A SHADOWY BACK PASSAGE IN LONDON – 28 Jan, 2026 – Developer Buried Things and Publisher Forklift Interactive are proud to announce that unlike one hundred other wannabies with equally confident press releases over the last two years, they have successfully developed a Balatro-style roguelike equally capable of ruining your grades and relationships. It’s called Cursed Words, and the demo is available today on Steam.
It all starts quite simple: form words from tiles on the board, aiming to score enough points in a few rounds to earn some money and progress on. But as the required scores get higher, and bosses with ever increasing difficulty begin to appear, winning will require stretching the very definition of a word.
Use chess pieces, poker hands, numbers, maybe even fractions and break the rules of language as the game evolves into a roguelike beyond words.. ARE YOU STILL READING THIS?!!?!?! GO PLAY THE DEMO!
Soon enough, tiles that feature increasingly impactful or down right incomprehensible symbols that abandon any pretense of being letters to begin with start to fill the board…break the game and the rules of language (if there were ever any to begin with).
Build and form powerful synergies with the four characters’ special abilities in the demo. The full game will feature eight characters, and more than 200 stamps and stickers to maximize score and play your way.
Nina Nix’s Void tiles, which have negative values but have a 10% chance to become high-scoring shiny tiles, might not be easy to work with at first…but maybe there’s a stamp or sticker that could turn the odds around. And some characters might not even play words to score at all!
“Why a word game?” asked Niru Fekri-Arnold, Buried Things Co-founder. “Because we’re really smart. And we’re British, so we sound even smarter than that. But don’t worry,” he adds, “Cursed Words accepts American words too.”
:♕♖S 4 ♙” said Forklift CEO Andrei Podoprigora, a look of smug satisfaction on his sticker and stamp-covered face. It’s unknown exactly what he meant, having written this with the many cursed tiles found in Cursed Words, but the quote is worth over 1200 points.
Cursed Words’ demo is available today on Steam for PC, and will release later in 2026.
For the latest word on Cursed Words and Forklift Interactive, check out the official website and stay up to date by following @forkliftgames and joining the official Cursed Words Discord.
About Buried Things
Buried Things is a United Kingdom-based studio and was founded by two cousins using game development as a paper-thin veneer for their failing familial relationship. It has since expanded into a team of cutting edge talent building synergistic games.
About Forklift Interactive
Forklift Interactive is a Barcelona and Atlanta-based indie publisher founded by experienced industry veterans including former tinyBuild Publishing Director Andrei Podoprigora and Adult Swim Games Product Lead Tuсker Dean. They specialize in the production of deep, endless, system-driven games with player created narratives.
