Scrabdackle

About Scrabdackle

Scrabdackle is a single player open world action adventure game. It was developed by jakefriend and was released on December 2, 2025. It received overwhelmingly positive reviews from players.

The Kickstarter is over, and 185% funded! Thank you, everyone. Please wishlist Scrabdackle on Steam! You've never left the wizard academy before, but today you were knocked out the window! As a novice stranded in an unfamiliar world, undertake a journey to find your way back home. Along the way, get to know the land of Scrabdackle for the first time – and the impact wizardkind has unknowingly had…

+16

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Reviews

96%Audience ScoreBased on 149 reviews

story13 positive mentions

grinding5 negative mentions

Charming and unique art style with detailed, lively animations and satisfying visual effects.
Engaging and rewarding exploration with a large, well-designed map full of secrets, collectibles, and lore.
Challenging yet fair combat featuring creative boss fights with multiple phases and distinct movesets.
Strong writing and memorable, quirky characters with a humorous and well-crafted narrative.
Flexible difficulty settings that can be adjusted mid-game to suit various player skill levels.
Outstanding soundtrack and sound design with carefully implemented motifs enhancing the game atmosphere.

Navigation and verticality can be confusing due to isometric perspective and small platform tiles, leading to frustration and unintended damage.
Combat can feel limited with a lack of diverse attack options or playstyle modifications, and some boss fights have long invincibility frames reducing satisfaction.
Backtracking and progress loss on death can be tedious, compounded by sparse save points and enemy respawns that sometimes feel unfair.
Some UI and quality of life issues, including clunky menu navigation, lack of intuitive controls for dialogue options, and limited fast travel points.
Certain areas suffer from technical issues such as frame drops, occasional crashes, and minor bugs affecting gameplay experience.
The story progression in early parts is slow and verbose, which may not engage all players quickly.

story
42 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
31% positive mentions, 62% neutral mentions, 7% negative mentions
The story in the game is praised for its charming, well-crafted narrative enriched with engaging characters, rewarding secrets, and a whimsical yet mature tone. While some find the main plot development slow or sparse in early acts, the world-building, side quests, and lore provide depth and captivate players eager for future chapters. Overall, the story blends humor, mystery, and emotional moments within a beautifully animated, hand-drawn style that many find compelling and worth delving into.
- “Been following the development of this game since they started releasing their first few demos, watching the story and environment expand, and it's really just a great, charming game with tons of cool secrets that feel really rewarding when you find something hidden.”
- “The gameplay is wonderful, the bosses are challenging, the art style is charming, and the world manages to be immensely silly while still supporting an interesting story that's handled with maturity and seriousness.”
- “It has a lot to say all under its whimsical exterior, and you're constantly rewarded with some surprisingly deep rabbit holes and character moments the more you snoop around in each corner in its world, even beyond major story beats.”
- “There are a couple of quests that can't be finished in act 1.”
- “[i]scrabdackle[/i] starts with a brief (though very well-executed) animation of a red wizard attacking the magic academy for no apparent motive, and that's the only update to the main storyline I've seen so far.”
- “The story is similarly sparse among the side characters of the game's world.”
gameplay
35 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
46% positive mentions, 45% neutral mentions, 9% negative mentions
The gameplay is generally praised for its smooth, rewarding exploration, solid and challenging boss fights, and well-integrated mechanics that emphasize curiosity and discovery. While some find the controls and early difficulty tuning frustrating, the overall experience is engaging, with charming art and humor enhancing the metroidvania-style progression. However, gameplay depth could benefit from more varied attack or playstyle modifications.
- “The battle mechanics are fun, and although some of the enemies have mopped the floor with me a few times already, it's really satisfying when you finally win.”
- “Each area has its own share of secrets and ways to test out different mechanics as you progress.”
- “Each mechanic of the game meshes well with each other, making for a very positive playing experience with few hiccups.”
- “So far, in my 17 hours of gameplay, I have not yet seen anything that modifies your attack or playstyle apart from giving you a sword. There aren't any changes to your attack pattern (e.g., for the wand: AoE spread shooting, higher attack but lower attack speed, etc.) or even just increasing the wand damage.”
- “You are often expected to manage dense mechanics without first having access to key upgrades like dash abilities or additional health, which can make early encounters feel poorly tuned rather than challenging.”
- “The controls can be infuriating at first, especially because everything does something (the left stick button is the most annoying in my opinion), but the gameplay is actually pretty fun.”
music
33 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
42% positive mentions, 49% neutral mentions, 9% negative mentions
The music in the game is widely praised for its catchy, charming, and well-integrated sound design that enhances the overall experience, especially during boss fights and key moments. While some find the soundtrack repetitive due to repeated motifs and short track lengths, most appreciate the strong use of themes and the emotional impact the music delivers. Overall, the soundtrack is considered a standout feature that complements the art and gameplay with polished, memorable tracks.
- “Oh, gods, the save animation, how could I forget?! The way it aligns with the sound design and music in that moment is a little dopamine hit every time. It's like opening a Vault-Tec lunchbox in FO4 for me, aka straight joy.”
- “Every single track enhances the game in some way. I said it with the boss music and it applies to all the area music as well.”
- “Act One’s OST alone is chalk full of motifs, vibes, and head-bopping bangers that are already cult classics within our community.”
- “The soundtrack is charming but repetitive, causing audio fatigue since every song seems to be at most a minute long.”
- “The strange usage of motifs is frustrating; the main 'complete goal' motif is repeatedly inserted unchanged throughout the soundtrack, making it jarring and losing its meaning over time.”
- “Try turning off the music in the game sometime – just listen to the background sounds.”
graphics
30 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
53% positive mentions, 47% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions
The graphics are widely praised for their charming, unique, and intricate art style that brings personality and life to the world, characters, and enemies. Players consistently highlight the visuals as a major strength, creating a cohesive and immersive atmosphere that complements the gameplay and storytelling. While overwhelmingly positive, a minority view finds the art less impressive, but overall the graphics are celebrated as a standout feature.
- “The visuals and world are incredibly well done, with a ton of memorable locations and simple but very charming artwork.”
- “Scrabdackle’s artstyle is cute, unique and super satisfying to just… gawk at.”
- “Art style is absolutely amazing and has personality and style oozing out of it.”
humor
14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions
The game's humor is characterized by its silly, quirky, and charming nature, featuring a cast of wacky characters like living peanuts and aggressive ducks. Players enjoy witty dialogue, funny lore, and amusing side quests that add depth and charm, making the adventure both delightful and emotionally engaging. Overall, the humor enhances the captivating worldbuilding and enjoyable gameplay.
- “There's so so many side quests and little leads, there's funny lore in the bestiary and other journal stuff (and an adorable mini game for putting collected stickers on your lil wizard journal — did I mention this game is cute).”
- “The humor is really silly with a cast of wacky characters including living peanuts and very aggressive ducks.”
- “Along the way, you meet plenty of strange and funny characters, from wiggly, wobbly peanut friends to dastardly ducks.”
grinding
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions
Grinding in the game is often described as tedious and frustrating due to frequent setbacks like losing progress after being knocked out and repetitive backtracking. While boss fights are challenging and engaging, the overall combat and item collection feel grindy and monotonous for many players.
- “This is not only frustrating as reacting and putting enemy attacks into your muscle memory takes time, but also makes combat extremely tedious, as you get jumped, lose 3 health, then miss five shots and the three you do land aren't enough to kill.”
- “Backtracking gets tedious fast.”
- “It's grindy and repetitive, and not fun or challenging.”
atmosphere
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
75% positive mentions, -25% neutral mentions, 50% negative mentions
The atmosphere receives mixed feedback: while some find the repetitive use of motifs in the soundtrack jarring and frustrating, others praise the game's overall atmosphere, especially during boss fights and its sound design, highlighting its suitability for immersive experiences like study sessions.
- “Overall a good game with beautiful graphics and great atmosphere and sound design.”
- “Not to mention, the bosses, unlike the normal enemies, are much more fun to fight in general, because of their fast movements, counters, general movesets, and the atmosphere.”
- “All the atmospheric stuff will definitely be a must for any study session I have in the future, and I will definitely be listening to Octarine Thunder for ages.”
- “The strange usage of motifs also contributes to this, as in other games the motifs would be altered to fit in the atmosphere of the track, but in Scrabdackle it feels like the main 'complete goal' motif is just literally plucked out and stabbed into every part of the soundtrack unchanged, which not only feels jarring but frustrating to hear repeatedly as it slowly loses meaning.”
- “Not to mention, the bosses, unlike the normal enemies, are much more fun to fight in general because of their fast movements, counters, general movesets, and the atmosphere.”
character development
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100% positive mentions, -67% neutral mentions, 67% negative mentions
Character development shows promise through sidequests that reveal characters evolving from flawed to more humble and kind, though some users remain concerned about its depth. Additionally, while the charming character design and settings are praised, simplistic designs like minimalistic sprites raise questions about emotional engagement.
- “The character design and sprites, the settings/scenes across the map... all darling, just so fun and cute.”
- “So far, there's plenty of sidequests where characters start off as difficult but slowly begin seeing different perspectives, making Blue more humble and kind.”
- “I appreciate how the character development shows growth through sidequests, allowing characters to evolve naturally.”
- “I am still slightly worried about how they will take the character development, but so far there's plenty of sidequests (albeit unfinished) where they start off as a douchebag and slowly begin seeing different perspectives, making Blue more humble and kind.”
- “But in this game, what are we meant to get out of a character design that's barely an emoji with a hat?”
emotional
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions
Players find the game’s emotional impact thrilling, with combat delivering exhilarating moments enhanced by accessible customization. Exploration evokes a nostalgic and deeply engaging experience reminiscent of classic titles like Hollow Knight.
- “Combat is exhilarating, with an amount of accessibility and customization that's sadly missing from most big releases.”
- “Exploring made me feel the same way I did while first playing Hollow Knight years ago.”
stability
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions
Scrabdackle demonstrates excellent stability, running smoothly on portable devices like the Steam Deck and Legion Go, making it reliable for gaming on the go.
- “Scrabdackle has surpassed my expectations and I'm probably going to save the rest of the game for my upcoming business trip since it runs great on Steam Deck (really my Legion Go).”
replayability
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions
The game offers strong replayability by encouraging multiple playthroughs, especially if players choose to complete it without certain powers or upgrades, adding a significant challenge.
- “There is real replay value, even if you choose to finish the game without collecting certain powers or upgrades, which noticeably increases the challenge.”
monetization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions
The monetization aspect is noted for incorporating ads that can disrupt gameplay, especially during challenging fights like the artificer battle, leading to some frustration among players.
optimization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions
The game suffers from poor optimization, causing significant lag when multiple enemies are present, frequent bugs, limited visual settings, and occasional crashes.
- “Now the bad part, coding seems to be unoptimized since the game just lags whenever there are more than 4 enemies on the screen, a lot of bugs and lack of visual settings. My game even crashed in one of the rooms with a bunch of enemies.”