Ex-Call of Duty creative strategist Robert Bowling and comedian Dane Cook have revealed a brand new, genre-bending video game known as Vicious Vocab, exclusively to IGN.

Vicious Vocab is a genre-bending spin on casual word games like Scrabble, Words With Friends, and Wordle, with a big twist. While Bowling and Cook are careful not to share much about the twist to preserve some surprises, the game goes well beyond mixing and matching letters to make new words. The words have power and meaning… and they can dramatically change not only what happens to you, but the entire genre of game that you’re playing.

Check out the trailer below to get an idea of the unexpected shift that happens in Vicious Vocab.

Made by a team of five people who collectively call themselves “funcool games,” Vicious Vocab is described as “Scrabble meets Balatro in a backroom casino.” On its own, it’s a fun twist on the word game genre. There’s an action element, which has led the team to referring to the game as a “word brawler” or, in Cook’s words, a first-person speller.

You can “take damage” based on certain words. You can then counter it with another word, so long as you have the right letters. For instance, as seen in the trailer, if you spell out “torch” or “fire,” you might take fire damage. You can then spell out “water” or “ice” and extinguish the flame to stop yourself from taking more damage. These effects add interesting layers to the expected mechanics of a word game.

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