“Tumbleweed Typo Hunter” by Andrew C. Wang.
“You are a freelance bounty hunter searching for typos in a spaghetti western world populated entirely by words. In this third-person [three-dimensional] action [shooter word-game hybrid], you must hunt down misspelled words to collect their lucrative bounties.”
If you thought you cannot learn something from shooter games, you will have to think again, as this marvelous jam entry will prove you wrong. In “Tumbleweed Typo Hunter”, you will be the hero of three western towns. All inhabitants are words, but some of them are wrongly spelled. As you are not only the local hero, but also a bounty hunter, you will have to shoot those typos down.
Between three to five words are misspelled in each level, also the number of citizens rises with each new town. That does it make slightly more difficult to find each mistake in there, as the words wander around or hide inside the buildings. Some exploration and investigation work has to be done. When you are sure you have the right target and attack them with your lucky colt, you better stay on your toes, as they will fight back!
For each successfully killed typo, you will get a bounty of hundred coins. If you also do it inside the given time span, you can earn some extra coins as a special reward. You will need those, as each shot costs you some money for the ammunition. When you shoot some private property or a falsely accused word, you have to pay too. Should you be killed in your bounty hunt or if you are bankrupt after a day, you are also out of business, which means that the game is over for you.
I love this concept, as it is helpful in an entertaining way for people like me, whose first language is not English. Some common spelling mistakes are shown as the enemies, and “Tumbleweed Typo Hunter” forces me to recognize them, so that I am able to struck them down. Rarely has it been more fun to learn a foreign language! [PLAY]
