Codenames Phone app (available for Android and iOS)

• Publisher: CGE
• Credits: too many to list here, you can find them on the app once you install it
• Players: 1+
• Time: anywhere from 2 minutes/day to 24 hrs/day  
• Age: anyone old enough to have a phone
• Played with copy purchased from Android Play Store (on sale for $5)

[To enter the drawing for a code for the app – just comment at the bottom of this post!]

So, normally, I’m not one to play games on my phone. I spend a lot of time for work in front of a screen, and so I usually prefer not to also spend my free time on screens.  That being said, I was introduced to this app by some friends (at CGE) while at Spiel 2024… and I’m addicted.  I love my time every day playing Codenames on my phone.

Most of you should be familiar with the boardgame – Codenames is the 2016 Spiel des Jahres winner, available in mass market stores, translated into almost 50 languages, etc.  It’s honestly been awhile since I’ve played the physical version, but I have been playing the phone app daily for a month now.

What makes it so awesome to play on your phone?  To start, there are so many different modes of play:

• Pass and play – if you’re sitting around and don’t have the physical game, you can all play on a single device, just passing it around
• Online asynchronous multiplayer – Take your turn, and then the app will alert you when it’s time to play again

• Team v Team and Team v Assassin:  TvT is the usual format of the game with two teams playing against each other, one giving clues and one hopefully picking the correct Codenames.  Team v Assassin is a new version where there is only a single 2-player team that plays against the AI.  You have at most 5 turns to get your 9 words. 

• You can play with the basic rules and a normal 5×4 grid… but as you gain experience, you can unlock 47 different VIP modes (which each offer different rules) that will play out on grids as small as 5×4 but as large as 7×7 – some examples are:

• Mirrors – game where your team’s codenames are in a symmetric patten on the board, but it’s up to you to figure out which axis of symmetry
• Minesweeper – game where you also get a numeric indicator on your answers telling you how many of your words are in the spaces around you

• All or nothing – games where you can only give 0 or infinity clues
• Gadgets – games that give you access to gadgets that might let you take back a guess if there is a bad outcome, make your opponents lose a turn if you can correctly identify a word they missed, or the quantum detector that chooses the better of two guesses that you make
• Two strikes – game with no assassins, but you lose automatically when you guess 2 neutral words

• Solo activities – the app also provides you ways to play on your own.  There are daily challenges where you see a single board – with 8 good options, 4 neutral and 3 assassin words.  You try to come up with the best single clue for the board.  Your clue is then played by other app users as a daily case, and you are judged based on how well you do versus 7 other clues for that board.   You get an allotment of the daily cases as well – where you get to look at these boards and try to answer the single clue.  I think I’m up to as many as 28 cases per day?

• Play with friends too – you can make friends on the app and set up your own personal games with your friends, using any VIP mode that you’ve unlocked.

As you can see, there is a lot of variety in the different game modes… There are also a lot more words than in the base game.  The developers tell me there are about 1000 words in app basic word set.  There are only 400 words in the board game.   In addition to the basic words, you will also earn access to 12 different special word categories, each with >100 words in each that you can discover.  These are all themed: Sports words, video game words, history words, etc.

When you play a non-friend game, you don’t know the identities of the other players in the game – this helps prevent any offline shenanigans (you can’t cheat with anyone if you don’t know who you’re playing with!).  The games generally move at a slow and steady pace, you take your turn and then wait for your next turn. You generally have 24hr to respond when it’s your turn, but I’ve found that most of my games involve players that are online, and they tend to finish in anywhere from a few hours to 2-3 days.  There is a log on each game that will remind you of the clues given earlier in the game as well as the guesses made (and whether they were correct or not).  There is no limit to the number of games you can have running at any time, and there have been times on weekends when I’ve been running 30+ games at once?!

If you couldn’t tell, the phone app is addicting. The developers have included a XP system to keep you interested and engaged. As you level up, you gain one advantage to use going forward.  The app includes a tutorial – so even if you’ve never played Codenames before, you’re walked thru the process of how to play.  

At first, you can only be an operative – that is the player who guesses at the codenames. As your level increases, you get the right to be a spymaster – that is the person who gives clues.

Later, you can then  be part of the jury – where you help decide in realtime if a unknown word is valid for use in the game.  Once you reach this stage, most of the upgrades just let you do more:

• Earn more daily challenges and cases to make daily solo play better
• Earn more VIP fragments to allow you to unlock new VIP games faster
• Multiple different ways to earn more XP from your activities

Sure, if you get high enough in level, all the different upgrades will converge, but I’ve compared my set of personally chosen upgrades (level 48) to a friend who is level 40, and we actually have a fair number of differences. 

For $5, I have gotten more than my money’s worth.  Probably play the game about 30-45 minutes a day (but I have MANY MANY multiple games going at once).  When I was only playing 2 or 3 games at once, it was maybe only 5 minutes a day?    Given the asynchronous nature of the games, you definitely do NOT have to be online in the game at all times, but you do need to check in about once every 24-36 hours to keep a game alive.  And, once you reach a certain level, you can unlock a setting that allows you to take up to a 3 day vacation – though, umm, I’ve already been on a vacation while playing the game, and trust me, I was looking forward to these little breaks where I’d get to open the app, make one turn at guessing or clue-making, and then return to my vacation.

One other thing to note is that the game is asynchronous and it does change how you play the game.  You have a very generous time limit to make your clues/guesses, and you do play it on a device that has connection to the Internets – so it’s fair game to look stuff up and come up with some really obscure clues/answers.  The app even encourages this as you can long press on clues to have it bring up a Google search page for that term.  For me, this is neither good nor bad, but it definitely has proved to be educational for me as I’ve definitely found myself perusing Wikipedia pages for things I would have never had interest in before…  Anything to find that perfect clue that somehow ties TIPI, AQUEDUCT and NGUNI SHIELD together…

So, in short, I love this app and I’m addicted to playing it.  So I’m writing about it to get the rest of you on the same Codenames train.  The cost is honestly small ($5 when not on sale) and it can become a part of your daily routine.  If you already play things like Wordle or Connections on a daily basis, it can be the same sort of thing.

Also, CGE was generous enough to offer a few promo codes. Anyone can enter this contest. Anyone who makes a comment below is automatically entered. Also, find our post about this on Instagram (@opinionatedgamersblog) and comment on it for an entry as well as an extra entry for liking the post.  If you can’t wait for the contest to end, the cost is honestly so low, it’s worth it just to go and buy it.  Also, at least on Android, it can be part of your Google Play Family apps, so you only need to pay for it once and you can share it amongst your entire family group. 

If you need me, I’ll be over in the corner playing this game while trying to avoid any chores today.  I need to level up!

If you can’t wait for the giveaway

Android – https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.czechgames.codenamesdigital&listing=cnapp-store-download-cno&hl=en_IN 

iOS –  https://apps.apple.com/us/app/codenames/id1055650930 

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it!  Dale Y
• I like it. John P
• Neutral.
• Not for me…