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Build words from a tile grid, then turn letters into symbols and stack upgrades to beat score targets across roguelike runs.
Released 02 Apr 2026
Spell With Chess Pieces
Turn Numbers Into Letters
Build Wildcard Combos
From letters to lunacy, Cursed Words is a roguelike chasing ever-stronger synergies. Start with simple words like BUY or THIS or GAME, then use game-altering combos to break the rules. Before long you’ll be ¼♖♙K5XNG the ⅗H♗4 out of these 83VK??7?!
Developed by Buried Things · Published by Forklift Interactive









Cursed Words begins with a Boggle-like grid: connect adjacent tiles, including diagonals, to form words and score points. Each stage challenges you to meet a target score across a limited number of attempts.
Between stages, shop for upgrades and shape a build with a character, stickers, stamps, and consumable tiles. As new mechanics enter the mix, tiles can represent numbers, chess pieces, card suits, and other symbols, while upgrades combine to alter how words score.
A standard run spans five stages, with encounters and a boss at each stage. Different characters offer distinct playstyles, and completing runs opens challenges, quests, and higher Crown difficulties with altered rules and tougher score targets.
Players often enjoy the shift from familiar word-building to experimenting with unusual tile rules and upgrade synergies, which can turn a run into a puzzle of creating high-scoring combinations. Reviews also praise the range of characters, builds, and challenges, as well as the game's playful presentation. Some players find item effects difficult to understand or feel that shop luck can limit their choices.

Starts as Boggle, ends as Schrödinger - Cursed Words is a roguelike adventure about writing words... for a while…until words become NUM83R5, or ♔♘♙, or the infinite void.
Each run is shaped by four pillars: your Character, your Sticker upgrades, your Stamp loadout and the consumable Tiles you bring into each fight. Every attempt becomes its own cursed experiment.
In Cursed Words you build powerful synergies using Stamps and Stickers, face tricky boss encounters and push your score higher with every stage. A base level run features five stages, each one with two encounters and a boss. Beat Stage 5 to win the run, then take on special Challenges and Crown difficulty tiers that redefine the rules and push your creativity.

Blaze a path through cursed bosses and uncover secret items and challenges that completely change the way the game is played. How about all consonants? Maybe all vowels? How about no letters at all?
A whopping 300 stickers and stamps to boost your scores and break the game
11 characters with dramatically different playstyles
20 bosses that’ll try to sabotage your runs, or can be manipulated into multiplying your score even higher
26 unique challenges that completely change the rules of the game

And if all that wasn't enough, mastering each Character's Pin and playstyle is only the beginning. You can prove it wasn't just a fluke by taking on the Challenge Crowns, where Score Targets are bigger, Shops are more expensive, and you'll have to really break the rules if you want to succeed; or you can take on Quests, specific modifiers to the game's rules that will really put your skills to the test...
| Platforms | Windows |
|---|---|
| Achievements | 175 |
| Age ratings |
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| Controller required | No |
| Demo | View demo on Steam |
| DLC / extras | 1 listed on Steam |
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