Kawaii Co-Op Chaos in KeyWe – Pax East 2020 Preview
The Jeffs and the Debras of the world get no respect. They put in three times the effort of the average postal worker, frantically leaping from key to key in tandem (sometimes while balancing on rotating wheels) to spell out nonsense telegrams for the ungrateful public yet still everyone assumes they’re nothing but adorable, ambling balls of fluff and feathers. It’s enough to drive a kiwi bird cuckoo!
In developer, Stonewheat & Sons’ chaotic new cooperative puzzle game, KeyWe, you and a friend assume control of these pint-sized postal mail pickers with something to prove and must work together to help them deliver a variety of messages before the timer runs out. In the build my fellow editor Ben and I played at PAX East, two stages were available to try. Both of them were fantastic fun without ever being too frustrating.
The first, found us waddling across a makeshift typeset machine, charged with pecking out telegram messages one deliberate letter at a time. While Ben flocked to the home row to peck at the ASDFs and delete letters entered in error, I hopped up to a raised platform in the back to reach the lesser used X and W key.
Typing the words wasn’t always so straightforward. Letters might see-saw back and forth between two different sets, leaving only one set available at a time and making timing the button presses more difficult. While either bird can press the letter keys, it takes two birds to make a capital letter (one kiwi needed to hold the shift key while the other bangs its head against the letter key.) This blew up a plan I had to maximize our efficiency at a crucial moment.
The second stage was like a cluttered desk with scraps of paper scattered about. This time we had to listen to a message and assemble what we heard using the word fragments written on those scraps. It cannot be understated how cute it is that the paper scraps stick to the kiwis’ goofy round butts as they shuttle about gathering words and placing them on the world’s most precious ransom note.
After putting together the finished message, we then had to deliver it to an ostrich courier. The developer told us that in the final build (don’t expect it before 2021!) the plan is for the world of KeyWe to be populated with many such animal characters and maybe even some humans. In order to deliver the message, Jeff or Debra must interact with the ostrich while the other fetches food for his bowl. It’s like a kind of avian refueling process. It’s a weird mechanic… but it works!
The closest analog I can think of to compare KeyWe to is the co-op cooking game Overcooked, but unlike that veritable divorce simulator, KeyWe remains chill enough not to jeopardize your relationships and still provide a good challenge to communication skills. Of all the games I played at PAX East this year, it stood out as the one that sparked the most joy and the one I felt myself longing to play more of. That’s why I awarded it my Editor’s Choice award for game of the show. I mean, even if I did yell at Ben now and again, who can stay mad with those cute critters staring back at you especially when the game lets you put them in funny hats.
