Little Kitty, Big City
Little Kitty, Big City
Game
Game2023
Poems & Codes
Developer Hero Game Co LLC
Explore the wonderful world of poetry through deceptively simple cryptograms. 10% of every purchase benefits Project Gutenberg, an online library of over 60,000 free ebooks. From the Steam store page
75 reactions from 2 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky) · newest Sep 4, 2026 · last updated Oct 8, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
93
LovedLoved
65 positive · 5 negative
95% range 84–97%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 65 | 5 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
5 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
84 of 89 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Summary pending — the reactions are listed below.
Reactions
60 of 75 · most liked firstI really loved their other game, Prose and Codes, so it felt like a no-brainer to pick up this game next. I wanted to love it, I really did. Basic gameplay is the same. But there's one large difference that makes this a game I will probably never finish: Words that I do not know, and words that are not commonly used. For example, in one puzzle, by filling in other letters, you are left with _a_onwita. I had to look up the poem to learn the word is Yakonwita. I'd never heard of this…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great follow-up game to Prose & Codes. I'm finding a bit more challenging than the first game since the phrasing and words in these poems can be different. But I am loving the game and finding it as beautiful and addictive as the first.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It’s a fantastic game!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Poems and Codes is a new poetry-themed word-based puzzle game from the developers of the literary-themed Prose and Codes. Both games were created in support of Project Gutenberg, an online library of over 60,000 free ebooks to which 10% of all sales are donated. Players can decode their way through a series of excerpts from a vast selection of poems spanning multiple themes and subjects. Poems and Codes is a unique and well-intentioned game that explores the wonders of poetry through fun and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Bought it with no second thought. A sequel(?) to Prose and Codes, Poems and Codes left me a better impression in terms of interface. A comprehensive guide on cipher was also provided in the beginning, for which I was thankful. It should have been there--in Prose and Codes--but better late than never, I guess. This game, though, was infinitely harder--if you are not familiar with poetry--since, well, it's poetry. Some world-renowned poems you can guess at first glance, hinted by punctuation and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Still a very smoothly implemented game, but not nearly as good as its predecessor. One of Prose & Codes' strengths is in the sheer variety of texts puzzles are drawn from. There are some repeated authors, but no two puzzles are from the same work. In contrast, Poems & Codes features up to 12 puzzles in a row all taken from the same poem. The repetition is tedious and makes the puzzles too simple, and the small number of total poets represented make the categories feel as samey as the puzzles…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Nice to have a sequel, but I miss some of the interface features of the previous game. For example, you can no longer right-click on a letter to erase it, which is a bit of a pain when playing only with the mouse. I also liked the layout better of the old one, or rather, I had gotten accustomed to it, so the new buttons etc seem in 'the wrong place'. This is more understandable, that they may choose to lay it out differently, so I can overlook it, and assume I'll adjust. But it is a bit…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A game that scratches parts of my brain and makes them happy.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Classics they may be, their themes and words are dated. Enough with the slurs.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Very good sequel to the wonderful prose & codes. While i enjoyed the first one more, this one is still extremely solid and looked great. I will say it's a bit more difficult because there is a lot more old english you have to account for, and it's not mentioned if the poem has that or modern english. Though it's not too bad once you figure out a good pattern to spotting it. Definitely get this one if you enjoyed the first of just like solving cyphers.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A fantastic, chill puzzling game with a lot of content, all in service of a good cause. Be sure to check out the companion game as well!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A perfect game to put on for 10-15 minutes when you want a little bit of a puzzle. No bugs encountered and UI is smooth. Recommended!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm not a code person, but I love poems and this is just the game for me. Very relaxing to play, and many of the poems brought back memories of my school days when we had them in our syllabus.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Appleseed's Indie Game Of The Day! Day 175) Poems & Codes by Hero Game Co LLC A word game where you have to figure out poems and codes by figuring out the hidden letters. 10% of every purchase benefits Project Gutenberg, an online library of over 60,000 free E-Books as well.
unlabelledView post →1. Bangkok Story: A Stray Dog by Shameful Guys Development 2. Cage of Roses by ebi-hime | @twoandahalfstudios.com 3. Lords of Ravage by Synthetic Domain | @syntheticdomain.bsky.social 4. Poems & Codes by Hero Game Co LLC | @herogameco.bsky.social ⯆
unlabelledView post →“Poems & Codes” is another interesting ciphers puzzle game, a sister game to “Prose & Codes” from the same developer, bringing even more encrypted texts in simple substitution ciphers to solve. As the title implies, this time it will be works of poetry from various authors, grouped into themes like love, death, history, nature and so on. Game principle is also exactly the same, you can easily type and replace characters to decrypt the texts; I found the poems to be slightly easier as there is a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Bought it to support the idea, but nowhere near near as good as the first installment.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun and simple cipher puzzle to poke at. A relaxing way to unwind and get to read some poetry.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Through decoding the poetry, I feel it added a new way of appreciating the classic poems featured in game. Like, finding something meaningful through what appeared to be nonsense until viewed through a different lens.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →legit really fun, good little puzzle game. i've played 40 hours and yet still feel like i need more poems to solve. genuinely give this one a shot.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I enjoyed the demo, so I bought the game. I love cipher puzzles, and this feels fun and cozy. No stress. And I like that I can play for short bursts or binge the puzzles.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you played the original game, Prose and Codes, you're likely to be pleased with this additional game, which features (as one might imagine) Poems instead of Prose! This game holds the same quality of ciphers, I think, and expands on the gameplay available from the first. I think this game offers more content, and is divided into more "themes" than I think the previous game was. I also found this game more difficult, which I think was a result of the subject matter being poems; the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The sequel to Prose & Codes, didn't enjoy this one as much but still super solid and you can tell they learned and improved on a lot of visual and overall UI. This one also supports Project Gutenberg too, so still great to support and enjoy some poems.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is really good for de-stressing, especially if you like puzzle games. Great concept! I love the ciphers and it makes me feel like I am actually learning something because I want to put in effort to figure the next poem out! It got me out of my reading slump.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →More of the same from the previous iteration, no improvements but if you liked the last game you'll enjoy this too. You pick a genre of poem and are shown the passage with most or all letters unfilled, depending on your difficulty setting. You then have to use your knowledge of letter distribution and word forms to replace the blank letters with the correct one. Setting one instance of a letter updates it for all other instances of that letter. It's more of a DLC pack for the previous game…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A game that gives you hope in humanity. With all the doom and gloom in the world, at least we have Poems and Codes and Hero Game Co!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Another solid game from Hero Game Co. This game is beautifully designed from the peaceful music, thoughtful artwork, to the carefully curated poems. I like to play this game to relax. The artwork in Dark Mode feels very elegant. I like that there is an option to turn off the watercolor animations and lighting effects, making dark mode even darker. It's easy on the eyes. Light mode is very delicate and whimsical in the style of the artwork and color scheme. I like both modes equally as they…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Loved the game. Can't wait for more titles in the series. I'd love to see one with movie/tv show quotations.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Just as good as the first one!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun ciphers! gorgeous, well organized, I prefer this one to prose & codes aesthethically. although the tracker is much easier to lose
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Very pleasant and engaging. The music is soothing and the levels of difficulty can be adjusted.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →What a great game! I discovered numerous new poets and had such a joy solving the puzzles. I cannot understand the negative reviews. Some of the shorter poems are hard to solve and some of the words are hard to find (English is not my first language), but you can get hints and change the overall difficulty. There is plenty to do and it took me more than 50 hours to finish. I had a great time!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Those who love reason and rhyme, Will find much pleasure in this game, Should only one be worth their time They might enjoy it all the same.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's just a really great code solving game. It's sister game Prose and codes is great as well.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Interesting concept of game. Love to solve riddles and ciphers. 10/10
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The only devs who make games like this where you get to read 1800s poems. We need more poetry games. 🩵
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Does exactly what it advertises. I am new to poetry and am really enjoying discovering these classics. I also love cryptograms, so I am the target demographic here. Love it!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →'Twas the nostalgia of youth that led me to this game. The local newspapers my granny would get had a similar word puzzle game in the Entertainment section — which was something I enjoyed solving each week back then.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is a sequel to the previous one by these publishers, Prose and Codes, and everything that I said in my review of Prose and Codes also applies to this game - It's a relaxing puzzler of substitution ciphers, good for playing before bedtime, with selectable difficulty levels. However, there are two major differences between the two games. Firstly, you get to read the entire poem after solving each "set" of ciphers, regardless of whether you were given the entire poem to solve or just…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Such a lovely game! Amazing selection of poems, and the interface is clean and easy to use.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you like puzzle games/ciphers, this is the game for you! I used to solve these in the newspapers and I was really excited to see one for the computer. I love poems and I especially like the donations to the Project Gutenberg. It's a great cheap game and it's worth buying.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is a great followup to Prose & Codes. The gameplay might actually work better for poems. Very addictive.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is very intellectually stimulating and is really fun as you can change the difficulty level as you play. It was really fun to learn different poems from different genres and to test my brain a little. Would recommend!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Gooood morning, Crypt Lurkers! It's time to come vibe and hang out with your favorite VA Vampire #Vtuber while english breaks her brain again with more Poems & Codes! I really love this game, and there's still plenty of ciphers left for me to go through! www.twitch.tv/hunalulu
unlabelledView post →Nice game to make your brain work inbetween. Really well made - even if very simple - but the design and interface make the game seem smooth to the eyes and calming in a very beautiful way. Recommended for all word-games and poems fans (even tho it gets hard for non-native speakers like me due to the 'older' language :) )
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I like this as a break from my other games, using my brain and being able to destress when playing it. Often when a puzzle seems impossible to sove the easiest way is to just step away from it for a moment and then come back and try again. I would really recommend this!!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Огромное удовольствие от игры) красивые стихи!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I loved playing this game with my mum and grandma. We all love poetry and the brainstorming that went into figuring out the puzzles. Highly recommend this game, especially if you're into word play and decoding.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →_uck th_s sh_t _s har_.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Beautiful, cryptic is the word. Makes you feel like you're deciphering WW2 letters lmao. Loved the anthology.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A delightfully quiet and contemplative game. I resort to it frequently when I look in my library and find I don't want to just button mash, or play the same ole' same ole' for the 20th time...
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A fun fast cryptogram game
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Poems & Codes is the best, just the best. I played the demo in Next Fest and loved it. You have to reveal classic poems by solving substitution ciphers. You probably already know from that description—hell, from the very title!—whether or not that's your thing. And they're GOOD poems too, pre-modern classics rather than hip modern drivel. Wordsworth, Longfellow, Frost, etc. The poems are great, the ciphers are rewarding, the music is chill. The only thing it needs is EVEN MORE POEMS. Seriously…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is another great cryptogram puzzler. There are various difficulty settings. It has the ability to tag your favorite poems. You can also open up links to copies of the works (they are all royalty-free) in your browser courtesy of Project Gutenberg. It's really a marvelous game. Hope the devs keep making these.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you like poems and if you like code solving, this game is a must buy for you. So many great poems are waiting for you to be explored!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I loved Prose and Codes, and Poems and Codes seems to be following in the same vein. The structure is changed slightly, but not in a bad way, in a way that fits the poems much better than the quotes of the first game. The language is obviously different too, which can be challenging when spelling is embellished. I very much enjoyed the poem I did. Before I did a few quotes most days when I got done with work, but I think I'm switching it over to doing a poem every time I feel like doing…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This one is for my fellow word nerds and diehard Wordle players. Here's my latest review for indie PC puzzler Poems & Codes.
unlabelledView post →great game from great people
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A good variety of quotes and difficulty. Some of the graphic overlays weren't great
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Really enjoyed the puzzles. May not be your cup of tea if you aren't religious (Christianity). Recommend knowledge of older words and the uses of 'thine' and 'thou'.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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