Screenshots
Watch trailer on Steam ↗The Word Is Not The Thing
Mavenmob · Published by Mavenmob · Official site ↗
4 user reviews — 100% positive (4 reviews)
Last updated 27 Sept 2026
An experimental game where you play with your emotions, seeing if you use words to escape from a feeling. While exploring fear, your relationship to words, and the emotional effect they have on you, discover what happens when you understand that the word is never the thing.
£1.69
Lowest price we've ever recorded
View on SteamPrices can lag the live Steam store — always confirm before buying.
£1.69
Price history
3 Sept 2026Lowest: £1.69 · Highest: £1.699 Oct 2026
Indie · 2018 · More under £5 games
In The Word Is Not The Thing, navigate through emotional landscapes by questioning the power of words. Developed by Mavenmob, this unique indie experience challenges your understanding of communication and feelings from 2018.
About this game
The Word Is Not The Thing is an experimental indie game.
It's not so much about jumping and shooting as it is about you observing your own emotional connection to words and playing with those emotions, seeing if you use words to escape from a feeling.
It’s a unique game of exploration and discovery through the human condition, using your emotional connection to words as a mechanic in itself.
Inspired by the 20th century philosopher J. Krishnamurti, whose subject matter included psychological revolution, the nature of mind, meditation, inquiry and human relationships.
Interact with the environment, paintings and other characters through a story that unfolds over 3 days and five locations: the home, the commute, the office, nature, and the self.
The Word Is Not The Thing goes into separating the word from the feeling, allowing us to discover for ourselves what happens when we don't let the word interfere with the direct perception of the feeling. Not rejecting the word, or suppressing it, but seeing its effect. Not running away with explanations, or with another set of words. Seeing that escape. And doing nothing about it. Not just saying you get it, but actually doing it.
Emotionality is the difficulty; the words get harder to deal with depending on your emotional connection to any given word. Choose to go inside yourself and go up against your core fear.
FEATURES
It's not so much about jumping and shooting as it is about you observing your own emotional connection to words and playing with those emotions, seeing if you use words to escape from a feeling.
It’s a unique game of exploration and discovery through the human condition, using your emotional connection to words as a mechanic in itself.
Inspired by the 20th century philosopher J. Krishnamurti, whose subject matter included psychological revolution, the nature of mind, meditation, inquiry and human relationships.
Interact with the environment, paintings and other characters through a story that unfolds over 3 days and five locations: the home, the commute, the office, nature, and the self.
The Word Is Not The Thing goes into separating the word from the feeling, allowing us to discover for ourselves what happens when we don't let the word interfere with the direct perception of the feeling. Not rejecting the word, or suppressing it, but seeing its effect. Not running away with explanations, or with another set of words. Seeing that escape. And doing nothing about it. Not just saying you get it, but actually doing it.
Emotionality is the difficulty; the words get harder to deal with depending on your emotional connection to any given word. Choose to go inside yourself and go up against your core fear.
FEATURES
- Experimental indie game, where emotions are the mechanic.
- Minimalistic black and white world to explore with emotions driven through words.
- Find, discover and remove words, seeing if you use words to escape from feelings.
- An emotional dark synthwave-inspired soundtrack.
- A story unfolding over 3 days through 5 areas, the home, the commute, the office, nature and yourself.
- Designed to be finished in a single session with the total time to play through the game being 45 to 60 minutes.
System Requirements
Will my PC run this? →Minimum
Minimum:
- OS *: Windows XP , 7 , 8 , 8.1
- Processor: 2.2 GHz
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
Supported Languages
English
Latest news
Patch NotesOfficial
The Word Is Not The Thing: Update 9
The book for The Word Is Not The Thing is now available. It’s named The Word Is Not The Thing: A Book About The Game. Simple. It’s available as a free PDF through itch.io. You can get it here: https://mavenmob.itch.io/the-word-is-not-the-thing-book The paperback version is also available through Amazon. You can get it here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1999019504 Creating books for these types of games is something I want to keep doing. When I finished up The Word Is Not The Thing I got the chance to figure out how to do so. After learning about the different print on demand service offerings and finding the right balance between them, I decided to go with Kindle and Itch.io with the possibility of using IngramSpark for expanded distribution. On top of researching the best options, I also got to figure out the specifics of using Kindle Direct Publishing in terms of trim sizes, bleed/margin requirements, types of binding, ISBNs, cover design requirements and the possibility of offering a free Kindle version. The book itself was designed through Affinity Publisher Beta, which surprisingly didn’t give any real issues, even with my working files being up to 1GB in size. Outside from deciding the layout and figuring out the front matter/back matter, the rest was pretty straight forward. I wish I had determined the print version margins before designing the final pages, but that is something I am aware of for next time. The next book will be using color and I will try to keep make it shorter. Also, after getting the proof from Amazon I decided to make a few changes from the initial version. I ultimately used more white as Amazon didn’t seem to be able to trim some of the black pages correctly. I also really enjoyed forcing myself to write the preface for the book as I am looking to practice writing about the type of things these games go into in a way that is more relatable, creative, and immersive. The leftovers of my business school writing style may slowly fade away and g...Read full article on Community Announcements (jaiyan)Patch NotesOfficial
The Word Is Not The Thing: Update 8
All versions of The Word Is Not The Thing are now available. I was able to get the Android version up but only used the emulator for testing. Maybe that will be okay. Maybe not. I've been working on the book for The Word Is Not The Thing. It's "a book about the game." It's intended to be part compendium and part the game itself, as far as it can be transferred onto a page. I think it's possible to do this since Mavenmob games are designed to be played within a short timeframe. I also want to provide a non-traditional gamer audience with something to maybe bridge them into Mavenmob games. I also want to vary the discovery of the games outside just digital and this is a good way to get something physical out there. So, my recent learning about how to create and publish a book will definitely come in use for any future games I create. For now, I've decided to go with a 5.5"x8.5" final size book with perfect binding and to have the books printed and distributed through Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing service. I think I'm going to end up with 150 pages given how I've planned things out. As for the digital version, it will be free and available on Kindle, Itch.io and maybe Apple's Books service. Up next is finishing up the book, cleaning up little external things and moving forward in that direction for this game. Get more frequent design insights, screenshots and more on mavenmob’s patreon blog. You can view it here: https://www.patreon.com/mavenmob/postsRead full article on Community Announcements (jaiyan)Patch NotesOfficial
The Word Is Not The Thing - Update 6
I had a chance to finish The Word Is Not The Thing. The past two months have been a little bit busy, with packing, planning, moving, and settling in, yet again. This time I moved across Canada, by driving, and decided to set up for now in Montreal, and go from there. Since my last post, I was inspired to add some more visual effects to the game, so I added more lighting, blurs and shakes. I think overall it adds an appeal. I had to keep in mind that they can be distracting so I kept them off the zoomed in portions of the game. I also made three word sizes and their corresponding particle effects. Overall, I cleaned everything up, from spelling, word counts, textures, spacing, clarity and flow. On top of that I updated the game page with a video background. And in the end, there are 150 words to play with. I also updated the trailer and created some animated gifs and screenshots and put the full version on Steam. The iOS/Android versions will follow shortly. I will also create a PDF booklet for the game because I think that's worth doing. I'm going to use Affinity Publisher, hopefully the beta is stable enough for what I need it for. Get more frequent design insights, screenshots and more on mavenmob’s patreon blog. You can view it here: https://www.patreon.com/mavenmob/postsRead full article on Community Announcements (jaiyan)Patch NotesOfficial
The Word Is Not The Thing: Update 5
I'm working on fixing all the little things and getting The Word Is Not The Thing out as soon as I can. After completing the dialogue and soundtrack, I finished up all the posters and their associated words, with a few I still intend to fix up. Also, I added a refined 'How To Play' on the main menu as well as added touch controls for mobile and made the game aware of aspect ratio/resolution changes in terms of the menus, rain, and second camera, which has the action indicator and word counter. Further, I completed the mind maze and decided on the final word, without making things too technically difficult. I think there's something about light and darkness and words hiding in the darkness, with light shining on those deeply rooted words in order to bring them to light, and to ultimately destroy them. I made sure to use both positive and negative words throughout and will probably tweak as I finalize things. Get more frequent design insights, screenshots and more on mavenmob’s patreon blog. You can view it here: https://www.patreon.com/mavenmob/postsRead full article on Community Announcements (jaiyan)
