Gubbins, Melbourne-based Studio Folly‘s new scrabble-adjacent game, has released on Android and iOS after a stint in early access. It’s free to download and play one game per day (with the aptly named Daily mode), or you can buy unlimited play and extra modes through in-app purchases.
The game has you place letter tiles that appear at the bottom of the screen (sometimes single letters, sometimes in groups) on an 8 by 8 grid to form words. Once you’ve got a word, you can swipe across it to make the letters disappear and get the points for it. Complicating this are the Gubbins – strange creatures who appear to help or hinder your progress on the board. Some of them will become wildcard tiles for you, others will move tiles around or lock off certain sections of the board.
At the end of each round, players can create a postcard using the words that they managed to create in the game (and images of the different Gubbins). This, of course, means that while playing you’ll probably be on the lookout for funny words that you’ll be able to include at the end (even if they aren’t the highest scoring). Studio Folly’s socials have some very fun examples that players have shared (at varying levels of profanity – viewer beware).
During early access, Gubbins caught the eye of internet personality Hank Green, who offered to help fund the project. In return, 10% of the game’s profits are going towards The Foundation to Decrease Worldsuck (of which Green is a director). The Foundation directs money to different charities during an annual event called the Project For Awesome.
Here's the story of how I kinda bought 10% of an amazing new word game…for charity.
A few months ago, I saw a TikTok about a word game called "Gubbins" that was being produced by a small indie game studio in Australia (@folly_studio) and I messaged the people creating it. pic.twitter.com/zh6dyixHEr
— Hank Green (@hankgreen) November 14, 2023
If you’re a fan of word games (or just supporting local talent), you can grab Gubbins on Android and iOS for free!
About the Author
Douglas Rintoul
he/him
Douglas is a writer, comedian, performer, and software developer who enjoys procrastinating any and all responsibilities by playing and replaying games. You can find him performing at the arts festivals around Australia, both solo and with his sketch comedy group Bits Akimbo.
