LucidShadowDreamer's Playing With Letters is a text-based puzzle game where you find yourself a detective in pursuit of a devious mastermind who has left behind a series of boxes, each secured with a mechanical lock that will only open if you can solve the riddles in front of you. Unlock them all, your unseen adversary promises, and you can perhaps meet face to face. Hit [enter] to speed up the text, or [backspace] to display the entire level's text at once. Type in your answer to the riddle posed to you, and hit [enter]... if it's correct, you'll move on, but if not, well, look at the clues and try again. The concept behind Playing With Letters is a solid one, and one we'd love to see expand even more beyond the game's handful of levels, especially since it sort of feels like it's just getting started when it comes to an end, though there is a "secret ending" if you can figure out how to get it. A sequel that wove more of a narrative into its stages would be a great idea, especially since Playing With Letters feels almost more conceptual than anything else, but if you like word puzzles with a morbid twist, it's definitely worth a play.
I am having trouble (I think) with the entering an answer. The second riddle that wants you to enter their profession in and 'charm' and tweak' are highlighted in green has to be
'watch maker' with all that talk of time and it is clearly a match of rearranging the letters
but when I type it in and hit enter nothing happens...anyone know what I am doing wrong?
@oreilley:
The answer is actually one word, not two words. Enter it with no spaces, and it shold work.
If anyone could drop me a hint on the Riddle Me This part, it would be much appreciated - I feel like I'm missing something patently obvious, but I just can't figure out the answer for it.
Jade, thank you! Not sure why I didn't try that...
Jade, after many attempts, I solved the Riddle Me This, all I can say is it is described fairly well in the riddle itself but the word
is in the text above
if you still can't figure it out:
blood
Thank you, oreilley! I got hung up on thinking it was something related to letters or his profession, d'oh.
I finished the game, and am left wondering what the "secret ending" is.
I got the BEHIND YOU ending, and there doesn't seem to be an alternate anagram of these letters to enter.
I can't figure out the secret ending, either. So far I've tried
BEHIND ME (since does it really make sense for the killer to be behind himself anyway?)
looking for anagrams of I UNDERSTAND and most of the other answers (because of the mention of tying the end to the beginning)
Would a mute button have been too difficult to include?
I can't figure out what the secret ending is either, and Dora (who wrote the article) suspiciously said that we can
perhaps meet face to face (as opposed to Noel being behind us, get it?)
All I can think of right now is that we were warned about
being fooled by the RED herrings
and that
the letters "Nag A Ram" at the beginning WERE IN RED too, other than "Hi Nude Boy." I haven't found a possible permutation of "Hi Nude Boy Nag A Ram" apart from "Beyond Niagara Hm" so I'm stuck.
I'm bad at anagrams, but what about green words?
Charm, Tweak and Devil, was it?
@Orient_Tiger I tried that too with
an anagram solver but it didn't really work. Still thinking about it. Either that, or the creator took great pains that it wouldn't be solvable by current algorithms in the popular ones.
Oh this secret ending is killing me.
I'm trying anagrams of all the words we've seen in any color and I can't find anything - not nudeboyhi, nor nag a ram, nor charm nor tweak...
I feel like an idiot for asking, but do you have to solve a riddle to advance from the Instructions page?
All the people that are wondering about the secret ending, I am here to help. I am the creator of the game. The secret ending is a bit of a tricky one, and isn't really easy to find at all, nor was it ever meant to be easily found. It's almost impossible to find if you're not playing on Newgrounds. However, I will reward all the people that have beaten the game, by telling you how to get to it.
As long as no one decides to ruin the fun and mess with the password or text, you can find the solution here:
https://www.protectedtext.com/PlayingWithLetters
Of course, the password is the same as the final password to beat the game normally; lower case letters, space included. I'd appreciate it if you didn't mess with it, as that'd ruin the fun for all the others!
I hope this helped ;)
//LSD
Thanks for the engaging game and for giving us a break on the secret ending search.
I'm really excited about the sequel!
No problem!
I just realized that dropping links is against the policies on the site though. I hope they don't kill me in my sleep o.O
Er, how do I get rid of the Cut the Rope ad? Can't even get to the game!
Nice. And very clever.
Not a bad way to spend a few minutes (although the "litterally" typo sent me down a lengthy blind alley! Ironically it's on the page that's all about detail and precision...)
@Opal - no, but perhaps you are doing as I did and hitting "2" instead of "Z"?
Yep, I had a feeling I was being an idiot. You'd be surprised how many "clues" you can come up with if you just look hard enough. Thanks, Parmeisan, I appreciate it!
I gotta say... the minute I saw the first page I was thinking it was going to end exactly that way..
It's a nice idea though, I'd like a longer one (maybe with a font that's easier to read on black)
Thanks Shadow Dreamer! Great game, loved it! Looking forward to more. Hooked me immediately, I hate that many puzzles rely on numbers, love word games :D
... and the URL with the solution for the secret ending is already caught up in some kind of edit war. Yay!
Yes, I noticed. I have created a new link that nobody can edit. But as I noticed that link dropping is against the policies here, I can't really post it. If you find the game on Newgrounds however, the link will be in the description. Sorry for the inconvenience!
Nice catch with the typo! It's a shame I didn't notice it before finishing, as I can't really edit the game, for reasons. However, part of me thinks the irony is beautiful; in a way, it doesn't even bother me XD
Hi there! Thanks so much for helping out our readers. As long as you're not trying to spam an unrelated site or links for anything illegal (our biggest problem is people posting links to hacked or stolen games), you are more than welcome to share a link here. :)
Thanks for the information!
I will then post the link to information about the secret ending:
http://docdro.id/135ud
The password is the same as the one for the final level; lower case letters and space included. Thank you for showing interest in the game, everyone!
And now it's back, thank goodness! And as I wrote this, the author also created another version on a different site where the document seems to be protected (same password):
http://www.docdroid.net/135ud/pwl-secret-endingprotected.pdf.html
Well, just in case something happens again, or someone else like me just wants a hint or two rather than a complete solution (although truth be told, I think that it's unlikely that anyone would find the answer without being basically told outright):
You absolutely must view the game's page on Newgrounds in order to be able to find the password for the secret ending. It is not present in the game's text at all.
Actually playing the game on Newgrounds will not give you any more clues than playing it elsewhere.
The password is in plain sight; no anagramming, reversing, searching for highlighted letters, or taking the first letters of words or sentences are necessary. However, the password is (naturally) not labelled as being the password.
The game talks about not being fooled by red herrings. Well, your eyes may be easily fooled, but another sense may point you in the right direction.
can someone help with the third one?
Maybe I'm just being a little silly, but was the word
"Blood" actually in the
Riddle me this puzzle?
soman, is that the one title 'reverse'? I'm stuck there too. There don't seem to be any palindromes in the letter and I've tried all symmetric letters as well.
Ohhhh, there *is* a palindromic word there! Starts with D
Really like this one! Would love to see a sequel!
I agree though that a different font would be great! It took me forever to realize it was a Z and not a 2!
SPOILER- DON'T READ UNLESS YOU HAVE SOLVED THE SECRET ENDING
On this site I couldn't find the music so I would not be able to solve the secret ending without being told. LOVE secret endings, so I feel like I was missing something by not having the info...however, I LOVED the narrative that followed! Totally spooky and a perfect end!
Interestingly and coincidentally...
Noel reversed is Leon. According to wikipedia, serial killer Gary Leon Ridgway "began each murder by picking up a woman, usually a prostitute.... After having sex with her, Ridgway strangled her from behind".
Hohoho!
That was some game and some ending too (ie the secret one).
Kinda wish it wasn't THAT difficult and "out of the box" to find and wish I didn't have to search comments to find how to get it. Then again, it was a SECRET ending but I would still prefer that the solution to it was reasonable to find in-game.
Nonetheless, fabulously written and really enjoyed it.
Hope a sequel does come out!
Uh... Z does nothing for me. Neither does z (I tried with and without shift and caps lock) or 2. Now what?
If Z doesn't advance the game, it means you have clicked on something outside of the game, so the game can't "hear" you press keys. Click on the game, then keypresses should work. Just hit the 'z' key, not 'shift' needed.
......... is the very first page a riddle????? i've refreshed and pressed 2 a thousand times
nvm sorry it's z
I don't know how much relevance this has to anything, but it was something that I found a bit disturbing, even though it was most likely unintentional. I was writing down the red letters as they appeared, and the first seven spelled out:
NUDEBOY
Just...it just made me feel super uncomfortable.
Okay, because it seems like so many people don't understand what to do, here are the answers and how they make sense. ^-^
challenge accepted
"i understand". simple enough.
nag a ram
"watchmaker". Noel keeps mentioning that she likes the concept of time, and nag a ram is an anagram (similar to the game scrabble) for "anagram". There are 2 green words; "charm" and "tweak". If you unscramble them, they become "Watchmaker".
reflections
"devil". Because the title is reflection, and the green word here is "lived", I thought maybe I could try lived spelled backwards, and that makes devil.
reverse
"deified". This one took me a while. Reverse is the title this time, and we're sticking to the 'spelled-backwards' theme, and there is only one word in that entire letter that can be spelled the same backwards and forwards: deified".
riddle me this
"blood". Sadly, my mind is sick enough to get this right of the bat. Blood is a sign of life, but losing too much causes death; it is dark red; it is liquid, but makes us solid; and a lot of people are afraid of blood.
pointless math
"666". just google up a calculator.
a good story ties the end to the beginning
"behind you". not behind me, behind you. and JUMPSCARE WARNING JESUS!! reason why, is because, as you have probably noticed, some of the letters in the game are colored red, and if you were taking note, it spelled out 'nudeboy'. apparently, a lot of people thought that was the answer. thing is though, the title gives it away. 'ties end to the beginning'. if you remember the first actual puzzle, not including challenge accepted, you had to find a anagram. an anagram for nudeboy is 'behind you'.
SEEEECCCRRREEETTT EEENNNDDDIINNGGG
I just read up on this. Apparently, the soundtrack for the game (vos postergum) translates to 'you behind' in Latin, and that was the original ending for the game. try typing in the name of the song...
That was awesome! Horror and wordplay are two of my favorite things, and they integrate so beautifully here. I'm excited to play the next one (the existence of which being what led me to this one in the first place).
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