3 Subtle Words Game Company
Discover 3 subtle board games to compose and deduce words: Malin Word, Bresk! and Ricochet.
No, it’s not just Codenames in life. Since this team-based word deduction game was released more than five years ago today, in August 2015, it has enjoyed rapturous success. But it’s not all Codenames in life. There are other word and word games that also require observation and deduction to win the game. Discover Malin Word, Bresk today! and Ricochet,
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| 3 Subtle Words Game Company |
three more or less recent games, released in recent months, between late 2020 and early 2021, clever and subtle board games for composing, deducing and finding words.
Clever Word
Bresk!
Ricochet
But what exactly is the deduction?
In these three board games, it is about observing, composing and deducing words. But basically, what is deduction? How does it work?
Deduction is an operation by which one establishes, by means of premises, a conclusion which is the necessary consequence thereof, by virtue of logical inference rules. That was for the raw, scientific definition.
Simply put, deduction is an inference leading from a general statement to a particular conclusion. An inference being a movement of thought going from principles to conclusion. It is an operation which makes it possible to pass from one or more assertions, statements or propositions affirmed as true, called premises, to a new assertion which is the conclusion.
We distinguish immediate inferences from mediate inferences such as deductive, inductive and abductive. What interests us today are these deductive inferences. Or, in other words, the… deduction.
Note, however, that deduction is often opposed to induction, which, on the contrary, consists in extracting from a finite number of propositions given by observation, a conclusion or a small number of more general conclusions.
To put it even simpler, deduction is the mental capacity to combine various elements to arrive at a solution. Deduction is an active, deliberate mental process. Unlike intuition, which is a form of deduction operating on a more discrete level.
Clever Word
Malin Word is a cooperative word game in which you try to find links between pairs of words between a cross matrix, row and column. At the start of the game, everyone at the table is given a mini hidden card, a vertical and horizontal axis indication, like A2 for example.
In Malin Word, you play together to fill a matrix that starts out empty of different size depending on the length and difficulty of the game chosen: 3 × 3 for an easy mode, 4 × 4 for a medium mode and finally 5 × 5 for a long part and broom.
In Malin Word, we do not take turns, anyone can intervene to announce a single word, which will allow the others to find the intersection. Knowing that each axis contains a word. If we have received the A2 card, and in A there is the word Horse, and in 2 Horn, we will then be able to say … unicorn. There you go, it’s no more complicated. In English, the game was translated as Crossed Clues, the crossed clues, which says it all.
If the others find the right intersection, you place your card there and draw a new one. If they are wrong, you discard it face down and draw another. Your goal: to place the clue cards to gradually fill the matrix before the hourglass runs out.
Obviously, unless you are playing with the silent variant offered in the game to increase the difficulty of the game, the others at the table can consult each other before giving the answer to your ad, at the mystery intersection.
💔 What we liked least
💔 A bit hollow, a bit light. A card, two words, a word to announce to associate them. It’s cool, but not mind-blowing
💔 A concern: your clue in hand gives you information on the one that others cannot have. In chats, if you’re one of the people guessing someone’s ad, it can get tricky not to give your card to you. Delicate, sometimes embarrassing and awkward. It happens very, too often that you grill your card
💔 With only one clue card in hand, we sometimes get stuck
💔 A useless 50s design
❤️️ What we liked the most
“Everyone is always involved in the game: we make people guess, or we guess, and we must not wait our turn, since there is none, a turn
❤️️ Lots of words, lots of replayability
❤️️
Bresk!
Bresk! is the subtle illegitimate child between Scrabble, crossword puzzles and a game of Roll & Write. You roll two dice, and then tick letters on its card. There you go, it’s no more complicated than that. It’s short, simple and subtle at the same time.
Unlike Scrabble, with a common board that everyone fills, in Bresk! you fill your own board, your own card, your own personal grid thanks to the two dice rolled. The goal is to earn the most points by composing words on its 8 × 8 grid, according to the dice, knowing that along its grid are spaces to count the points by row and by column.
Bresk! offers two dice. We start by throwing the numbered die. If it drops to zero, the round ends. Pity. On 1-3, everyone can add 1-3 letters of their choice on their grid. And if the die lands on a special side, then roll the second die, with letters, which must
then be placed on its grid.
At the end of the game, you win 1 point per letter making up possible and existing words, horizontally and vertically. So yes, again, Bresk! is between crosswords, Scrabble and a Roll & Write. It will be necessary to make choices, which letter to place, which word to compose, to win the most points. Scrabble reinvented, refreshed, more playful, less dictionary.
💔 What we liked least
💔 A bit hollow, a bit light. We throw a dice, we write one or more letters on its grid to compose words.
💔 A game that benefits people who have a dico in their head, and punishes others
❤️️ What we liked the most
❤️️Family friendly, ideal for beginners
❤️️Reinvented Scrabble
❤️️ No twist, we play in our corner
❤️️ Short rules, simple game
Ricochet
Of all the word games featured today, Ricochet is hands down the best! In Ricochet, we will have to find an auditory rebus thanks to a whole swarm of words that we will gradually eliminate thanks to associations and … ricochets, hence the title. Didn’t you understand anything in the previous sentence? It’s normal. We neither. The very first time you read and go, you swim. Then little by little, like pebbles, our mind begins to ricochet to succeed in making sense of the rules of the game.
It all starts with two words.
We will then have to find on the grid which contains 25 other words that can be associated with it: antonyms, synonyms, related, etc. Then we continue, the first words give others, which themselves give others, etc., while walking on the grid, respecting the principle of the ricochet, the new words must always be aligned, vertically or horizontally. In the end, there will only be three words left, and if we have done it right, the three words will constitute an auditory rebus that we will have to recompose. Everything becomes clear after 1-2 games.
Ricochet is as excitin
g as it is subtle! Cooperative, he asks everyone to think carefully about associations and deductions, to overcome the plank, the riddle. What if we’re stuck? The Flip Flap editor has thought of everything! On his site, we find all the solutions, except the final scrap, not very complicated. But above all, we don’t just have fun with words, each board, each riddle offers a solution, a narrative rebus, linked to a wacky tale. Ricochet is like Micromacro, who just won the Ace d’Or. A disruptive, thrilling and subtle game. And above all, addictive. Hard to stop.
💔 What we liked least
💔 Confused rules at the start
💔 30 boards, 30 games, and that’s it! A kleenex game, but such a good game!
“Impossible to play with the family with younger children, because you have to have what is called lexical competence, that is to say knowledge of words and their meanings and how they form categories
❤️️ What we liked the most
❤️️ Addicting. Difficult to let go of the game because it is so addicting
❤️️ Smart, subtle
❤️️ Each board, each challenge, each rebus is coherent and narrative
❤️️ The sequel, already announced for March 2021! A simple and uncluttered game
❤️️ Mini box, mini price
❤️️ Codenames, faster and less choppy
❤️️ A very good word game
❤️️ A pure family game, to play from 8 years old
