Codenames (board game)
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| File:Codenames board game.jpg
Codenames at the end of play. The game has ended because the assassin (the black card on the left edge) has been found.
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| Designer(s) | Vlaada Chvátil |
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| Publisher(s) | Czech Games Edition |
| Players | 4–8+ (Recommended at least 6) |
| Setup time | 1–5 minutes |
| Playing time | 15–30 minutes |
| Random chance | Low |
| Skill(s) required | Language skills, concept identifying |
Codenames is a 2015 party card game designed by Vlaada Chvátil and published by Czech Games Edition. Two teams compete by each having a "spymaster" give one-word clues that can point to multiple words on the board. The other players on the team attempt to guess their team's words while avoiding the words of the other team. Codenames received positive reviews and won the 2016 Spiel des Jahres award for the best board game of the year.[1]
Rules
Codenames is a game played by 4 or more players in which players are split into two teams, red and blue, and guess words based on clues from their teammates.[2] One player from each team becomes a spymaster, and the others are field operatives.[3] The end goal is to place all of the team’s agent tiles.
During setup, 25 cards containing words are randomly laid out in a 5x5 grid.[4] Some represent red agents, some represent blue agents, one represents the assassin, and the rest are innocent bystanders. The spymasters receive a randomly dealt card with colored squares representing the words. They must help their field operatives guess the correctly colored squares while avoiding the black (assassin) square and innocent bystanders. The ‘lights’ on the key card represent which team will go first and have an extra agent that must be placed.
Each turn, the spymaster gives a verbal clue containing only a single word and a number. The verbal clue should represent correctly colored cards in some way. For example, for the cards ‘beach’, ‘whale’, and ‘water’, one could give the clue ‘ocean’, as these things are all related to the ocean, The number represents how many cards fit that clue. The single word must be related by meaning, so it cannot be purely phonetically related. It also cannot be or contain any word on the board. If an invalid clue is given and invalidated by the opposing spymaster, the turn ends immediately and the opposing team gets to randomly place an agent.
After the verbal clue is given, the field operatives must guess words that go with the clue, and the word will subsequently be covered with an agent tile, an assassin tile, or a bystander tile by the spymaster. The field operatives must make at least one guess per turn, with the maximum number of guesses being the number given in the clue plus one. If a bystander or an enemy agent is guessed, the turn ends. If the assassin is guessed, the game ends, with the guessing team losing. The turn can also be ended voluntarily. For a faster game, or in certain situations such as when the opposing team takes too long guessing, a timer can be used. An hourglass timer is provided with the game.
The game ends when the assassin is guessed or when all of one team’s agents are guessed. The winner is the first team to place all agent tiles.[5]
Official variations
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Codenames: Deep Undercover was released in 2016 exclusively at Target Stores. Published by Lark & Clam and marketed as an adult party game, the game's 200 new word cards contain sexual references and double entendres, earning it a parental advisory label.[2] The game received an update in 2018 under the subtitle [2.0], which intends to achieve better gameplay balance.
Codenames: Pictures was released in September 2016, and includes 200 two-sided cards that feature images instead of words.[2] The game uses a 5x4 grid instead of the original's 5x5, resulting in 20 cards being used at a time, but otherwise has the same rules as the original. The image cards themselves can also be combined with the word cards from the original game for a more advanced gameplay variation.
Codenames: Disney Family Edition was released in September 2017, featuring characters and locations from Disney and Pixar films and including an easier 4x4 grid gameplay (with no 'Game Over' square) for younger players. Codenames: Marvel Edition was released around the same time, featuring characters from the Marvel Universe, such as Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Iron Man and Captain America.[3] Both of these editions come with their own clue cards, which can be flipped over to display the picture or the word.
Codenames: Duet was released in October 2017 as a two-player cooperative version of the original game. The game packaging includes 200 new word cards, which can also be used for the original game (provided that the language matches). The objective of the game is to reveal all 15 agents within a given number of turns without contacting too many innocent bystanders or the Assassin.[4]
Codenames: Harry Potter was released in 2018. Themed around the novel series of the same name, it is played similarly to Codenames: Duet, with two or more players working together to reveal all Order of the Phoenix members before they run out of time, while also trying to avoid the Ministry of Magic and the Death Eaters.
Codenames: XXL was released in June 2018, Codenames: Pictures XXL in November 2018, and Codenames: Duet XXL in May 2019. They are all the same as their respective original games, except for the fact that they use a larger format and double-sized cards.[5]
Codenames: The Simpsons Family Edition was released in November 2019 and features characters and references from the eponymous television series. Its gameplay is identical to Codenames: Pictures. One month later, CGE released another licensed spin-off called Codenames: Blizzard Edition, featuring characters and references from the video game franchises by Blizzard Entertainment, such as Warcraft and Diablo. This particular edition is never available for retail, and was gifted exclusively to Blizzard employees around Christmas.
Digital
CGE has released Codenames Gadget, a mobile app to randomly generate layouts of agents.[6] The publisher has also released an official web version of the game and Codenames Duet through their website.[7][8]
Reception
Codenames received positive reviews upon its release. Nate Anderson from Ars Technica praised the strategy and engagement, but criticised the downtime. He concluded that it was a "terrific choice for a family friendly game".[9] Writing for Kotaku, Alex Walker stated that the game had high replayability, and commended the mechanics.[10] Oliver East also commented on the game's entertainment value and described it as an "instant hit".[11] The game was commercially acclaimed, and has been published in 38 languages (Afrikaans, Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian [Bokmål], Polish, [European] Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish, Thai and Turkish), comprising six different alphabets.[12]
Awards
| Year | Game | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Codenames | Origins Award: Best Family Game, Fan Favorite Family Game, and Game of the Year | Won[13] |
| 2016 | Codenames | Spiel des Jahres (Game of the year) | Won[14] |
| 2017 | Codenames Duet | Golden Geek award: Best Two-player Game | Won[15] |
References
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