• New invitation for players to customize their character during the initial tutorial.
• Rebalanced distribution of opportunities to start new conversations.
• Fixed a bug that would show the wrong menu if you opened the journal and the closed it really fast.
• Improved handling of corrupted cache files.
• Upgraded the engine to Unity version 6 from Unity version 2022.

I'm not sure Unity knows how numbers work because that's would seem to imply I've reduced Unity by 2,016 Unities. I'm sure it will be fine. We didn't need all those Unity's anyways. I think. More importantly, checkout our sweet new trailer. https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2118120/view/508449788991111875

[ 2025-03-25 17:35:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

Kind Words 2 has been nominated for a BAFTA in the Games Beyond Entertainment category! I won't speak for the rest of our team, but I am absolutely not above the need for external validation. The loving responses from players and now the esteemed BAFTA judges means a lot. Knowing that people are enjoying the game motivates us to continue pouring our hearts in to watering this little garden of good vibes. To celebrate, we've put together this new trailer made up of players' own feelings about Kind Words 2 taken right from Steam reviews. Maybe you'll find your own quote there ;) Enjoy the trailer, enjoy the game and enjoy watching the BAFTAs! [previewyoutube=RBt3zlyqz2I;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2025-03-25 17:24:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

The music mood override button's override choice was being overridden, so I overwrote it. (He said in an over wrought sentence). Thanks to discord user Beno988 for the heads up. Also, Kind Words 2 just got nominated for a BAFTA! Which is really because it's full of amazing players who make the game a great place to be. And those players are you, so it's kind of like YOU just got nominated for a BAFTA! Way to go! Treat yo' self.

[ 2025-03-04 21:18:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

Did you know that every song in Kind Words 2 has four moods? As you move from home to city, to caf to mountain top, each song changes with the feel of the location. Drums morph, timbres shift, vibes slide. Did you notice that even the menu sound effects change pitch to match the key of the current song? Who does that?! Clark Aboud does that! And now he's made 4 new songs!

• Golden Dreamer
• Cloud Watching
• Cerulean
• Ampersand

And song each has four moods. Moods and tracks that you can now flip through with the new "Music Control Panel with Frog Head" (patent pending). They're going in to the soundtrack DLC too, of course.
He even wrote a little ditty that the train plays when it pulls in to the station. And so we honor Clark in the most Kind Wordsiest of fashions with the new Clark sticker. We hope the new music and moods helps with your mood today. Cheers, Ziba & Luigi

[ 2025-02-13 17:47:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Reworked outdoor conversation distribution. There are now color coded badges that indicate whether you are continuing a conversation you started (purple), continuing a conversation someone else started (red), or starting a new conversation (gold). This plus background changes should even out the opportunities to start new conversations. It may take a little while for the new balance to settle in.
• More outdoor conversation hover context to tell you what will happen if you interact with someone.
• Fixed the Banini Slug sticker decoration not showing up. WAKE UP BANINI!
• Improved multiple offline behaviors
• Fixed a bug preventing the outdoor button from being highlighted during the initial game tutorial

[ 2025-01-10 21:44:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

Kind Words 2 is great for sharing your thoughts with caring strangers, but sometimes you just need to talk to yourself. Now Kind Words 2 has a private journal. A journal is a great way put your day or your life in to perspective. Forming your stresses in to words can calm you down. And good days with good feelings deserve to be commemorated.
This part of Kind Words 2 is for your eyes only. We don't store it on our servers. The optional steam cloud storage is encrypted before uploading. If you need a little inspiration to write, we've added a spot where you can browse and share writing prompts to get you going.
Kind Words 2 invites you to bring your whole, complex, beautiful, messy self. And now there's a place for the parts that are too detailed or too personal to share with others. Yours, Ziba & Luigi

[ 2024-12-19 17:59:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Shakespeare died in 1616. But before he did, he wrote several plays that people enjoyed. However, he did not leave behind very many cute stickers. I won't lie: it impressed me a little bit that he could just give up like that. Like he didn't really care about his legacy. Respect. We're not that strong. We need your approval. We've added a bunch of adorable new stickers to Kind Words 2. Enjoy!

[ 2024-11-27 17:53:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Tiny update today: I've added a divider line that shows when you've viewed a whole chain in the chain forest and it's starting over. Just a little quality of life improvement to throw out while we're working on bigger stuff. Other work this week was more server side focused. Like making the conversation system more efficient to handle the 40,000 conversations people have started. Cheers!

[ 2024-11-01 18:02:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

Ella was embarrassed to realize she had not been thanking people when they reported requests in their inbox and has renewed her efforts to be a great hostess. She's also going to be a lot clearer in explaining that the "Lifetime train pass for all cool people" is in the store marked "Books & Stuff". Also fixed in this update are multiple timing issues which could result in overlapping UI and problems listening to conversations. Cheers!

[ 2024-10-25 16:25:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

I'm delighted to let you know the soundtrack to Kind Words 2 is now available for purchase as DLC on Steam! To celebrate, I've created a new Steam bundle that includes both Kind Words games and both Kind Words soundtracks at a discount. I'm so grateful to Clark Aboud for sharing his talents as composer on Kind Words and Kind Words 2 and I've invited him to tell you a bit about his work in his own words:

A Letter from Clark

The first Kind Words soundtrack was a beautiful and appreciated (thank you Ziba & Luigi) opportunity to just write music freely (fitting, for a game about writing freely), so getting the chance to step back into that comfortable isometric room and out into the big new city has been an exciting one. The subtitle of lofi city pop was a ticket to a wonderful world of music that I will ever be an admirer and student of, with its dense harmonies, bright grooves, and toppest of top tier bass lines. Bringing touches of those inspirations into the lofi sampling, synths, and style of the original, led to recording guitars, drums, strings, harp, brass, piano, and more, re-sequencing on samplers, printing to recycled cassette tapes, running through guitar pedals, and once again enjoying writing freely. All of these new spaces to visit gave room for rearrangements and remixes of each of the songs, written to suit the different atmospheres of each corner of the city. Some of my favourite rearrangements are the Ambient remixes that can be heard on Snow Mountain, at Last Stop and in the Chain Forest. (Youll find these on the soundtrack along with the original songs). Just like the first, I feel incredibly privileged to be a part of this game, and now a part of your time in the new city as you write, talk, and share. Clark.

[ 2024-10-18 14:20:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

• New: FPS Limiter in Settings->Display. Options: none, 30 ,60.
• New: Escape or Gamepad B will close the map menu.
• Better: Optimized some game assets to be 60MB smaller on disk and use a bit less ram.
• Fixed: Removed multiple cases where button pressing during scene changes could trigger WACKY STUFF.

As a reward for reading these little patch notes, I'm gonna slip some fun news in here first: The soundtrack for Kind Words 2 just got approved for sale on Steam. Look for it this week!

[ 2024-10-15 00:23:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

Today's challenge has been tracking down the cause of the reports I'm getting that sometimes the game gets stuck when transitioning between spaces. The tricky part is that it never happens to me! So today I rewrote a good deal of the code that handles transitioning between scenes. If it's not more reliable, it is at least more careful and will hopefully leave much better clues as to the source of the problem. A nice side bonus is that it's much faster to wander through the chain forest now. Thanks for playing and for the patience of those affected by the transitioning bug. Cheers, Ziba

[ 2024-10-12 23:27:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Viewing subscribed poems no longer cuts off longer poems (and media recommendations)
• Fixed multiple ui bugs related to reporting and deleting messages
• Reporting a letter you have received will now give you an option to delete that letter
• Fixed a problem which could make the settings menu appear at the same time as other menus
• Fixed a bug that occurred when you clicked on a person after finishing a conversation with them
• Fixed a bug which could make an npc walk creepily backward while staring at you

Much love once more for all the reports. Moving ever forward to perfection!

[ 2024-10-12 06:07:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

Thank you all so much for making the launch of Kind Words 2 wonderful! For years Luigi and I have been wandering around this city by ourselves. Like kids who snuck in to an amusement park when none of the rides are running. We've spent so long walking through while imagining what it would be like full of people. What will be most popular? How busy will it feel? What ride will go off the rails? We had a few brilliant glimpses of the future during our playtesting, but this Monday when the doors opened, Kind Words 2 truly began not just for our players, but for us developers as well. Everything feels so alive now! Since Monday, players have started over 11,000 conversations with each other! We had a feeling chatting would be popular. More surprising is the 10,000 messages you've written in the chain forest! In less than 5 days! Judging by the sheer volume of nice messages floating about, things appear to be running mostly smoothly. But we have also had excellent feedback about bugs and quality improvements that I am now hard at work on. I'm very grateful for your communications and suggestions. Please keep them coming in game, in discord and on Steam! And once you feel we've earned it, please consider leaving a review. Wrapping up, if I may briefly switch metaphors from Kind Words 2 being an amusement park to being my child, I'd like to embarrass it here with a baby photo from 2022.
We've come a long way. Thank you so much for being here with us now! Yours, Ziba & Luigi

[ 2024-10-11 22:38:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

• New: You can delete messages you receive in your inboxes.
• Fixed: Multiple issues viewing inboxes while offline.
• Fixed: The favorites button getting stuck down while viewing wishes
• Trap: Several better debugging tools to help me figure out some mysteries. Like why loading the chain forest locks up the game for some people.

If you encounter something that makes you have to force quit the game: A) I'm very sorry. B) If you restart the game to submit feedback and you choose to attach an anonymized log, I'll also get the log for the previous session where the bad thing happened. Thanks!

[ 2024-10-10 23:56:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

Sorry, some funny business was getting people stuck on the title screen. Not really that funny if you can't start the game you just bought. Thanks for sticking with us.

• Fixed multiple causes of title soft locks.
• Fixed paper airplanes knocking you out of your chair. (In your own home! Rude!)
• Fixed text resetting to default if you cancel writing something, then un-cancel, then write more and then add a sticker but then cancel adding the sticker. Whew.

Thanks so much for all your reports in-game and on discord. I couldn't shake these things out without you!

[ 2024-10-10 04:41:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Thanks for all the reports everyone! Keep 'em coming. We'll get all the little bumps sorted out!

• Greatly clarified the name entry process in the tutorial
• Fixed chain help menu appearing behind chain topic
• Fixed favorites button getting stuck on when favoriting airplanes from a bench

[ 2024-10-08 21:50:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

But what is Kind Words 2?

It's a game about being nice to people!

All real people. Anonymous and asynchronous. Share your worries, joys, dreams, wishes, jokes and more. Then read everybody else's messages and respond where you feel comfortable doing so. We've made a little city full of different activities for you to explore.

It's a social network!

But it's kind of an anti-social network. We wanted to create a place where you can interact with real people and never have to worry about whether you're fitting in or winning. There's no numbers to tell you how many people liked something. There's no identities to worry about keeping consistent. Give and receive the gift of just being yourself with people.

It's a better version of the original Kind Words

It includes a full, backwards compatible remaster of Kind Words. If you didn't play the original, you won't miss out! The models and textures have been re-created with the wisdom granted by time. The UI is much more attractive AND accessible. Now there's keyboard and gamepad controls. Also, the whole thing works offline!

It's a much bigger game than Kind Words

Kind Words has a laser focus on you, stuck in your bedroom with worries and well wishes. But Kind Words 2 lets you run outside that room and explore a city full of new activities! People brought so much of themselves to Kind Words that we couldn't embrace it all gracefully. Now there's so many more places for you to be you. Change your look, chat, joke, philosophize, dream, rhyme, vent, name cats. NAME CATS!

Its a labor of love by a tiny team!

I'm Ziba. I write the code and posts like this. Luigi does ALL the art. Clark writes the music (and his musician friends play it). That's it! We've spent the last 5 years caring for the shockingly kind community that formed around Kind Words. And now we're almost unbearably excited to open the doors to this greatly expanded experience. We made if for you and we hope you like it. Now please go tell your friends, neighbors, enemies, lovers, strangers and strange lovers that Kind Words 2 is here! Yours, Ziba & Luigi

[ 2024-10-07 16:03:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

This week marks the 5 year anniversary of launching Kind Words on Steam. A lot has changed in 5 years, hasn't it? Not just for the world, but for you personally, I'll bet. One of my biggest changes was having Kind Words in my life. It's been an amazing trip for Luigi and I to learn how to care for this community we started. And what a joy it has been that the community has cared for us in return. I could go on all sentimental like for a while, but I've got to go fix bugs now to make everything ready for the launch day. You watch this shiny new trailer, share it with all your friends and I'll get back to writing code. Deal? Deal. [previewyoutube=Zo8fzStygUo;full][/previewyoutube] Yours, Ziba & Luigi

[ 2024-09-09 17:11:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

Thank you! You all did so much for Kind Words! The playtest and the demo are over. We are definitely sad to kick everybody out of Kind Words 2 for a bit. But the life you all breathed in to it is just what we needed to guide our final development push. For years we've been working on these features with only our imaginations filling in how they would actually be used. We now we have heaps of real player messages of all kinds. It's time for us to digest it and make sure we're making the most of all your kind and creative energies. Here's some amazing numbers generated by you 6,000+ playtesters:

• 3,951 cat names!
• 7,393 in-game feedback submissions!
• 18,740 conversations!
• 22,611 chain forest entries!

(Also, 600 new discord members!) I could say a lot more, but now we have to dive in and tweak and tune to get ready to have you all back... this fall. Yours, Ziba & Luigi

[ 2024-08-23 17:52:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

Play Kind Words 2 for free right now! We are opening up playtesting to everyone by putting out a demo for 1 week only starting now. Kind Words 2 is almost done and we're joining the Wholesome Games Steam Celebration by inviting you to try it out and give us the feedback we need to cross the finish line in style. Download the demo and explore a whole city of online conversations with real people. Share your feelings, wishes, poems, jokes, dreams, everything that makes you you. This playtest includes a full remaster of the original Kind Words. Plus a new room with new stickers. If you played before, your letters will be waiting for you. If you haven't, well then this is like getting to play two new games for free! We're looking forward to spending time with you. Yours, Ziba & Luigi

[ 2024-08-15 17:07:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

Luigi sent me 22 new stickers to put in to Kind Words 2 this week. They're really cute and I think you're gonna like them. I hate to do this to you, but I'm not going to show any of them right now. Nope. Just gonna tease you with some outlines. I'm going to selfishly dangle them out there to evoke curiosity which will blossom into longing.
That longing will inspire action. Action like wishlisting Kind Words 2 and telling all your friends to do the same. It's a cruel play on your emotions, especially for a game so deeply rooted in principles of caring and generosity. But also, aren't the rhythms of anticipation and reward the foundation of that which makes life exciting? Isn't it the sweet contrast created by desiring and receiving that make you feel like you're doing more than just existing? Don't our dreams of what life could be carry us through the limited reality of what life is? Anyways, new stickers! Get hyped. Yours, Ziba & Luigi

[ 2024-07-06 20:42:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

One focus of our work right now is to balance vibes across the multiple spaces and activities. The mountain top area is our outdoor quiet space. A spot for calm and grand reflection. Here you will find the hot springs. While soaking their stresses away, players are invited to share pro-tips for good living. You can just listen or join in with your own suggestions. [previewyoutube=q2hng55ZgxQ;full][/previewyoutube] For more development updates or just to hang out with the devs and community: visit our discord

[ 2024-06-17 18:16:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

We've been doing development updates in our discord for a while and thought folks over in Steam might like to see them too. Yeah? Here goes! Kind Words 2 is all about communicating with real people in different forms, and poetry is a fun form. You can read and write poetry in the cafe. In this update we show how you can also request poetry from other people on specific topics as well as see and fulfill other people's topic requests. [previewyoutube=6PQ9bB63yyI;full][/previewyoutube] For more development updates or just to hang out with the devs and community: visit our discord

[ 2024-06-05 02:49:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Valve said we get to schedule two cool stream events during next fest to hang out with our players, so here's our second cool stream event to hang out with our players. I mean, you can hang out with me anytime in the popcannibal discord, but for this one I'll be doing voice and video. Or I'll try to. During our first stream Valve's servers were borked and we managed to connect for only the last few minutes of our slot. Anyways, this one will be perfect. You (dear reader) and I will both be there. Memories made. Laughs laughed. I'll even share secrets if you ask real nice. Here's the much less rambly event description I wrote for the first stream: How do you make a sequel to a beloved little game about writing letters to strangers? Join the developers as we play the next fest demo of Kind Words 2! Why did we put it in a city? Why does the sequel include the whole original game? What is the best name for a cat? Come ask questions or just enjoy being together.
-Ziba

[ 2024-02-07 05:30:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

How do you make a sequel to a beloved little game about writing letters to strangers? Join the developers as we play the next fest demo of Kind Words 2! Why did we put it in a city? Why does the sequel include the whole original game? What is the best name for a cat? Come ask questions or just enjoy being together.

[ 2024-02-04 18:43:11 CET ] [ Original post ]