiding. Additional game modes will be available at launch as well.

Words Are Power is looking to launch on mobile devices in Q3 of 2015. Further details can be found on the game’s website.