Typing games are rad, and TypeCaster knows that. Similar to other typing games in the past, TBA Studio's upcoming title adds one spanner in the Typing game formula: have the thing that stresses you out not be typing related.

Getting hands-on with the game at IGDX, it's kind of a delight how terrible the main character of TypeCaster is. The first thing you see him do is rob a homeless person for fun- only to find out said homeless person is a wizard who curses him. His response? Go on a quest to remove the curse, while still wearing the stolen gear.

Rather than spell multiple words, the game instead has you spell specific ones for your spells. Upgraded spells have longer words, naturally, but so it becomes a question of how comfortable are you with speed-typing the words rather than reacting to new ones on screen.

So where is the actual challenge then? Well, good luck finding the time and space to type. Seriously, I haven't had this much of a challenge sitting down and typing since the last time I told myself I'd do work while I was on holiday. The game is constantly throwing things at you, be it floor puzzles or bananas.

In some cases, the game is literally throwing at you- the game's boss fights cover the floor in markers, as if you were running an FFXIV raid all by your lonesome. It's such a great twist on the usual typing formula because you're still having to do non-typing things like dodging and positioning. It just so happens the actual attacking is also its own challenge.

Combine that with the game's charming Super Mario RPG-style presentation and you've got yourself a game with a lot of potential to be fun. Currently, the biggest problem comes from the spells themselves- during my hands-on they didn't change much outside of being different elements, and you were mostly just exploiting the weaknesses of enemies rather than having certain spells act a certain way.

But given the game's primary focus on making openings to cast your big spells, it feels like a fair trade for the game it wants to be- one that's about managing all your stressors while you pay for the sins of being mean to homeless people.