One TV. Twelve Canvases. A limitless bag of words.
Terrible Poetry is a local-multiplayer poetry game for 1–12 players. One screen — your TV, laptop, or projector — becomes a shared kitchen fridge. Everyone else joins from their phone by scanning a QR code. No app install, no accounts, no friction. Just a browser.
Each round, the game presents a prompt — "A breakup letter from summer to autumn", "Can you tell me how you got this stab wound?", "I stumped WebMD when I listed these symptoms", whatever the night calls for — and deals every player a pile of magnetic word tiles. You drag them around your phone screen into a poem. The room watches the boards fill up in real time on the TV, with no one able to read anyone else's words until the timer runs out.
Then comes the reveal. Each poem is read aloud and the room votes. Best poem wins the round. Best across all rounds wins the night.
What makes it click
It's actually fast: Connect-to-playing in under a minute!
Phones are the only controllers: Everyone already brought one!
Moddable by everyone: A built-in editor lets you add your own tiles and prompts — wanna add the latest meme or your own inside jokes? Do it! Import/Export functions for easy sharing.
A banger of a theme song: Stay on that menu long enough and it will stick in your head for days.
Tremendous value: This game can be yours for less than 0.003% the price of a single Porsche 911 Turbo!
Who it's for
Game nights where someone is always on their phone anyway
House parties that need a half-hour bit to break up the small talk
Family holidays where the cousins and the grandparents need a level playing field
Writing workshops, drama warm-ups
Anyone who has ever stared at a fridge for too long
Modes & settings
1–12 players, no minimum required to start
Adjustable timers for writing and voting
1-20 rounds per game
Toggle for Family-Friendly/NSFW word packs
Auto-advance for back-to-back rounds, or manual pacing for hosts who want to commentate
Stop Killing Games-friendly
I hate DRM. I believe that if you buy a game, you should own that game forever- No take-backsies! This game is DRM-free, though by its nature it does require a connection to a server for most functionality.
My pledge to you: Before the official server is retired or the game is no longer supported, the full server source package will be made available with a full guide so that you can run your own server wherever you'd like, without restriction. It's what every publisher should do.
This is a small game made by a lifelong gamer. It's not procedural, it's not AAA, and there are no microtransactions or season passes. You launch it, you laugh with your friends, you close it. If that sounds like the most appealing thing you've read in a Steam description today — yeah, me too.
