Find Your Words is a charming, super cozy game promoting inclusiveness and tolerance and its free. I had a lovely time playing, and I learned a lot. What a great combo!
Fun Games That Won’t Break The Bank: Find Your Words
Find Your Words was created by two proud fathers of non-speaking children, inspired by their journeys using AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication). This is something I didn’t know a lot about, so I thought it was great for me to learn while having fun playing a game!
The Look and Feel of Find Your Words
Find Your Words took place in a lovely, wooded summer camp. I played as one of the campers, being dropped off by my Mom. Although I was a bit nervous, my Mom was so supportive. I thought that scene was very heartwarming. My Mom explained to the counselor that I was non-verbal. He told her that he had a communication binder for me to use with the other campers and that they would also be very supportive of me. It was true!
The camp itself was a bright and colourful open world with 10 distinct locations, including a beach, dock, trail and lodge. When I was near the beach, I heard the waves crashing on the shore. When I was in the woods, I heard beautiful bird calls. As I walked around, I could hear my footsteps; they changed depending on the terrain I was walking on. I love little details like that! Throughout the game, I heard a jazzy, upbeat soundtrack. The entire experience was really cozy and fun.
Find Your Words does not have a map, but it’s absolutely not necessary!! It’s a sizeable world, but it’s easily managed. I get lost a lot in games, but I did fine in this one! What it has instead of a map is a series of signposts telling me where I’m headed. I thought that was charming.
The Gameplay of Find Your Words
Find Your Words is a slow-paced, relatively easy game to play. Sometimes that’s just what I need, nothing too difficult, simply fun and relaxing. The game was designed to be explored at my own pace and in my own way. I began the game by learning how to use my communication binder. It consisted of images in 4 different categories – people, places, things and core. Core were specific actions like saying Hi or asking for help. As I met my fellow campers, they added images to my binder, specifically images of themselves and their hobbies. I was surprised at how easy it was to communicate with others without using speech.
Each camper in Find Your Words was unique and had distinctive hobbies and interests. Those hobbies formed the basis for the quests I performed in the game. For example, Gwennie, above, loved to paint. My quest for her was to suggest 10 different locations for her to paint.
Melvin loved to play hide and seek, except he always hid in a cardboard box so he wasn’t too hard to find!! And Tai liked to birdwatch, so he lent me a pair of binoculars with the instruction to find 5 birds. That particular quest reminded me of Alba, another game that is dear to my heart.
There was a bulletin board in camp which showed what quests I had outstanding and how I was progressing on them. I found it helpful to walk past it every once in a while. I discovered that some quests had to be completed first in order to complete other ones. I suppose I could finish Find Your Words quicker if I focused on just one quest at a time. But the characters were so engaging and the world so enjoyable that I didn’t mind the game taking longer. In fact, I was happy to spend a lot of time at Pals Camp! So I wandered around at my own pace and completed quests in random order.
After I completed a quest, there was a joyous cutscene. For example, after I helped Gwennie paint all the locations at camp, there was a great cutscene showing the exhibit of her paintings. All the campers in Find Your Words were helpful and supportive; it was a great environment.
Final Thoughts
Yvonne wrote about Find Your Words in a recent post. One thing she mentioned was “The game was developed with input from speech‑language pathologists and AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) users, ensuring its symbol‑based communication system is both thoughtful and authentic.” Personally, I had not heard of a communication binder before, but after playing the game, I did some research about them and definitely learned some new things. I’m amazed at how much can be communicated without saying a single word.
Find Your Words was developed by Capybara Games, an indie studio based in Toronto, Canada. Other games they have developed include Below, Grindstone and Critter Crunch. I thank them for making Find Your Words totally free to play on Steam. They also offer an optional Starter Pack for $ 4.99, which includes the game’s soundtrack and a digital booklet filled with printable activities, including a bird-watching journal.
Last, Capybara Games released this YouTube video where the lead devs for Find Your Words describe the story behind the game and what they hoped to accomplish with it. I hope the game spreads it’s message of support, tolerance and inclusiveness far and wide.
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