Squash and Spell : Kids Typing

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Latest news

• Patch Notes·12 Aug 2025Official

  Update! Custom Words in beta branch!

  Hello! Frankie here, thank you all for the support so far! Following some suggestions I've added support for custom words, this is currently available in a beta branch, eventually it will get rolled out to the main branch.This works by placing an audio file of the word in a specific folder next to the games exe called "CustomWords" . If that all makes sense to you go ahead and jump right in, otherwise here's a step by step guide 👇 1) Switch to beta branch by right clicking on Squash and Spell in your library and picking "Properties..." 2) Go to the "Betas" tab and pick "customwords" from the list 3) You now should see this in your Library, 4) Run the game and check you have 1.04 in the top right. Running the game creates the folder, meaning if you delete the folder it will come back again ready for use! 5) Now we need to go to the location the game is installed on your hard drive, the easiest way to do that is right click on Squash and Spell again, then go "Manage" and "Browse local files"6) Find this folder and open it! Inside is an instructions.txt. 7) I'll paste the instructions.txt contents here; --- Welcome to the custom word system for Squash and Spell! ---How to Add Your Own Words: - Place your audio files (.wav, .ogg, or .mp3) directly into this folder. - Name each file after the word you want the game to spell. For example, a file named 'hello.wav' will add the word 'hello' to the game. - If you don't want the custom word sounds, move the files to another folder (the game does not check subfolders).Important! - Words must be 7 letters or shorter. - This system is for whole words only, not individual letter sounds.🥳🥳 And that's it! If you make any good sound packs and you want to share please post in the community section. -Other Games-As well as Squash and Spell we've been hard at work on some other cool projects, If you like the look of them please wishlist to show your support. A hidden object game called Pigeon Hunter, we just started a public play test ...
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• Announcements·12 May 2025Official

  Steam Deck and optimisation

  As we get closer to release, we've been making sure Squash and Spell runs smoothly on as much hardware as possible. The game includes an automatic graphics setting feature that balances performance and quality, so well, in fact, that it runs on a 10-year-old mid-range phone (Nexus 5X)! Prefer manual control? You can turn it off and adjust the sliders yourself. The minimum specs on the store page are a bit vague, not because we’re hiding anything, but because we simply don’t have a device slow enough to stop it from running. (It won’t look quite as fancy on low-end hardware, of course.) And yes, Squash and Spell runs at a solid 60fps on max settings on the Steam Deck, with full touchscreen support, including finger tracing! Please be aware, for some currently unknown reason you may need to manually specify a proton version for it to download and run.
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• Announcements·6 May 2025Official

  Introduction and release date!

  Hello! I'd like to introduce myself and my game. I'm Frankie and I've been a game developer for over 20 years. I designed Squash and Spell for my young daughter. She would often see me using the computer and want to join in. She loved imitating me by pressing the keys but was a little disappointed when nothing fun happened. I couldn’t find any games suitable for her age so I decided to make one myself! I’ve tried to make Squash and Spell a fun and welcoming space for young children to spend time in. There aren’t really any ways to fail, it gently supports children from the moment they’re curious about computers through to when they start learning letters, words, and spelling. This game turned out to be much more complex than I expected, but I’m really pleased to have finally set a release date: 28th of May, 2025. This is my first release as a solo developer, and I’m so happy to be able to share it with other families. I hope it brings some fun and joy to your children too! A big thank you to Ian Buckley for providing the voice acting.
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