Planned Release Date: To be announced

About This Game

Two letters. One stone. Every flip changes the board.

In JANOLITH, every stone carries two letters – one on the front, one on the back. Place words on an open board, then flip stones that are already down. One flip turns STONE into STORE – and changes every word that stone is part of. Nothing you place is final.

Flip It

• Both letters are always visible. Choose the side when you place a stone.
  
• Flip stones on the board to build new words – as long as every word still reads.
  
• Scoring is Value × Mult. Letter values build Value; heavy letters face up on the stones you place or flip give Mult.
  
• Find the flip that turns a cheap word into a big one.

The Run

Six chapters of rising targets. Each round gives you a limited number of moves and discards to hit the target. Pick your path through each chapter – a Small round, a Big round or a trip to the shop – before the Boss is waiting at the end.

Your bag of stones comes with you through the whole run. Shape it as you go: Gild a stone to make it score double, Rewrite its back, Cleave a weak stone out of the bag or give a strong one a Twin.

Bosses & Shop

Twelve bosses, each one changing the rules. The Rust stops placed stones from flipping. The Narrows shrink the board to a strip. The Glut lets each letter score only once per move. The Deadline puts every move on the clock.

At the end of every chapter you choose between two bosses: take the milder one, or risk the harsher one for a richer shop.

Spend your crystals on cards that bend the scoring in your favor – 31 of them, from Mirror (words also count read backwards) to Palindrome, Bookends and Turncoat. Level them up, arrange them in your card column and unlock slot mechanics like Opener and Closer.

Progression

• Every run earns experience – even the ones you lose.
  
• Follow the Reward Path to level 30: grow your rack from 6 to 10 stones, enlarge your bag and unlock new cards.
  
• Unlock special stones – Gilded, Glass, Crystal and Joker stones – and add them to your bag with Manage Bag.
  
• Collect every word you play in the Word Lexicon and chase 22 achievements.

Modes

• New Run – the full roguelite run through six chapters.
  
• Daily Challenge – the same run for everyone, one attempt a day, with a leaderboard.
  
• Weekly Challenge – one run all week with a card of the week; as many attempts as you like, your best counts.
  
• Match vs. AI – a classic head-to-head on an open board. Both sides start with the same points; first to reach zero wins. Three difficulty levels.
  
• A short guided Introduction teaches placing, flipping and Mult.

English or German, Huge Dictionaries

Play in English (170,000+ words) or German (over 1.3 million) – each with its own dictionary, stone set and letter values. The interface comes in seven languages: English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Polish and Russian. Menu language and game language are set separately – play German words with an English menu, or the other way round. More game languages to come.

Not sure what a word means? Look it up in-game – explanations come from Wiktionary. Missing a real word? The game collects rejected words so you can report them.

Controls & Comfort

• Full mouse and full gamepad control.
  
• Made with the Steam Deck in mind: full gamepad control, UI laid out for 1280×800 – and it scales to your resolution, including ultrawide.
  
• Reduced motion option.
  
• Separate sound and music volume.
  
• Windows and Linux.

AI Generated Content Disclosure

The developers describe how their game uses AI Generated Content like this:

Art assets (card, mode and boss illustrations, backgrounds and store art) were created with generative AI tools and edited by the developer. No AI-generated content is created live during play.