A Podcast Styled Game Show of Random Word Associations

It’s Good Words Gone Bad…(and bad words too)

Wordy Durds is an NSFW (Not Safe for Work) party game played in a podcast styled gameshow format.

The online game is almost done and will be available free to Goat Pen members.

Random Word Associations

A brainstorming tool

I first discovered random word association as a brainstorming tool. The rules were pretty simple.

Choose your problem or issue to brainstorm a solution for.
Use a random word generator or choose words randomly from a book or dictionary.
Use those words to trigger associations which become the basis for your inquiry.
Don’t question your words.
Let things soak and come back to them a few days later.

For example, If you were trying to solve a problem with marketing a new product that wasn’t selling you might get the following words which I pulled from an online random word generator:

microphone
partner
bite
permanent
neighbor

The trick then is to not take the words too literally as solutions. But, to let the associations take you down paths that might offer some solutions. So, “partner” might lead you to consider partnerships but also parts, marriage, divorce, children, a cowboy saying “Pardner”, horses, John Wayne, the American West and so on.

What I discovered in using this technique is that it often works like magic and you end up with solutions that seem so divergent from boring unoriginal thought that you harvest a diversity of ideas without a diversity of minds. I also discovered that sometimes the words cause your mind to go elsewhere, into sometimes dark places…that are funny AF.

Many Games Use a Version of Random Words

The OG random word game is Mad Libs. I remember playing it on a road trip to Duluth Minnesota. Mom and dad packed us up in the 64 Ford Ranch Wagon and on the way home we picked up some souvenirs and other stuff to keep us occupied. One of those things was a Mad Libs book. It was the first time I encountered the confluence of random words and humor.

Other commercial games like Apples to Apples and of course Cards Against Humanity also use some element of randomness, associations and surprising connections that seem to appear out of thin air. We also do this with meme-worthy social games where you choose your Porn Name or your Superhero Name by applying some formula – which is in essence a way to generate the random words.

The first time I played CAH, I laughed so hard it hurt. My biggest complaint against CAH was that there wasn’t much actual game to the game. And, you were pretty much completely at the mercy of The Judge and what they found funny. If you ended up with cards that didn’t produce side splitting humor, you sort of figured you’d lose that round. But, at the same time, were often surprised at what the judge found funny.

A sample of the first game phase with the Pairing Player portion of our online game currently in development.
The full version will be free for Goat Pen Members as an online game and potentially an app.

Image Blurred Due to Naughty Words

The NSFW Party Game…With More Game

I set out to develop a game that provided similar humor to these other games, but also met other criteria.

It couldn’t use a judge
There needed to be an element of strategy and more “game” to the game.

There really isn’t any actual “game” to Mad Libs. Apples to Apples and Cards Against Humanity rely on a judge. With both games your strategy is really only to pair a “Card A” with a “Card B”. One acts as a sort of question and the other acts as a sort of answer. What I discovered is that you could put some kind of subject phrase as “Card A” and then have any number of descriptive or complimentary single word “Card B’s” that could be nouns, adjectives, prefixes, suffixes, gerunds, verbs, curse words and compound words. You can kind of think of them as hashtags. In fact, some of subjects in Wordy Durds are phrased as hashtags to tease out #hashtag responses. I also discovered that although you could combine those words to “make a thing”, which is the natural response, you didn’t have to. Those words could just be humorous or fitting from their connotations and associations. For example, the words Fluffy and Scrotum don’t have to produce a ‘Fluffy Scrotum” (although that’s funny AF). The words can simply, through their associations, imply certain things. “Fluffy” has its associations and connotations and so does “Scrotum”. Because the individual words and combinations fit in multiple subjects and because you’re not necessarily trying to identify the “funniest” pairing, you’ve got a game and not a subjective popularity contest. The pairing player gets a point for each correct guess and loses a point for each incorrect guess. The guessing player gets progressively more points per guess (1, 2 & 3) for each correct guess during the round. Because of the way the scoring works, all players are incentivized to do their best. The only way to guarantee winning is to be a better guesser than your opponent.

We’ll be running a G-Force Launcher Campaign to fund development. Stay tuned for more.