Letters of note
How Kind Words’ unexpected success paved the way for a sequel that takes players outside
Just in case you haven’t experienced its empathetic embrace, Popcannibal’s BAFTA-winning Kind Words is less a game than the contemporary equivalent of a newspaper advice column – one in which you can assume both roles. Sending an anonymous letter, you might choose to toss out a positive thought to the community, or put into words a concern you’ve struggled to share with those close to you. Alternatively, you can become an agony aunt, responding to the missives that reach you.
When Ziba Scott and Luigi Guatieri created this welcoming virtual space, it wasn’t only a response to the toxicity of many videogame communities. “It was a conscious reaction to toxic
everything,” Scott tells us. “It was definitely kind of a ‘Fuck, Trump is awful’-type moment in our lives. Luigi is an immigrant to the US and a lot of my in-laws are also. And that heightened our awareness – if it even needed heightening – of just how
mean a lot of global discourse was.” Still, Scott hadn’t lost faith in the inherent goodness of humanity, and sensed an opportunity to prove it. “One of the big motivations was to give people an opportunity and an excuse to exercise that nice part of themselves.”
The response outstripped his most optimistic hopes. There’s an assumption that Kind Words was another COVID-era success story, but its rise came in several waves, none of which had much to do with the pandemic. When the game debuted as part of a bundle for Humble Choice subscribers in July 2019, Scott had modest expectations. So when the rush of messages began, in their thousands on the day of release, “that was a real shock for us.” That December, a nomination in The Game Awards’ Games For Impact category drove the biggest sales spike to date, though another followed in 2022, thanks to a viral post on Chinese video-sharing website BiliBili.
Scott’s background in early-’00s Web development hadn’t prepared him for the rush of users, but it was the duo’s role as moderators that created the biggest challenge. A particularly troubling confession in one early letter led the studio to confront its ethical and legal responsibilities. “It was a bit of a journey to figure out how to respond to these things,” Scott admits – particularly since the game doesn’t collect identifying information.
From the beginning, privacy has been a concern. Scott and Guatieri remain the sole moderators. There are tools that assist them, and certain words or phrases that trigger automated responses that guide users to in-game help resources, but, as Scott tells us, “We’ve made over 300,000 decisions ourselves.”
The studio clearly feels a strong duty of care to its users, which has informed development of Kind Words 2, an unusual sequel in that it both expands upon and contains the original game. So while all writings – and the room of one’s own where they were composed – will carry over, you’ll now be able to venture outside. Players can attend poetry slams, send wishes into the night sky and chat with fellow avatars – though conversations will be short and asynchronous. “When we’re moderating, we want to have the context,” Scott says. “We can’t read 30 pages to see like, ‘Well, here, on day four, is where things went south’.”
While it was never a COVID game, Scott acknowledges that taking players outside reflects the way we’ve gradually reemerged into society. But really, it’s about providing a more convenient space for what Kind Words players have been doing for some time. “Poetry is already happening in Kind Words; wishes are already happening; chain letters, we’re gonna have a thing for those,” he says.
As for why it’s a sequel, rather than an expansion? “It’s a game you can buy for $5 and I have to moderate you for the rest of my life,” Scott says with a wry smile. With Popcannibal unwilling to introduce in-app purchases, this was the only way. Of course, the rewards are more than financial – having helped many players find comfort during difficult times, the developer has been greeted with a wave of gratitude. There is one thing, though, that he finds more gratifying still: “It’s seeing a change in someone’s behaviour. Anecdotally, we’ll see someone who doesn’t take the game seriously, or they’re trolling or misbehaving. And our philosophy is to moderate the content, not the people, so we give people a second chance. And I love it when people take those chances and open up.”
“One of the big motivations was to give people an opportunity to exercise that nice part of themselves”