“After Trump won the election in America, it was sort of horrifying, and I was in a stupor. I was just reflecting on how everybody could be so cruel, dismissive and insensitive; of how everybody could just be not good to each other.
“There was just so much of that, that it just pushed me into the direction of thinking ‘I don’t believe the world is as bad as it seems’, and we need to give people a chance to behave better. I bet they would.”
I’m speaking with Popcannibal developer Ziba Scott about Kind Words, and its successor Kind Words 2. In September 2019, Scott and fellow developer Luigi Guatieri released Kind Words, a relatively simple but incredibly beautiful game about helping others by writing encouraging letters. The duo had no idea what type of reception or impact Kind Words could have, if any, and Scott admits he assumed any community would just “fizzle out” pretty quickly.
But that didn’t matter. Scott knew he needed to create something which would at least give people the opportunity to, quite simply, “be less mean to each other” – and it worked.
A quick look at reviews for Kind Words shows the positive impact the game has had since its release five years ago. Comments such as “this game saved me” and “it restored my faith in mankind” are all there, while others are just grateful to have a safe space to share their feelings.