How Truncate Works: Spelling Words to Cut Off and Conquer Your Enemy

Truncate is a word-based strategy game in which you spell words to cut off enemy territory and conquer their town. It is not a spelling contest or a crossword: the words are moves on a shared board, and the goal is positional — take the opponent's town, not simply score the longest word. The description on truncate.town frames the whole game in one line: "Spell words to cut off your enemy and conquer their town."

The Core Idea

Each turn, you form a word from the available letters. That word does something to the board — specifically, it cuts territory. The cut is the strategy: you are trying to separate the enemy from space, resources, or their town, while keeping your own position connected.

This is why the game sits closer to a strategy game than a word game. A long, obscure word is only good if the cut it produces helps you. A short, common word placed well can be stronger than a showy one.

What "truncate" means in play

The name is the mechanic. To truncate is to cut short — and in this game, your word truncates the enemy's holdings. Think of the board as a map divided between two sides; a well-placed word severs a chunk of that map from the enemy's town. Once a section is cut off, it is no longer useful to them.

For example, if the enemy's town sits at one edge and their territory stretches toward the middle, a word that draws a line across that stretch can strand everything beyond it. The enemy keeps the letters they can still reach, but the severed area stops helping them.

How a Game Plays Out

The general loop is:

1. Read the board. Look at where the enemy town is, where your town is, and how territory connects them.
2. Find a word that cuts, not just a word that scores. Ask what the word separates.
3. Spell it. The word is placed and the cut takes effect.
4. The opponent responds with a word of their own, trying to cut you or reconnect.
5. Repeat until one town is taken.

The win condition is conquest of the enemy town, so every cut should move you toward that or defend against it. A cut that strands a large area but leaves your own town exposed is usually a bad trade.

Reading the board before you spell

Two questions decide most moves:

• Does this word cut something that matters? Severing empty space achieves little; severing the path to the town matters.
• Does it leave me open? If your word opens a lane toward your own town, the opponent can use it next turn.

Because both players are cutting, the board shrinks in usefulness over time. Early moves shape the map; late moves are about finishing the conquest.

What Kind of Game It Is — and Isn't

If you enjoy word games but find yourself optimizing for big words, Truncate asks you to optimize for position instead. If you enjoy strategy games but not vocabulary, the word list is broad — the game draws on large public word sources — so the challenge is usually finding the right cut, not the most obscure word.

Practical Notes

• The game is open source. The client and server code are published on GitHub at TruncateGame/Truncate, so you can inspect how it works or run it yourself if you have the technical setup.
• The art is reusable. Truncate's sprites are available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
• It was made by two developers, Liam Bigelow and Blake McAlevey-Scurr, and credits a set of contributing artists, audio and font assets, and word data sources including SCOWL, Wordnik, Wiktionary, and Wiktextract.

The site does not state pricing or login requirements, so check truncate.town directly for how to play and whether an account is needed.

The Short Version

Truncate works like this: spell a word, cut the enemy's territory with it, and keep cutting until you take their town. The word is the weapon; the map is the game. Play for position, protect your own town, and treat every spelling choice as a strategic move rather than a vocabulary display.