Hidden Code — one clue, many words

What is Hidden Code

Hidden Code is a team word-association game in the spirit of Codenames. There are 25 words on the board. Behind them hide the agents of the red and blue teams, neutral bystanders and one assassin. Only the spymasters see the key, and their job is to link several of their own words with a single clue so that the team guesses them without hitting anyone else.

The table host chooses the word language: English or Russian. If your interface is in English, a new table starts with English words automatically. Three difficulty levels decide which words reach the board.

The rules in short

• 4 to 10 people play in two teams, red and blue, with at least two in each. In the lobby everyone picks a team and a role: spymaster or operative.
• The team that starts hides 9 agents on the board, the other team 8. Seven more cards are neutral, and one is the assassin.
• Spymasters see the colour of every card, operatives see only the words.
• On their turn the spymaster says one word and a number — how many cards the clue covers. The clue cannot be a word still hidden on the board.
• Operatives open cards one by one, at most the number from the clue plus one. Their own card — the turn goes on; a neutral or enemy card — the turn passes.
• Open the assassin and your team loses at once. Otherwise the team whose agents are all revealed first wins, even if the last one was opened by the opponents.

How to give good clues

A good clue joins two or three words without leading to the other team’s agents, let alone the assassin. Before you speak, look at the whole board: is there a card your team could mistake for yours? A safe clue for two words often beats a risky one for four.

Operatives should think out loud: the spymaster stays silent but hears how the team reasons and makes the next clue sharper. When you run out of confident guesses, end the turn yourself — it is safer than opening a card at random.

What you get on Omerta

• English and Russian word lists, three difficulty levels; the board is built at random for every game.
• Two timers: one for the spymaster’s clue and one for the team’s turn — 30, 45, 60 or 90 seconds, or no timer at all. Every correct card adds 15 seconds to the turn timer.
• Voice and video: your team hears and sees each other right in the game.
• The table host can pause the game and change timers mid-game, and a late spectator can sit down as an operative.

How to start

Sign in with email or Telegram, press Create, choose Games and Hidden Code, then Create and sit down. Invite friends from the table menu: with an invitation on the site, in Telegram or with the table link. In the table settings check that the word language is English. Everyone picks a team and a role in the lobby; whoever does not is placed at random. The host starts the game once at least four players are connected.

After a game, New game returns everyone to the lobby with the same settings: teams are chosen again and a new board is dealt.