Metamorphabet

Metamorphabet is a 2015 interactive video game developed by Vectorpark.

Metamorphabet
App icon
Developer(s)Vectorpark
Publisher(s)Vectorpark
Platform(s)iOS, Android, Microsoft Windows, OS X
ReleaseiOS
  • WW: February 12, 2015 (2015-02-12)
Windows, OS X
  • WW: April 29, 2015 (2015-04-29)
Mode(s)Single-player

Gameplay
The players touch the letters, which morph into words

The player interacts with each letter to proceed through the alphabet. For instance, the letter A grows antlers, becomes an arch, and begins to amble. Then it is replaced by the letter B. The letters and words are read aloud.[1]

Development

Metamorphabet is an iOS game developed by Patrick Smith. He had previously worked on the 2009 Windosill.[2] Smith designed the game to feel "intuitive" and "as natural as possible" for all users, but also designed to be accessible to young children.[1] The game was in development for three years but only came to fruition when Smith thought of having the letters turn into words.[1] The game was released for iOS devices on February 12, 2015,[3] and for Windows and OS X via Steam on April 29.[4]

Reception

Metamorphabet won the 2015 Independent Games Festival's Excellence in Visual Art award[5] and was a finalist for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize.[6] It was one of ten Apple Design Award recipients in 2015.[7] Reviewers noted the game's charm and intuitiveness.[1][3]

Andrew Webster of The Verge wrote that Metamorphabet helps kids learn the alphabet and vocabulary, though the game "isn't educational in the traditional sense", as it does not force the player in one direction.[1] He described the game as "more playful than instructive" and "more of a toy than a textbook", making it a suitable first video game for his two-year-old daughter.[1] Webster thought the gameplay was "charming and intuitive" and "fun ... to watch".[1] Evan Narcisse of Kotaku similarly wrote that the game was the first his four-year-old was allowed to play alone.[3] He noted that she struggled with games like Cut the Rope and Where's My Water, and thought that a game like Flower or Hohokum would be her first, but found Metamorphabet to be sufficiently magical in that it inspired curiosity without being "overly earnest or treacly".[3]

gollark: It doesn't look like it, though, as the code really only does much if an error occurs.
gollark: So I remembered recently that potatOS embeds some sort of stack trace thing based on one in MBS, and it might actually somehow be *that* doing this.
gollark: I'm not sure about infinitely, but IIRC there's no per-computer limit.
gollark: RAM use.
gollark: It seems like the problem is some somewhat broken optimization, where `pcall` somehow directly executes the real `getfenv`, ignorant of environments, if you have a function which only (or something like that?) calls a builtin. Or possibly not only builtins.

References
  1. Webster, Andrew (February 12, 2015). "This is the first video game I'll let my daughter play". The Verge. Vox Media. Archived from the original on March 9, 2015. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
  2. Vanhemert, Kyle (February 12, 2015). "I Wish More Games Were as Weird as This Guy's Interactive Alphabet". Wired. Condé Nast. Archived from the original on March 25, 2015. Retrieved March 25, 2015.
  3. Narcisse, Evan (February 12, 2015). "The First Video Game I'll Let My Four-Year-Old Kid Play All By Herself". Kotaku. Gawker Media. Archived from the original on March 9, 2015. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
  4. Matulef, Jeff (April 29, 2015). "Metamorphabet is out now on Steam". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Archived from the original on April 29, 2015. Retrieved April 29, 2015.
  5. Purchese, Robert (May 3, 2015). "The IGF 2015 winners and indies to look out for are..." Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Archived from the original on March 9, 2015. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
  6. Makuch, Eddie (January 7, 2015). "2015 Independent Games Festival Finalists Revealed". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on March 9, 2015. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
  7. Sarkar, Samit (June 9, 2015). "Apple Design Awards 2015 honor seven games, including Crossy Road and Vainglory". Polygon. Vox Media. Archived from the original on June 10, 2015. Retrieved June 10, 2015.

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