(I haven't gotten past 15 words)

December 15, 2023 11:21 AM

20 Words // 20 Seconds is an addictive typing game by Kevin Hutchins where you have 20 seconds to type 20 words based on prompts that refresh every time you type a new word.
posted by Kattullus (79 comments total)

OK that sends my cortisol through the roof
posted by gottabefunky at 11:26 AM on December 15, 2023 [9 favorites]

oh, you bastard, this is the kind of thing that will eat up my entire afternoon, and I have work to do.

I can't break 10 words to save my life.
posted by dlugoczaj at 11:34 AM on December 15, 2023 [4 favorites]

wow, hey, it's like a blood alcohol test only this one measures amphetamines
posted by seanmpuckett at 11:36 AM on December 15, 2023 [10 favorites]

1. Four letters long [PING]
2. Starts with Y [PING]
3. Rhymes with . . . . Shmattullus
[BZZZT]
posted by The Bellman at 11:37 AM on December 15, 2023 [5 favorites]

I got to 6 and I feel good about myself.
posted by nat at 11:39 AM on December 15, 2023 [5 favorites]

the foley for that game is pandemonium

brain refuses task
posted by MonsieurPEB at 11:40 AM on December 15, 2023

This game is hilariously scary. I did a bunch of rounds and finally got to where I was freezing up less and getting better. I typed like eight words in quick succession that met the criteria and was feeling like I was finally going to get to 12 or maybe even 13 words when suddenly it said, "ANY WORD!" and I screamed and typed AL;DKFJ.
posted by Don Pepino at 11:44 AM on December 15, 2023 [30 favorites]

You can't get me like this, Mavis Beacon!
posted by fight or flight at 11:47 AM on December 15, 2023 [16 favorites]

I scored 623 and typed forty words -
that was all lies
This is a horrible game because though I know I won't play anymore today (6 words, 117 points) at some point in the not distant future this is going to eat an hour. And then another hour.

Is it in my wheel-house? No. Will I try anyway? Like a maniac? Absolutely.
posted by From Bklyn at 11:49 AM on December 15, 2023 [8 favorites]

Ok, the hilarious thing, like Don Pepino was saying, is how if you charge through enough rounds of this, you start to remember words that you just use for each prompt they give, so you start to feel confident, and (like happened to me just now) it'll say "Contains E" and your brain will just freeze, like, "What words contain E of all letters oh god oh fuck now the game's over."
posted by Navelgazer at 11:49 AM on December 15, 2023 [9 favorites]

I got to 12 and feel great, but man.
posted by grumpybear69 at 11:58 AM on December 15, 2023 [2 favorites]

On a roll... "starts with X" BZZZZZZT
posted by azpenguin at 12:04 PM on December 15, 2023 [6 favorites]

Am I the only one who can't get it to start?
posted by Paul Slade at 12:06 PM on December 15, 2023 [2 favorites]

Click on the "click here to start" or the large horizontal blank space if the words aren't there (they disappear on me). Afterwards, click outside the center box to see your results.

Also, I hate this. Curses!
posted by rhizome at 12:14 PM on December 15, 2023

This is amazing and I'll be playing this instead of grading papers. If my students ask me why they've not been graded yet, I'm going to scream "CONTAINS EE."
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:23 PM on December 15, 2023 [7 favorites]

This is a fun game! But I need to stop playing while I still can...
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 12:26 PM on December 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

Where are the effing prompts???
posted by Jody Tresidder at 12:34 PM on December 15, 2023

I also got “starts with X” as the first question in my second attempt. I feel it almost a blessing, because it was a hard enough full stop to avoid the incipient obsession I could feel coming on. Just walk away now, just walk away…
posted by notoriety public at 12:42 PM on December 15, 2023

-4.
I shall acquire new thumbs tomorrow.
posted by clavdivs at 12:46 PM on December 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

Perhaps unsurprisingly, swears tend to come quickly to mind
posted by gottabefunky at 12:53 PM on December 15, 2023 [5 favorites]

12 words. 189 points.
posted by matkline at 12:57 PM on December 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

how do you spell zylaphone
posted by clavdivs at 12:58 PM on December 15, 2023 [9 favorites]

It's much less terrifying if you turn the sound off.
posted by Daily Alice at 1:01 PM on December 15, 2023 [2 favorites]

15 words 169 points so far is my best.

I HATE THIS.

i love this
posted by cooker girl at 1:03 PM on December 15, 2023 [2 favorites]

217/15 words is my high score so far.

Starts with J: JAG, JOE
Starts with Q: QAT
Starts with X: XI, XU
Starts with Z: ZIG, ZOO (there are lots of others, of course, but these are good short ones)
posted by box at 1:06 PM on December 15, 2023 [2 favorites]

THIS IS AWFUL I CAN'T STOP WHY ARE YOU PEOPLE SO FAST WHY AM I SO SLOW I HATE THIS SO MUCH I HATE MYSELF I HATE THIS EVEN MORE THAN I HATE MYSELF GAH

Anyway, off to play again. Thanks, Kattullus!
posted by cupcakeninja at 1:20 PM on December 15, 2023 [7 favorites]

I'm still trying to think of a word that contains er
posted by All Out of Lulz at 2:00 PM on December 15, 2023

er
/ər/
exclamation expressing hesitation.
"“Would you like some tea?” “Er … yes … thank you.”"

I guess if there's a minimum length, "err" would also work?

Also, if you get past 10 words on this, you're a cyborg, and I detest you and your kind. And I'm now typing the code of a virus that will slow you down to human speed. I'm typing it very slowly.
posted by kleinsteradikaleminderheit at 2:11 PM on December 15, 2023 [4 favorites]

Click on the "click here to start" or the large horizontal blank space if the words aren't there (they disappear on me). Afterwards, click outside the center box to see your results.


Just hit Enter.
posted by dobbs at 2:17 PM on December 15, 2023

just one more go ....
posted by burr1545 at 2:23 PM on December 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

(12)
posted by ewan at 2:38 PM on December 15, 2023

What a tightly made game, 20 seconds has never felt so short. 17 words for 357 points is I think the limit of how fast I can type. Although I've reopened the tab for another go five times since writing that sentence.
posted by lucidium at 2:54 PM on December 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

I also cannot get it to start, there is simply no response to enter or anywhere I click.
posted by InkaLomax at 2:55 PM on December 15, 2023 [4 favorites]

Neither I nor InkaLomax are stupid enough to have not understood the instructions. It just that nothing happens when we follow them.
posted by Paul Slade at 3:03 PM on December 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

I wrote "ass" like, a lot.
posted by c'mon sea legs at 3:16 PM on December 15, 2023 [8 favorites]

This is more of a "think of a word" game than a typing game.
posted by OrangeDisk at 3:30 PM on December 15, 2023

(There’s no minimum word length—it takes I as a word containing I.)
posted by box at 3:33 PM on December 15, 2023 [2 favorites]

It apparently takes "LEET" as a word but "SPAM" is too trademarked?
posted by Zalzidrax at 4:06 PM on December 15, 2023

Definitely works better on my desktop than my phone or tablet. I got a message about how it isn't optimized to play on my phone and it indeed is not. The keyboard covers the prompt.
posted by beaning at 4:28 PM on December 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

Bing is so a word!
posted by Gyre,Gimble,Wabe, Esq. at 4:38 PM on December 15, 2023

DING KING LING PING RING SING TING WING ZING
posted by box at 4:53 PM on December 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

Where does the score show up?
I only see:
GAME OVER
00

I’ve been playing on chrome on my MacBook Air

??
posted by calgirl at 5:32 PM on December 15, 2023

"Name a word! NAME A WORD!!! Nooooo!"
posted by Rhaomi at 5:39 PM on December 15, 2023 [3 favorites]

I am absolutely not clicking on this but I love how all the comments are “Beware! This game will devour your soul. I have known only unspeakable torment since the instant I visited this hell-begotten site. Thanks for posting!”
posted by Horace Rumpole at 5:43 PM on December 15, 2023 [10 favorites]

266 / 17 words

Somebody come pry me away.
posted by Reverend John at 6:16 PM on December 15, 2023 [3 favorites]

I was trying to break 200 and I got 15/240 so now I can go to bed, assuming my heart rate ever returns to normal. That was weirdly high adrenaline typing.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:40 PM on December 15, 2023 [2 favorites]

@calgirl when you are done, press enter again : )
posted by bitterkitten at 7:33 PM on December 15, 2023

My goal was to get 15. I got 15. I'm not going to do any better, at least not without actually sitting down and thinking about strategy. I need a good TT word and a good OUS word. And I need a 5, 6, and 7 letter word combo that all start with the same 5 letters so I can just start typing when I see it's length-based and process when to stop as i type.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 7:52 PM on December 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

I'm an incredibly fast typist, so I thought I would be good at this game. I am not really good at this game.
posted by eirias at 8:00 PM on December 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

The worst thing about this is having enough experience with neuropsych tests for the middle-aged that I can see what I'm doing wrong. Oh, look, I'm failing at task switching! There's a repetition! There's an intrusion! Wasn't I a better speller at one point? Why is my reaction time this slow?
posted by eirias at 8:09 PM on December 15, 2023 [6 favorites]

To "er" is human.
posted by Phssthpok at 11:00 PM on December 15, 2023 [2 favorites]

And I need a 5, 6, and 7 letter word combo that all start with the same 5 letters so I can just start typing when I see it's length-based and process when to stop as i type.

I have been using:

LIGHT, LIGHTS, LIGHTED
SOUND, SOUNDS, SOUNDED

I find the LIGHT combination slightly easier to type because the U and N use the same finger so it adds travel time.
posted by jacquilynne at 12:23 AM on December 16, 2023 [3 favorites]

This is definitely evil. The way my brain works is to find the most insanely complicated word that I must then type, nothing else will do. Word starting with I? Instantiation. I kid you not. Never mind that "instant" would be fine.

I just tried to play with the shortest words I could think of and did worse, so I think I need to accept that my brain just tends towards the complicated and that's how it is.
posted by Athanassiel at 2:53 AM on December 16, 2023 [2 favorites]

"Edify" is an invalid word? Pfft, fuck off game *kills tab*
(think I just dodged a bullet tbh)
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 4:41 AM on December 16, 2023 [2 favorites]

This really does measure something about your brain, because I was up most of the night because my 4-year-old daughter kept coughing herself awake. Yesterday I could always at least get to 12 letters, and sometimes a handful more, but now I can't even get to 12.
posted by Kattullus at 5:52 AM on December 16, 2023 [2 favorites]

I hit 231 and I need everyone to know it, I'm wide awake and jittery as fuck now, it's like a needle of adrenaline straight to the center of the brain.

A very good game!
posted by Merricat Blackwood at 6:22 AM on December 16, 2023 [3 favorites]

5/57 on my first try

Word starting with X.... ummm... that made my brain asplode.

There goes my weekend
posted by kathrynm at 6:41 AM on December 16, 2023 [1 favorite]

As not to abuse the edit window...

Xylophone. I'm a frigging preschool teacher and that's on the alphabet line in my classroom. Brain asplodes again.
posted by kathrynm at 6:44 AM on December 16, 2023 [1 favorite]

If I can suggest one for folks when they need to start something with X: Xenon.
posted by Navelgazer at 7:10 AM on December 16, 2023 [1 favorite]

An X words that is valid - Xi
posted by Faintdreams at 9:53 AM on December 16, 2023 [4 favorites]

Apparently "xray" is a valid word that starts with X. My trouble is I tend to use it when I get "contains X" first, and then if "starts with X" comes later on then shitshitshit*buzzer* My 5, 6, 7 are DANCE, DANCES, DANCERS (and CHANCE is my default "ends with ANCE")

I got to 18/342 after working myself up into a near fugue state over the course of half an hour last night... not sure if this is healthy.
posted by btfreek at 11:18 AM on December 16, 2023 [2 favorites]

('Contains X,' AX EX OX are all good plays.)
posted by box at 11:48 AM on December 16, 2023 [1 favorite]

(Me, yelling at the screen) WhAT THE FUCK IS A HETERONYM
posted by btfreek at 11:48 AM on December 16, 2023 [4 favorites]

Was struggling to not take a nap after eating a big bowl of lentils, so I played a few rounds. Helped keep me awake. Didn't work for me on firefox, I had to use chromium.

contains 5 letters - fifth, fives, sixes
contains 6 letters - sixths, sevens, eleven
contains 7 letters - seventh, elevens
contains ight - eight
contains TT - sett

In this game, the colors go from yellow to orange to red as you get closer to 20. I'd like a setting where the colors go from yellow to green to blue, and throughout you're encouraged to breathe and stay calm. Where, instead of "frantic game", the description in the bottom of the screen says "relaxing game".
posted by aniola at 1:47 PM on December 16, 2023 [2 favorites]

I'd like the option to play for a high score without a time limit. Trying to think of the longest possible words that start with E or whatever would be a whole different game.
posted by box at 1:51 PM on December 16, 2023 [2 favorites]

5 letters - short
6 letters - longer
7 letters - longest
posted by aniola at 1:55 PM on December 16, 2023 [2 favorites]

This really does measure something about your brain, because I was up most of the night because my 4-year-old daughter kept coughing herself awake. Yesterday I could always at least get to 12 letters, and sometimes a handful more, but now I can't even get to 12.
See also: Guess my word.
posted by Don Pepino at 6:20 AM on December 17, 2023 [2 favorites]

This game is so fucking stupid and I hate it so much. Not because the best I can do is eight words, that's got nothing to do with it. I'm going to spend a few more hours on this just to prove how stupid it is.
posted by dg at 3:49 PM on December 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

I'd like the option to play for a high score without a time limit

'You can toggle to 20 WORDS // ?? SECONDS mode by pressing 'c' at the main menu. It removes the time limit and lets you try to maximize your score without the time constraints. Press 'c' to toggle back (or just refresh the page).'

posted by dg at 4:13 PM on December 17, 2023 [3 favorites]

I like the person in the comments who got a (TAS) score of 2234. In human world, I think the average visual reaction time is about a quarter of a second, and a good typing speed is 60 wpm, so even if you practiced to the point that you had a reflexive answer for every prompt, you'd have to be typing at 25% better than that.
posted by lucidium at 4:44 PM on December 17, 2023 [2 favorites]

17, baby! Score 276.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 7:59 PM on December 17, 2023 [2 favorites]

It took me a bit to work out that the words don't have to relate to each other - I was like "a seven letter word that ALSO starts with P???"
posted by creatrixtiara at 9:54 PM on December 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

I wish there was a way to see the results without watching it count them down one at a time. If you hit enter to skip the countdown, you skip past the results screen entirely.

This is one of my long term rants about casual game design:

The victory animation or score count-up or fun intro that is cool the first two or three times someone plays your game is just a tedious time waster by the 10th and positively rage inducing by the thousandth. It should always be skippable, without losing access to actual information, ideally via a setting and not by taking action each time.

I gave up playing one casual word game even though a bunch of my friends have a team on it, because as time went on they added so many special events and bonuses and every time you finished a round (which might last as little as 15 seconds or so, or might be more like a minute) you had to spend 7 or 8 seconds just watching things count up and count down and I know I sound like a crazy person complaining about 7 seconds, but when you only spent 15 seconds playing the game, 7 seconds before you can start it up again is forever and watching coins move or stars twinkle is not interesting.
posted by jacquilynne at 7:06 AM on December 18, 2023 [4 favorites]

Well it's not the high score from before, but I still have to brag.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 7:20 PM on December 18, 2023 [2 favorites]

I was finally about to break my record and get to 16, and the prompt was "containing 'er'", a prompt I had gotten a gazillion times. I excitedly, and confidently, typed out LERM and hit enter.
posted by Kattullus at 3:38 AM on December 19, 2023 [4 favorites]

I finally got to 16. I think I can stop thinking about 20 Words 20 Seconds for a little while now. Between this game and the volcano, I have gotten sweet eff all done today, workwise.
posted by Kattullus at 5:08 AM on December 19, 2023 [1 favorite]

Whew. I can move on now.
posted by btfreek at 2:08 PM on December 19, 2023 [4 favorites]

Not that anyone is impressed after btfreek got 20 (!!!) but I got 18. And I'm inspired by btfreek to keep going...maybe the impossible is possible.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 2:56 PM on December 19, 2023 [3 favorites]

~ dreams can come true ~
posted by btfreek at 5:24 PM on December 19, 2023 [2 favorites]