The video game ‘Final Sentence’ is the perfect example that there are no mechanics that are too dry or complex: if the design is good and the packaging attractive you can have some of the most relevant content creators on the internet typing lapidary phrases tirelessly as if they were secretaries of some oil magnate. Typing for the masses in a title whose final version is not yet available but whose demo is already sweeping Steam.
What is it. ‘Final Sentence’ is an independent video game with an overwhelmingly simple concept: a battle royale of typing in which up to 100 players compete to survive based on speed and precision when typing, and where each spelling mistake is potentially fatal. It has been developed by independent Lithuanian studio Button Mash (actually one person), and the game creates an experience that some outlets have compared to ‘The Squid Game’ or other games like ‘Buckshot Roulette’. The inspiration, according to its manager, comes from its own clumsiness at the keys and the search for more entertaining ways to improve.
Why has it been so successful? A series of factors have come together that have turned it into a bombshell. On the one hand, and above all, the launch of a playable demo as part of the last Steam Next Fest in October. On the other hand, it takes a mechanic that we know well, the free-for-all, which is part of the essence of hits like ‘Fortnite’, and washes its face. Being easy to understand and difficult to master (that is, anyone can start playing immediately), it also has an implacable brutality with errors: any mistake is severely punished. Which gives it both an addictive component and a viral character that has helped many content creators try it.
The pressure of 100. He battle royale It is carried out against groups of rivals of between 40 and 100 players (although it is also possible to organize smaller private games). But the interesting thing is in the most populated ones: seeing how one after another the rivals finish their sentences, the players can feel the imminent elimination, since not only those who make mistakes are punished, but also those who are slower in finishing writing what they have been ordered to.
Who has played. People as followed on the Spanish-speaking internet as IlloJuan, ElRubius, Genuine993, PNKfacil have tried the game, but you just have to take a look at platforms like YouTube to see that there are thousands of videos with gameplays of the game, all squeezing out the component of tension and terror that this very peculiar concept has. The reason? The idea of ”write or die” is extremely juicy and practically any viewer, regardless of cultures and languages, can identify with it.
Play to write. Since that legendary ‘The Typing of the Dead’ that allowed you to connect a keyboard to the Dreamcast to undertake a literary version of ‘House of the Dead’, the very specific subgenre of “typing video games” has experienced multiple mutations, to the point of generating its own variants. There are, for example, competitive online titles (‘TypeRacer’, ‘NitroType’, ‘Ratatype Race’), narrative and adventure games (‘Epistory’, ‘The Textorcist’, ‘Type to Continue’) and games more oriented towards educational or casualsuch as ‘TypingClub’, the Typing.com platform or the hilarious Ztype. The important thing: that you have the keys well oiled, because you can see every work tool there…
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