VerboCity Walkthrough

Ever thought of combining Scrabble and SimCity? Probably not, but it was inevitable that somebody would give it a stab. The result is VerboCity, an odd little sim game that only allows to build if you know your urban zoning terms. You can play VerboCity here.

Purpose

Your goal in VerboCity is to accumulate as many points as possible. To this end you need to construct a city atop a large field of letters. The catch here is that you must spell out the name of the building you want to construct on each turn using the letters you 'capture' by laying down those same buildings. Any letters covered by a building go into a pool, displayed at the bottom of the screen, and each time you use one of those letters in a word you'll lose it from your pool. Build until you can't build no more.

Construction

So long as you know a smattering of building or area names, you'll probably breeze through VerboCity. The easiest way to set up your city is to use short, four-to-five-letter words (of which there are many) to quickly build up a large community. The various buildings vary in size depending on what you build, so it's typically best to create things that require few letters but take up a lot of space on the board. A few good examples are 'Hall', 'Farm', 'Forest' and 'Fort'.

Each time you build something, you'll expand the network of roads branching through the town. Any letters caught under roads won't count towards your pool, so it's wise to choose your plots carefully. The different types of buildings will also provide different attributes to your city; these are further detailed under Scoring.

Starting Out

The beginning of a game of VerboCity is its most difficult phase. You begin with a single, pre-built Townhall to place which will determine your beginning pool of letters. Here are some tips for placing your Townhall.

• Set it over a field of letters, and only letters. Avoid multipliers, roads, and the sides of the map.
• Set it over a healthy mix of vowels and consonants. In particular, you want the letters A, E, F, H, L, M, N, O, R, and/or T to show up in your starting pool. You can make a lot of simple, expansive buildings with these letters.
• Don't worry about setting your Townhall in the central square! More often than not there are better places to seed it on the board.

Once the Townhall is down and the game's begun, you'll want to create a number of high-yield, low-cost buildings to quickly build up your letter pool. The above-mentioned buildings (Hall, Farm, Forest, Fort) are great for starting out strong. Place wisely and soon you'll have almost every letter covered. Make your city pretty if you wish, but the only hard-and-fast rule for placement is to avoid setting buildings directly on negative multipliers. Beyond that, as well as not wasting space with a useless network of roads, you're free to build.

Scoring

Scoring in VerboCity is determined by the value of the buildings you lay down. There are a few factors which govern point totals:

• Length. The longer the word, the more points you earn.
• Use. Each building is given a specific field of expertise: either it will increase the town's population (POP), increase the number of jobs (JOBS), or add to the town's entertainment value (FUN). Buildings added to a city where one of these attributes is lacking will score more points. For example, if you have a POP value of 300 and a JOBS value of 300, but only a FUN value of 150, you'll score more points for buildings that add FUN (Theaters, Bars, Parks, etc.)
• Multipliers. Scattered amongst the letters are red-and-yellow numbers that will change the point value of the building placed upon it. These multipliers work in both ways, so poor placement may cut your building's value in half. (Fortunately, you can get rid of these negative multipliers without detriment by eradicating them with roads.)

Once you Retire from the main menu, the game will tally up your point total and compare it to built-in points to determine how well you did.

Available Words

Below is a list of the words I've discovered work while playing VerboCity. Wield them wisely. It's not a comprehensive list, I have no doubt, so feel free to experiment. Note that there are no spaces in building names. (Thanks, Alphabetizer!)

Airport

Apartment

Arena

Bank

Bar

Barn

Base

Café

Castle

Cinema

College

Condo

Factory

Farm

Field

Forest

Fort

Fountain

Garage

Graveyard

Hall

Home

Hotel

Jail

Lab

Laboratory

Lake

Library

Mall

Market

Mill

Motel

Mountain

Office

Park

Parking

Powerplant

Restaurant

School

Shack

Shed

Skyscraper

Statue

Store

Theater

Townhall

University

Windmill

Yurt

NothingElse Walkthrough

A short indie horror game with a strong message about… something… NothingElse doesn't pose too much of a threat to cerebral players. Nevertheless, there are a few small stumbling spots where you might get stuck. This article covers the game from beginning to end. (You might also want to start by, you know, downloading Nothing Else.)

• Walk to the door in the BEDROOM and hit Z to open it. Leave the BEDROOM.
• Walk down the HALLWAY.
• Check the right cabinet under the TV in HALL for a Key. Check the table beside the left door for a note that reads 'Type 28 to unlock the chest'.
• Return to the HALLWAY and enter the left door with the Key.
• You're now in the ANTRY. Approach the chest and interact with it.
• Each time you hit a number on the chest's control panel you'll add the number to the previous number. Keep selecting numbers until the total showing on the screen is 28. (For example, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 will get you to 28.) Interact with the chest once it's open to get the Book.
• Return to your BEDROOM and interact with the bed. Bad stuff will happen.
• You're now in THE OTHER SIDE. Approach the trap door, open it up, and fall through to OPPOSITE ROOM.
• Walk through the right door. Head through the next room, MIRROR, to the right.
• Beyond MIRROR is ONE WAY. Go up the stairs to DILEMMA.
• To the left of DILEMMA is a room with creepy dolls on a shelf. To the right is a mannequin wearing a dress with buttons you can undo. Undo the first, third, fourth, fifth and last buttons (the same order as the eyes on the dolls) to hear a noise upstairs.
• Return to DILEMMA and go up the stairs to LAST CORPOREAL FLOOR. Up here you'll find a Pair of Gloves on the left wall.
• Descend to ONE WAY and go right to GARBAGE. Now that you have the gloves you can open the bag of garbage. Inside is a Key.
  
• Take the key to the strongbox on LAST CORPOREAL FLOOR. Open up the strongbox and you'll find a Ladder inside.
• Return to OPPOSITE ROOM and use the ladder on the left wall. Climb up.
• You're now on THE BRIDGE. Run through each of the areas ahead without stopping. You'll be safe once you find a note on the ground in TRUTH. Read it and continue left.
• Enter the grate in GET-OUT before you get caught by your pursuer.
• Left of PASSAGE INSIDE is THE TWO OF THEM. Read the plaque.
• Check the furnace in, well, FURNACE. Click the pictures in this order: the globe, the group of three, the eye, the flower, the heart. This will open the furnace and get you a Screwdriver.
• Return to GET-OUT and continue left to EXIT. The screwdriver will let you open the gate beyond.
• Run left to THE LADDER. Climb the ladder to OUTLET VALVE and interact with said valve. It will turn on a torch just above your head. Turn it off again and keep climbing.
• The creature that's been stalking you will appear in LONG FAREWELL. Climb back down to OUTLET VALVE and turn the valve on again. This will get rid of the creature when it moves into range.
• Climb to the top of the ladder and head right to PERSONAL HELL. Enter the house.
• Walk to the right, past the figures, and keep opening doors until the ending sequence cuts in. Enjoy!

Skyward Collapse Walkthrough

Skyward Collapse is a rather unique turn-based strategy game. In it you're basically playing as two different factions, warring against one another, and as the resident god you need to progress their respective societies without making one of them so powerful that it wipes out the other. You also have to deal with all manner of horrible outside influences - Woes, bandits, etc. - which may tip the balance of power one way or the other.

Sounds like fun.

Goal

The goal of Skyward Collapse is to earn points via in-game actions. Each game is separated into a series of ages, and by the end of each age you need to have earned a certain amount of points (dictated by your difficulty level). Fail to earn the required amount of points by the end of an age and the game will end in defeat. You can also lose if one faction's towns are all wiped out, eliminating them from the fight.

Sounds tough, and at first, it is. With some practice (and a lengthy sit-down with the tutorial), though, Skyward Collapse is easily manageable - though still a fair challenge.

Player Power

As mentioned, you have control over two factions in a game of Skyward Collapse: one red, one blue. You have the power to gift these opposing societies with buildings, resources, beneficial terrain and mythological monsters with the click of a button. Each turn runs as such:

• You work towards the benefit of the red team.
• You work towards the benefit of the blue team.
• The two factions, and any bandits on the field, move their troops around. Combat is resolved, buildings are destroyed, monsters rumble, the field of play expands as new land tiles are added, and Woes are triggered. (More on Woes later.)

During the first two phases you are allotted a certain amount of action points, depending on the strength of the respective faction, to a maximum of nine points per turn, per faction. With only a few exceptions you use these points one-at-a-time to add new buildings to the faction's towns, summon in divine units, and otherwise muck about with the mortals under your care. The trick is that you need to do this in such a way that the two opposing societies remain balanced enough that they won't kill each other, while being strong enough to weather the occasional predations of bandits and monsters.

Buildings

There are three general types of buildings.

• Military buildings spawn military units whenever there are sufficient resources available to do so. You have no control over what units are spawned, nor what they do once they appear on the field.
• Resource producer buildings come in two flavours. The first are the actual producers, providing the faction with wood, pigs, horses, rock, and so forth. The second process those resources into finished goods, such as weapons, building materials, and assorted products. You need both types of buildings in a town to keep your society functioning.
• Other buildings provide a variety of bonuses and other services to a faction. For example, new towns must be built around Town Centers, and military units will spawn more powerfully if their Barracks is built in a town with a School.

Many buildings are prerequisites for erecting other buildings. Consequently, if one faction loses a particular building in battle, they may also lose the ability to create certain troops or structures, and rebuilding will become much more difficult. Knowing where to place your buildings is paramount.

Units

The many types of combat units in Skyward Collapse serve two purposes, one of them immediately obvious, the other less so. We'll explore both at the end of this section. First, a general overview of the types of units.

• Footsoldiers. Also including cavalry, footsoldiers spawn from Barracks. They are the first line of defense and attack in Skyward Collapse, and will usually be the first fighters fielded in any game. They slowly lose their potency as more advanced units come into play, but you should never neglect your footsoldiers.
• Archers. Archers spawn from Archery Ranges. Though physically weaker than footsoldiers, archers can attack enemy targets at a range. This can prove both handy and detrimental, as they're capable of shooting past natural impediments to get at buildings you may not want destroyed. Don't be too fast to deploy a ton of archers unless you can lock them into one area and use them primarily as defense.
• Siege weapons. Coming in both the ranged and close-combat variety, siege weapons are designed to topple buildings. Creating them is a quick way to crumble one of the two factions... but it's also a necessity, because few other things can destroy bandit fortresses quite so effectively. Only bring out siege weapons when you know both sides are prepared for a big war.
• Mythological units. With proper resource management your factions will eventually be capable of summoning creatures of myth and magic - elves, trolls, centaurs, minotaurs, that sort of thing - to fight for them. Mythological units are great at rebalancing an unbalanced battle... but they can also throw your game horribly out of whack if misused, as they're much stronger than standard units. Fortunately, you have control over when and where they are deployed, if not their actions in general. If you do use mythological units on a regular basis, make sure each side gets one of similar strength to preserve the balance of the conflict.
• Gods. Gods? Yes, gods. When Skyward Collapse reaches the Age of Monsters, each faction will  receive a patron deity from above. The god will not typically intervene in battle and will idle on the field for the rest of the game, but with the use of tokens you can induce these gods into movement. They are absolute monsters, and will immediately destroy any unit that gets in their way. The tokens they employ are even more unbalancing than mythical monsters, and should be used with extreme care.

The first purpose for the game's units is obvious enough: attack, defend, war. This may lead you to thinking that if you introduce NO units, you can get off scot-free. Not so, unfortunately, because the use - and destruction - of units, as well as the destruction of buildings, is the main way to gain points in Skyward Collapse. In short, no war, no victory.

Geography

As with most strategy games, geography plays a big role in dictating the outcome of battle. Unlike other games, however, you can use action points to shift geography to your own ends. In many cases geography is the best way to keep one faction from prematurely murdering the other. The tiles include:

• Fields. Your run-of-the-mill tile. Combat will be even, and movement easy. Unless you're hankering for a town to get destroyed, it's not that wise to litter the ground around it with fields.
• Hills. 
• Forests.
• Marshes.
• Lakes.
• Mountains.
• Ruins.

Bandits

Depending on your difficulty level, bandits may range from a minor nuisance to the greatest threat you'll face. They get progressively worse and worse as you move up the difficulty scale, and it's very much to your benefit to prepare for bandits from the first turn onward.

Bandit units spawn from fortresses that are randomly seeded throughout the ages. They may wind up on the far end of the island, they may wind up one square away from a town. Regardless, these fortresses will begin regularly spewing out yellow soldiers that are the same types as those your own factions use... only they're often of a higher level, and, depending on the difficulty level, they may be able to move across rough terrain (notably mountains) without restriction. Later on bandits will also include mythological monsters in their ranks, a change that will make an already-touchy situation even worse.

Fortunately, your units will usually prioritize bandits as the greater threat. It's hardly uncommon to see red and blue soldiers forego a battle with each other to instead attack a bandit. For this reason it's very important to bulk up your armies with lots of Barracks and Archeries, and to upgrade your units so they can keep up with, and overwhelm, the bandits. It's also wise to build up big stores of Incense, Pottery, and Diamonds early on so you can deploy mythological units if the bandits overwhelm your standard armies. 

More content impending! (And yes, I know it's not a browser game. I will walkthrough whatever I please, thank YOU.)