Ewan – A couple of months ago I was treated to an exclusive hands-on with Quarrel but never got the assets to get it finished, until now. Here’s what happened when Ewan met Denki…
There are throngs kids queuing up to get a bash at Quarrel. Denki have set up their stall in the Edinburgh International Conference Centre on the first day of Dare to be Digital’s Protoplay event at the Edinburgh Festival with one thing in mind: getting feedback from their audience to help them put the finishing touches to their first foray into the world of console gaming.
At first glance it’s hard not to like what you see of Quarrel. It is a bright, simple and friendly looking game that encourages players indulge in wars with words. Denki’s David Thomson describes Quarrel as “a cross between Scrabble and Risk” and that is probably the most succinct way to describe it.
Quarrel is an elegantly simple strategy game where you capture your opponent’s territory by making higher scoring words than them. Of course, there are other obstacles such as time limits and the ability to only make a word that is as long as the number of little troopers you have in your chosen territory. These limitations serve to ramp up the tension in the game. How do you defeat an opponent who has a garrison of eight in one territory and while attacking a territory where you only have four garrisoned? By knowing all the four letter words in the dictionary that have both k and z in them of course.
At the heart of Quarrel is the Official Collins Scrabble Dictionary, which they licensed especially for the game. This throws up some pretty obscure words but actually turns play into a voyage of discovery. After every turn is played the game reveals the full eight letter word or even words that can be made up and provides the dictionary definitions as well.
Meeting the challenges of each eight letter combination is awesomely addictive. Here is the real sneaky part. Denki have made a game that is an immense amount of fun but you also learn new words every time you play. This is an impressive feat especially given the number of children crowding round to have a shot of the game. In addition to the one player mode that was on display, there will be online and system link multiplayer as well.
Seven weeks from release and the game looks and plays much better than many of the games that have already made it to XBLA. At the end of the day Denki were packing up their minibus to head back to their studio in Dundee to get started on a new build of the game incorporating all the feedback from the day’s session. With dedication like that, in two months’ time Denki might just have a hit game on their hands.
Popularity: unranked [?]
