Instructions

This page lets you play Codenames during the COVID-19 global pandemic. Here's how it works...

1. Get everyone in your group online using your video chat service of choice
2. Every participant opens this page in a browser (I recommend using a separate device from the video chat for ease)
3. Synchronize your gameIDs -- you can share a link or use the "Set gameID"
4. Confirm that everyone is looking at the same board
5. Play!

The Spymasters (clue-givers) will see all of the words with team colors. Try out the "Become Spymaster" option before playing to see how it works. Your Spymasters should therefore either be in the same place, sharing a screen, or be the only ones using their devices. (The page works on phones too!)

To guess a word as the player, just click on it.

When a team is guessing a word, it's important that everyone (spymasters included) clicks on the word. This will ask for confirmation, and then mark the word as selected. All players need to see which words have been guessed already, as do spymasters. So everyone needs to click on the same words.

Recommendation: say to everyone playing "we're clicking on <SPAM>" so that everyone is 100% clear on word selections.

CodenamesJS shares all of the information about the board with all players, and doesn't coordinate amongst players. Therefore, it is extremely easy to cheat.

Here are some good recommendations for handling players who you believe may be cheating:

1. Don't play with those people