GUBBINS — It's a word game in IOS

App Store Editors’ Notes

awesome concept mid execution

love this game and it would def be 5/5 stars if the postcarding UI was better. the postcard making part is so fun but truly so horrible to work with. at the very least it needs an undo button. would also appreciate a way to lock layers and a better way to select colors for words bc refreshing until u get back to the right color is so annoying especially when ur finger keeps missing the refresh icon bc u have to press such a specific place for it to actually work. all those icons/buttons (refresh, font choices, etc) need their activation radiuses or whatever to be bigger bc they are all so hard to use. and in a similar vein sometimes when you are trying to select a layer even if u press exactly where that thing/word is, it’ll latch on to some other object that is nowhere near and u just have to delete everything and start again to fix the layering. i love this game but the best part (postcards) becomes way too consuming and frustrating. i also wouldn’t mind more free unlockable things/images. the amt of in app purchases is lowkey unhinged like i understand paying for the unlimited plays version but the rest of it is absurd. it would be more acceptable if there was also some sort of in-game point system where some things can be bought w points instead of only real money

Please fix bugs. Otherwise great

I want to give this 5 stars so badly because it’s a fantastic game with wonderful art that’s so unique and fun. I play every day and paid for the full version. But it’s so frustrating how many bugs there are! Some examples: Sometimes when I play a good Gubbins, like the one that’s supposed to take single tiles on the board and turn them into a word, it only takes 2-3 single tiles and leaves the rest. More often though, when there are pencil Gubbins on the board in the daily challenges, they disappear randomly at any point in the game - very unpredictable. Just now, I placed an O tile on the daily challenge and suddenly all the tiles in that column changed, ruining every single word I’ve made (I even undid it, it reverted back, I played a few different tiles, and when I put my O back there it wrecked the board again). There’s no error report form so I have to leave this review, but it’s so frustrating when I spend 30-60 minutes on a game and then the bugs wreck it before I can finish. Makes me not want to play or recommend it. PLEASE FIX THE BUGS 😭 because otherwise it’s amazing

Fantastic

So refreshing to play a game that isn’t full of ads… we forget what that’s like. The lack of ads actually made me want to pay for the game just for that alone. Such a rarity now, shut up and take my money - Other developers please take note. The game is thoughtfully designed, artwork is great and the concept is simple. Beautiful game overall and really enjoyable to play so far. Yes, it’s another word game based on other word game mechanics but it’s really well done and feels unique with the gubbins and it’s actually quite strategic mixed with the hope of the draw giving you what you want before you run out of space on the grid. The daily puzzles are great, free and the lack of nudge /micro payments in the game makes it terrific - yes there is a shop but it doesn’t block/restrict/cap gameplay with stupid stuff like in game currencies and scam economies. Nope, instead it’s just about fun gameplay that’s open to all. Fantastic.

love it, don’t love streaks

I’d really love it if displaying (or even keeping track of) the current streak was configurable. I understand that’s a big deal for a lot of people, but it makes playing a game feel less joyful and more like a job for me. I’d like to be able to opt out. Please keep up the good work; I love what you’re doing and it’s a joy to play. Don’t forget to be awesome. a bug: if i open the app and select the daily puzzle, its often labeled correctly as todays puzzle but actually reloads yesterday’s. there’s no way to abandon the solve, so i redo the puzzle (sometimes just throwing stuff down to get to the FIN tile). afterwards, the current days puzzle is marked completed in the main screen even though i haven’t seen it. i can go to the archive screen and select it from there, and play it that way, though. this doesn’t always happen and i haven’t noticed a pattern yet.

Fun & fresh game

Great game, I look forward to my daily free play & don't mind that it's only 1 a day; like NYT word games, I think that keeps it interesting & fun instead of something you can have on demand all the time. The artwork is amazing, and the different puzzles keep it fresh as well. I have had problems with the game, like others, where going to a different app in the middle of the game (such as to respond to a text message, check a bus schedule, etc) kicked me out of the game and wouldn't let me finish, which is disappointing. I also wish there was a quick video tutorial for each gubbin to have an example of what they do. I find that the descriptions sometimes lead me to believe 1 thing, but when I play a gubbin either nothing happens, or it does something different than I expected. All in all I'd recommend this to anyone who likes word games but it could use some improvements!

I DID like it…

Update June 2024: still so glitchy! Letters get stuck so you can’t use them. Lightning bolt says 1 more round but never expires so it had ruined that row. It seems like such a simple game I don’t understand how it breaks constantly. Old review: I paid for this game awhile ago and then recently paid AGAIN to get a few new Gubbins. These new ones are glitchy where every so often it will have an error message saying sorry that meteor got messed up- and then it takes away the Gubbin but does not fix the tiles that had been moved. So then your board is wrecked. I’m like 8 tiles into the Daily today and it has happened again and I’m not going to finish the game. Sometimes it will place a Gubbin over a letter tile that’s already been played on the board. Even if that Gubbin disappears, the letter tile become unplayable. Have a 9 letter word? No, you now have a 3 letter word, a 5 letter word, and a dead tile that can’t be fixed. It’s just wildly expensive for a cute little game to have such game-breaking (derogatory) issues.

Good game but a bit of trouble with communication

I’ve been watching the game on TikTok for quite some time and have been really looking forward to it. I really enjoyed the tutorial levels and could see that it is an enjoyable game with great art. However when I was looking around at the three available levels I mistakenly clicked to play classic level. I wasn’t able to play at the time so I clicked to exit the level. Without realizing it, I had used up my only play for the day and felt a bit confused. I understand that this will likely only be a one time problem but I would have liked a confirmation prompt that said something along the lines of, “leaving this game will count as your daily game, confirm?” Again, the game seems really fun and I look forward to playing it tomorrow I just feel a bit frustrated over the fact that I cannot play today.