There is a secret four-digit code. Everyone guesses, everyone gets told how close they were, and the first person to nail it takes the round.
Mastermind, with the pegs replaced by whatever device people already have in their hands. Play it around one table or with a room that is scattered across the country.
Two in the right place, one right digit in the wrong place, one not in the code.
What a player is looking at, mid-round.
What actually happens
The room goes silent. Everyone is staring at the screen working out their next guess. First guess goes in: 1234. The feedback comes back: one right, two in the wrong place. Everyone re-runs the maths.
The next wave of guesses comes in. Someone tries 4321. Someone tries 5678. Each one narrows the field. Someone is scribbling on a napkin. Somebody else has quietly opened a spreadsheet.
By the seventh guess, one person leans back, smiles, and submits 8462. Four correct, none misplaced. The room loses it.
The rules
A secret 4-digit code is generated at the start
Players submit their guesses on their devices
After each round, you see how many digits were correct, misplaced, or wrong
Use the feedback to narrow down the code
Keep guessing until someone cracks it!
Be the first to crack the code! The player who submits the exact 4-digit combination first wins. Rounds continue until someone succeeds.
While you host
Once Crack The Code is running, the scoring, the leaderboard, and the ending are handled. You get to be in the room instead of behind a spreadsheet.
Leaderboard
Round 6 of 10
Final podium
Table 1
1,800
Table 3
2,600
Table 6
1,200
Final scores after three codes
A code goes on your screen. People point a camera at it, type a name, and they are in. No app, no accounts, no one asking what the wifi password is.
Answers are marked as they land and the board updates between rounds. You are not holding a clipboard, and nobody is arguing about who said it first.
Top three on the big screen at the end, and every player gets their own result card on their phone that they can save or send to the group chat.
The same session works with everyone around one table, everyone on a video call, or half and half. Nobody has to be in the right place to join in.
Where Crack The Code shines
Engineering team
A senior engineering manager runs it as the energiser at a quarterly offsite, in a room full of people who solve constraint problems for a living. The competition is fierce, silent, and completely focused. The winning team gets to set the afternoon's agenda. The losing team demands a rematch.
Family games night
Christmas evening, three generations around a casted screen. The youngest cousin is faster than anybody expected. The grandfather is making probability arguments. The cousin wins. The grandfather requests a rematch and gets one.
Pub quiz
A pub quiz host needs something that is not trivia. Crack the Code goes on the projector and eight tables race to crack three codes. Fastest table wins a round of drinks. Word gets around and the next quiz is busier.
Make it yours
Set the code length and the time per guess, then run it solo for a leaderboard or in teams so the arguing happens out loud.
Slot it in as the puzzle round between the music and the picture round. Tables play as teams and it needs no printing.
The one game where the quiet person in the corner wins. Two codes is enough for a lunchtime.
Deduction, elimination, and testing a hypothesis, wrapped in something a class will actually fight over.
Short, silent, and completely fair over a video call. No accents to mishear and no crosstalk to lose answers to.
How Crack the Code plays
Race as individuals on the leaderboard, or pool the brains in a team and let them argue about the next guess.
People point their camera at the code on your screen, type a name, and they are playing. Nothing to download, nothing to sign up for, and it works the same whether they are in the room with you or dialled in from three time zones away.
Best for: virtual sessions, hybrid offsites, and any crowd big enough that you want everyone answering at once.
Split the room into colour-coded teams. A team huddles, argues, and sends one answer. You can also let every member answer for their team if you would rather nobody sits out.
Best for: in-person offsites, weddings, and family gatherings, where you want people talking to each other instead of into their phones.
Offline · Coming soon
For rooms that would rather nobody had a phone out. Coming soon: guesses called out loud, entered by you, feedback shown on one shared screen. Fastest voice takes the round, or run it one team at a time.
