46 Fun Facts About Codenames

Who designed Codenames?

Vlaada Chvátil. He made his name with an epic civilization game, a long way from a party game of one-word clues, and is lead designer at the game's publisher, whose first releases included one of his designs.

Which company publishes Codenames?

Czech Games Edition. It was founded in 2007 by a team that had just made a strategy game together and decided that publishing games was what they wanted to do for a living.

Later Codenames printings lowered which figure on the box?

Age. The first edition was marked 14 and up, later printings cut that to 10, and the relaunched 2025 edition still says 10.

In Codenames: Duet, what colour are all the agent cards?

Green. Duet has no rival teams, since everyone at the table is on the same side, so the two team colours of the original give way to a single one.

In Codenames, what is the clue-giving player on each team called?

Spymaster. The two rivals sit side by side and share a single key card, which shows both of them which of the 25 words belong to each team.

In Codenames, what are the guessing players on each team called?

Field operatives. They may debate a clue openly among themselves, and they are free to stop early, but they must make at least one guess every turn.

What is printed on the back of each Codenames word card?

Another codename. Each of the 200 cards carries a different word on each face, 400 in all, which is why the original rulebook says to flip half the deck now and then while shuffling.

In Codenames, what colour is the assassin's square on the key card?

Black. It is the only square of its kind among the 25, which is why careful clue-givers check a clue against that one word before saying anything aloud.

In Codenames, what colour are the innocent bystanders' squares on the key card?

Beige. Seven of the 25 squares are these neutral passers-by, and touching one costs a team nothing but the rest of its turn.

What are the two teams' colours in Codenames?

Red and blue. Each side has eight agent tiles in its colour, and to balance the advantage of moving first, the team that opens has a ninth agent to find.

In Codenames, what do the four lights around the edge of the key card show?

Which team goes first. The lights are printed in the opening team's colour, and that team gives the first clue but also has one more agent to find than its rival.

What does the number in a Codenames clue tell the guessers?

How many words it fits. A clue is one word plus that number, so 'tree: 2' asks for two cards, such as NUT and BARK, and the rulebook rates linking four with one clue a big accomplishment.

What is the most guesses a Codenames team may make after a normal clue?

The stated count plus one. The spare guess is there so that a team can go back for a word it missed on an earlier turn.

What does finding its own agent earn a Codenames team?

Another guess. It gets no new clue, though, and after the one guess a team has to make each turn it is free to stop and save the rest of its ideas for later.

What extra penalty follows an invalid clue in Codenames, besides losing the turn?

The rivals reveal a free agent. Their clue-giver may cover one of their own words before the next clue, but only if somebody objects: an invalid clue that nobody notices simply stands.

Which type of hint do the Codenames rules discourage?

Phonetic. A clue has to work through meaning, so the rulebook allows SNAIL for MAIL, a common phrase, but not for SCALE, where the only link is the rhyme.

In Codenames, what happens when a team reveals one of the other side's agents?

Their turn ends immediately. Touching an innocent bystander does the same: either slip hands the table to the rivals, however many guesses the clue still allowed.

What timing device came in the box of the original 2015 edition of Codenames?

A sand hourglass. The rulebook admits it is rarely used: any player may flip it to hurry someone who is thinking too long, or even turn it on themselves.

According to the original Codenames rulebook, how do just two players play?

As one team against a dummy rival. One player gives clues, the other guesses, and the absent enemy 'finds' one of its own agents every turn, so the pair are racing a clock.

Which major award did Codenames win in 2016?

Spiel des Jahres. The German critics' prize is the most prestigious in board games, and the jury praised a game so spell-binding that one round is often followed by a second, a third and a fourth.

Which Codenames spin-off is an adults-only edition packed with double entendres?

Deep Undercover. The rules are exactly those of the family game: only the word cards changed, to a deck of innuendo that put a parental advisory label on the box.

Which Codenames game uses a five-by-four grid?

Codenames: Pictures. Its surreal drawings are dealt 20 at a time, and the rulebook lets players mix them into a single grid with the word cards of the original game.

The 'Assassin Ending' variant of Codenames: Pictures, where a team must find the assassin to win, is likened to which game?

Eight-ball pool. The original rulebook makes the comparison itself: a team wins by reaching the assassin once its own agents are found, and touching it early starts a sudden-death run in which one wrong guess loses.

What does the easier variant in Codenames: Disney Family Edition use for younger players?

A smaller four-by-four grid. The simpler set of key cards also leaves out the assassin altogether, and the cards show Disney and Pixar pictures on one side and words on the other.

Which comics publisher's superheroes have their own edition of Codenames?

Marvel. The edition keeps the original rules but recasts the two teams as S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra, with cards showing heroes such as Spider-Man and Doctor Strange and with Thanos as the assassin.

In Codenames, who decides whether a doubtful hint is allowed?

The rival clue-giver. A player unsure about a hint asks the opponent quietly, out of the guessers' hearing, and whatever the opponent allows counts as valid.

Codenames: Duet players must find every agent before they run out of what?

Turns. A bank of nine timer tokens counts them down, one for each clue, and when the last is spent the pair get only a sudden-death round, with no more clues, to find whatever agents are left.

In Codenames: Duet, how do the partners use the key card?

Each sees one side of it. The two faces differ, so each partner knows only some of the agents and gives clues for words the other cannot see marked.

In Codenames: Harry Potter, which group are the players trying to reveal?

Order of the Phoenix members. Players hunt for all 15 of them against the clock, with a stack of Time-Turner tokens ticking off each clue until time runs out.

In Codenames: Harry Potter, which villains must the players avoid uncovering?

Death Eaters. Stumbling on one costs everybody the game, because unlike the other licensed editions this one borrows Duet's rules and the whole table wins or loses together.

What should a Codenames clue-giver do when the team picks a right word by accident?

Act as if it was intended. A clue-giver may not reach for a tile or react until a card is touched, and the rules tell the guessers to watch the cards and avoid eye contact with their own clue-giver.

What sets the XXL editions of Codenames apart from the originals?

Double-sized cards and tiles. The words and rules are unchanged: the point is that everyone round a big table can read the grid, and the publisher also recommends it for players with poor eyesight.

Which animated TV family has its own edition of Codenames?

The Simpsons. The rules are those of the classic game, but each card has a picture from the show on one side and a name or word from it on the other, so teams can play with either.

Which video game company's staff were given a Codenames edition that was never sold in shops?

Blizzard. The studio itself asked for the limited run, filled with characters from its games such as Warcraft and Diablo, as a Christmas present for its employees.

Besides the clue itself, what may a Codenames clue-giver say to the team during its turn?

No other words. The rulebook rules out even an aside like 'this may be a bit of a stretch', and asks for a straight face while the team argues over what the clue meant.

Codenames Online, the free official browser version, was created in response to what?

The COVID-19 lockdowns. With game nights impossible in 2020, the publisher built a web version so that far-apart groups could keep playing, and gave it away free.

By 2022, into roughly how many languages had Codenames been translated?

45. The publisher counted 46 that year, a reach the small firm manages through partner companies abroad: the German edition, for instance, came out with the Heidelberger Spieleverlag.

A free bilingual edition of Codenames was made to help refugees from which country?

Ukraine. Each card pairs a word in the host country's language with its Ukrainian translation, each also spelled out in the other alphabet, and the game was given away through schools, libraries and charities.

Which real-time game by the designer of Codenames has players grabbing tiles to build spaceships?

Galaxy Trucker. The hastily built ships then fly through meteor showers and pirate attacks that knock pieces off, so a player's handiwork can fall apart long before it reaches the finish.

What did the designer of Codenames spend years making before he turned to the tabletop?

Video games. He worked on computer titles such as the strategy game Original War before leaving the studio in 2006, and later came full circle, spending years on the team that built the Codenames app.

In Codenames, what is the starting team's extra agent tile called?

The double agent. The tile carries one team's colour on each face, and it becomes the opening side's ninth agent, the price that team pays for giving the first clue.

By 2022, seven years after its release, roughly how many copies of Codenames had been sold?

12 million. By the game's tenth birthday in 2025 the publisher put sales past 16 million, and it marked the occasion by relaunching Codenames with all-new art and a shorter rulebook.

A Codenames key card shows a new layout when it is what?

Rotated. The square card slots into its stand with any edge up, and each quarter turn gives a different layout, so a deck of 40 cards yields far more than 40 games.

Which 2020 adventure game comes from the same publisher as Codenames?

Lost Ruins of Arnak. It was designed in-house by a couple who work under the names Mín and Elwen, both members of the publisher's own staff.

What happens to a Codenames team that reveals the assassin?

Loses the game. However far ahead a team is, one touch of that single card ends everything at once, which is why a clue that brushes against the wrong word is so dangerous.

In the original Codenames rulebook's three-player game, how does the lone guesser play?

For both clue-givers at once. Two rivals take turns giving clues to the same guesser, who is expected to do an honest job for each of them: 'just like spies in real life', as the rulebook puts it.