Children · German and English · pixel art
Wortzauber
A letter-tracing word game for children, in German and English.
Play it here
This is the game, not a video. It is made for a phone held sideways, so it is easier to play full screen.
The demo loads from wortzauber.beacon.host, and only after you press play.
A child says, types or handwrites a word, then traces each letter along school lines. When the last stroke is done, the thing appears in the game and can be picked up and used.
The game has a story. A dragon has taken the Queen’s spell book. The hero helps Berta the baker make a cake, goes through a dark mouse hole with a candle, and collects letters in the castle. A small hovering robot gives hints.
It is plain HTML and JavaScript with no build step and no dependencies. The video shows the German version.
- Write, trace, appearEvery word is traced letter by letter. The game shows each stroke first and helps when a child is stuck.
- Three ways to writeBy voice, on a child-sized keyboard, or freely by hand.
- PlacesMeadow, village street, bakery, mouse hole and castle, joined by a map.
- SumsMaths riddles with apples and candles.
- Play togetherTwo children can play the same game on two devices.
How it changed
One entry per merged pull request that changed play, newest first. Each clip is filmed from the game at the state of that pull request. The clips are silent.
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10 Nov 2026 · PR #72
The castle people call for help
The people of the castle and the mouse mother in the wall speak with their own voices. They call for help when the hero comes near, and they say thank you when the hero helps. The clip shows the merchant at her stall, and the speech bubble points at her.
- The horse neighs when it is happy, and the dragon roars when it takes the book.
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10 Nov 2026 · PR #65
A child-first pass over the screens
Tracing and free writing take the whole screen. The clip shows the writing box.
- A picture menu, a letter board and a speaker to hear the word again.
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9 Nov 2026 · PR #63
The gate of the Thronsaal
The great door of the throne hall, drawn again in one three-quarter view with a painted door.
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9 Nov 2026 · PR #62
The castle comes alive
The people, the animals, the fire and the dragon of the castle move, and there are new props.
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9 Nov 2026 · PR #61
The painted castle
Each building of the castle is a painted sprite, with a sky and ground of its own.
- A wooden floor in the open hall.
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9 Nov 2026 · PR #60
Pixel sprites for the castle
The castle people and the dragon get pixel sprites.
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9 Nov 2026 · PR #59
A new level order
The levels now run meadow, castle, map, street, bakery, wall. On the map a bubble over the small hero names the next stop.
- A dialog for the new story order.
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9 Nov 2026 · PR #58
A whole word at once
In the writing box a child can now write a whole word in one go.
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8 Nov 2026 · PR #54
Free writing
The child writes the word letter by letter on school lines, and the game reads it and casts it.
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8 Nov 2026 · PR #53
Throwing together
A throw goes to the other device: here the other child, Tom, throws an apple, and it flies in its arc on this screen.
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8 Nov 2026 · PR #51
The candle riddle
In the bakery a sum puts candles on the cake.
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8 Nov 2026 · PR #50
Math riddles
Math riddles in the castle and the mouse hole wall. Here the merchant asks a sum, shown with apples.
- A tap on the person asks the sum again.
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8 Nov 2026 · PR #49
The other hero moves
In play together the other hero shows its jump, climb, flight and the light in its hands, and moves smoothly.
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8 Nov 2026 · PR #48
Together in the bakery
The bakery steps count on both devices, and things move between the two children: pick up, put down, through a door.
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8 Nov 2026 · PR #47
Together in every level
Both heroes in the wall, the castle and on the map, with shared riddle progress. The clip shows the castle with the other child’s hero and its name.
- A code of 8 letters and digits to join.
- The guest follows the host everywhere.
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7 Nov 2026 · PR #44
Play together
Two children play on two devices. The clip shows the card with name, hero, link and QR code, then the other child on the meadow and the apple it calls.
- A third device is refused.
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7 Nov 2026 · PR #43
Math for mana
A big spell first asks for two sums. The child taps the answer on a digit pad and then traces it.
- A settings card for the kind of sums and their range.
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7 Nov 2026 · PR #41
The map
A map screen joins the levels. The castle’s back door leads there.
- The story order of the levels.
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7 Nov 2026 · PR #39
The castle finale
The dragon takes the book, and a new verb, ziehen, pulls the nearest loose thing to the hero. In the clip ziehen pulls an apple across the meadow.
- The castle’s back door.
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7 Nov 2026 · PR #38
The gate and the festival
The castle gets the gate of the Thronsaal, the bringers of the festival and a story chain of stations.
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7 Nov 2026 · PR #32
The castle
Level 3, “Das Burgfest”, starts as a stage with thought bubbles and a far view. The clip shows the scaffold ladder.
- A second arrow on the street back to the meadow.
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7 Nov 2026 · PR #31
A simple menu
A list menu in place of the round dial. Its labels follow the language of the game.
- The quest card shows the sprites of the game.
- Berta answers when the child writes the egg or the flour.
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24 Oct 2026 · PR #18
Throw animations
Paul and Pia get animations for the throw and for holding a light. The clip shows the same throw as in PR #8.
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23 Oct 2026 · PR #11
The bot follows
The Schwebe-Bot follows the hero on the meadow and the street, as it does in the bakery and the wall.
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23 Oct 2026 · PR #10
Hop and run
A double tap makes a flat hop, and the hero runs and dashes. In the wall the bot shows the jump at the first gap.
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23 Oct 2026 · PR #8
Throwing
The hero throws with a drag, and thrown things land on targets and surfaces. Here a candle flies through the mouse hole wall.
- Flame words make things burn at the oven.
- The bot teaches the throw.
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19 Oct 2026 · Starting point
The game as it was imported
The state before the first pull request: the meadow, tracing words and the bakery quest. The mouse hole wall came later.
Not shown: sound only (PR #71); smaller fixes and rule changes (#21, #27, #28, #33 to #37, #40, #45, #46, #52, #64, #66 to #70, #73); the verb page as a torn page of the queen’s book (#42), which opens only deep in a level; the letter model behind free writing (#55 to #57); tools, tests, art steps and docs (#2, #13 to #17, #19, #20, #22 to #26, #29, #30).