On Air

Good evening. Here is the news. A very serious presenter reads it, live, and you are typing the captions.

Each word appears the moment it is spoken. Type it, press Space, and it goes straight to air. There is no backspace on live television. A slip snaps to the nearest real word, so the anchor looks into the camera with total gravity while the caption underneath announces that the drum to the islands is delayed by fog.

And it speeds up. Every broadcast starts gently and ends faster than anyone types: the goose story becomes breaking news, the weather turns into a storm, the football goes to penalties. Fall behind and the station's auto captioner takes over, with total confidence and no idea what anyone said. Hold on as long as you can, then win the caption back.

Three broadcasts: the evening news, the weather (with a map, a band of rain and then the storm), and live football from a commentary box high above Mudford. Then tonight's late bulletin, eight gentle stories drawn fresh every day.

How to play: type what they say, word by word, and press Space after each one. Nobody holds to the end: your score is how long you held. On a phone, use the on screen keyboard.

Every broadcast ends with the clip: a screen grab of the funniest caption that went out, yours or the machine's, under the presenter's solemn face, with what they actually said beneath it and how long you held. Save it or send it.

In English and German, with the news written separately for each language. Plays in your browser on desktop and phone, no download, no account.

More small games at crelvo.dev/games. Made at crelvo.dev.