It won’t be totally smart to discuss with Form Phrases—full identify Form Phrases (lo fi chill beats to write down to)— as a “sport,” however we argued about that distinction sufficient within the 2010s that I feel we will sideline it for the rest of this decade. I solely point out it as context for what Form Phrases is: a comfortable bed room atmosphere outfitted with the nippiness beats promised by the title, and an indiscriminate digital put up workplace that delivers nameless notes and letters to random strangers, message-in-a-bottle fashion.
Miraculously, I’ve by no means seen a impolite or inappropriate message in Form Phrases, which launched in 2019 and has seen 5 million letters despatched, in keeping with developer Popcannibal. I assume these chill beats actually work, in order that they’re making a sequel. Form Phrases 2—full identify Form Phrases 2 (lofi metropolis pop)—was introduced final week, however I missed the information amid all of the Sport Awards hubbub.
Form Phrases 2 will embody the identical options as Form Phrases: You can write nameless letters asking for recommendation or encouragement (or saying no matter you want) that may seem to strangers who can write again to you, and you will have your personal inbox of letters from strangers that you may reply to. You can too write temporary, one-way notes on paper airplanes that different gamers can catch and browse as they float by. Form Phrases and Form Phrases 2 will share “one huge, completely happy server” in order that letters may be swapped no matter which sport every participant has.
The sequel will develop past letter-writing, too, with an explorable “lofi metropolis” the place gamers can “costume up and work together with the group in new methods, together with sharing poetry, swapping suggestions, and filling the sky with needs,” in keeping with the developer.
“We made Form Phrases 2 as a result of there aren’t sufficient on-line areas the place strangers may be fearlessly open and caring with out worrying about likes, subscribes, followers, and every other rubbish that will get in between folks simply speaking to one another,” says Popcannibal founder Ziba Scott.
Folks do get into actual stuff of their Form Phrases letters—heartbreak, melancholy, grief, dependancy—however to agree with Scott’s characterization, it does not really feel fatiguing like Twitter, the place every part’s a contest. It is heavy, however mellow.
Form Phrases 2’s mellowness will partially be supplied by a brand new lo-fi soundtrack composed by Clark Aboud, who composed the primary sport’s soundtrack in addition to the Slay the Spire soundtrack. The sequel does not have a agency launch date, however the plan is to launch it someday in 2024—you will discover it on Steam right here.