Five Board Games that Inspire Creativity!

Intent: Inspire you to try new games and share your creativity!

I often hear people around me say “I’m not creative.” Well, I never believe that, not for one second. Everyone has creativity within them. It just fascinates me how differently we all think and observe the world. I often find myself wondering how others perceive certain object or even color. Sure, bananas are yellow but what if my yellow is completely different than yours? Another mystery of life I guess.

What isn’t a mystery though is how we think we think. Many great conversations have started due to a lack of a shared perception. Does pineapple indeed belong on pizza? These conversations are often riveting and today I want to share with you five games that can be tools to begin those conversations.

Now, the best part about board games? They’re fun. Elements such as creativity are implied but often not focused on, so I wanted to highlight how these various games spark creativity and allow you and the people around you to share some laughs and at times have some heated debates.

I also wanted to do something different for this blog. An interactive component! Not only will I tell you about these games, but I’ll invite you to play alongside us as well and see how our thinking and creativity overlaps! Check out our social media as we’ll have interactive posts for you to play along!

Let’s have some fun and be a creative, shall we?

Hues and Cues

Designer: Scotty Brady

Publisher: The Op

Player Count: 3-10 Players

Length: 30 minutes

Overview: A hue can be defined as a color or a shade. A cue is essentially a signal, such as a word or a phrase. Well, this game you’ll be giving cues to allow players to guess the hues. Hues and Cues is a competitive party game that gets you laughing and debating the various shades of colors and how they fit into the world. There’s 480 shades of colors! On your turn, you’ll be given a card with four hues on it, you’ll select one of them and give everyone a one word clue. The clue you give cannot contain a common color, refer to anything in the room or the position of the board. Everyone will then take their cone (rods and cones, get it?) and in turn order, take guesses on which hue they think fits the cue. Then, you will have the opportunity to give an additional two word clue, which can guide players closer to the hue. After the players have guessed, you place a 3x3 square on the board with the correct hue in the centre of it. The individual who gets the hue correct gets three points, anyone else within the square gets 2 points and anyone that is touching it from the outside gets a single point. The clue-giver will score points based on how many cones are in the square. The game continues until after each player has taken two turns at which point the individual with the most points wins! How good is your colour vocabulary?

Creativity Factor: This game creates endless opportunities for creativity. Color can be expressed from experiences in our lives, common objects, nostalgic popular culture or even feelings! As a variation you can set up guidelines for clue giving, which can allow you to have fantastic conversations and create memorable clues as you compete to be the Hues and Cues champion.

Let’s Play! Here’s a card. Which clues would you give for the following hues? The lighting is slightly different so make sure to compare with the board.

Here’s the board for reference.

Wavelength

Designer: Alex Hague, Justin Vickers and Wolfgang Warsch

Artist: Nan Na Hvass and Sofie Hannibal

Publisher: Palm Court

Player Count: 2-12 players

Length: 30-45 minutes

Overview: I’m sure you’ve had a debate if a piece of food was in fact healthy or not? or if your Pokemon card from your child hood is rare? How about if condiments on sandwiches are essential or not? Well Wavelength, a competitive team party game, not only allows you to have similar conversations, but allows you to get on the same wavelength and discover a bit more about each other. On your turn you will draw a card, which has two opposites, for example “Poorly Made and Well Made.” The magic wheel will then be spun randomly and you will get to see where your team needs to guess (See below for example). You’ll then give a clue to the rest of your team. The main restriction for giving clues is that your clue must only convey a single thought. For example in this case, you can say “a large umbrella” but may not say “a large umbrella made of steel to protect from small asteroids.” The panel will then close, hiding where the correct position lies and your team will use the red dial to make their guess. Points are scored based on positioning and the other team has an opportunity to score a point for guessing if the other team’s guess is too left or right on the spectrum. The first team to ten points is victorious! Will you be able to determine what lies right in the middle of unhygienic and hygienic?

Creativity Factor: This game is particularly interesting as it definitely requires you to think in a broader sense. Sure, ice cream is cold, but is it the COLDEST thing that’s ever existed? What even could that be? What’s right in between cold and hot? The best part is you don’t always have to be literal, my first grade teacher was pretty cold and my teammate knows that so maybe I’ll say that? This game pushes you to think on behalf of others and how they perceive the world. How creative will your clues get?

Lets Play! What clue would you give for this position?

Just One

Designer: Ludovic Roudy and Bruno Sautter

Artist: Èric Azagury and Florian Poullet

Publisher: Repos Production

Player Count: 3-7 players

Length: 20 minutes

Overview: Just One is the perfect party game to encourage creativity. You will work together with your team to see how many words you can guess correctly! This game starts by taking thirteen cards from the deck and placing them in the middle of your group. Each turn a player will be designated as the guesser, they will pick a number between 1-5 which will correspond with a word on a card. Everyone else will see this word and write down just one word that they think will help the guesser to guess it correctly. BUT there is a catch! Without the guesser looking, everyone will compare their words at the same time and if there are any duplicate words, or words that have the same root to them, then those clues are tossed out. Once all the clues have been filtered out, the guesser will look at all the clues that remain and attempt to guess the original word. BUT there is another catch! If the guesser guesses the word wrong, the card with the word on it and another card from the pile in the middle go into the discard. If they guess correctly, the group gains one point and uses the card to keep track. Alternatively, the guesser has the option to pass their guess, which saves the group from losing out on an extra point; your team only discards the card in play. After all thirteen cards have been guessed or discarded, the game is over and your team ends with a score out of thirteen! How many times will it take you to get the perfect score? Just one?

Creativity Factor: The first instance you see a word, you’ll quickly associate another word to it. Now here’s the fun part, do you write that word or do you keep thinking and relating various different words to it? Which would be the most beneficial in this situation? This game is particularly fun because you often experience yourself thinking outside of the box. Let’s try it out: Root. Your mind may first jump to plants and trees, maybe potatoes? A Leder Game? Oh, but what about a root word? Could I write word? Hmm.

Lets Play! What word would you guess here?

Dixit

Designer: Jean-Louis Roubira

Artist: Marie Cardouat

Publisher: Libellud

Player Count: 3-6 players

Length: 30 minutes

Overview: Dixit, a beloved classic. If you haven’t had the chance to try this game, I highly encourage you to. Dixit is a competitive party card game, in which you aim to be the first to score thirty points. At the start of the game you’ll be dealt a hand of cards. On your turn, you must pick a card and a clue associated with that card that’s not too specific but also not too broad. After choosing a clue you’ll place your card facedown, everyone else will now pick a card from their hand that also is associated with your clue, their goal is to throw other players off and get them to guess their card rather than yours. You’ll shuffle all the cards and deal them out in a line(as displayed below.) Everyone now takes a guess by putting a chip in front of them facedown, which has a number associated to a position on the board. The round is now scored. If everyone got the correct card then everyone except you gets two points. If nobody got the correct card, everybody but you scores two points and additional point for each guess made on their own card. If at least one player, but not everybody got the correct card then you get three points and so does the player who was correct along with additional points for guesses made on their card. The game ends when a player reaches or exceeds thirty points. How clever and creative will your clue be?

Creativity Factor: I really like this one because at first it seems pretty easy, choose a card and pick something that will allow players to guess it that’s not too obvious. In practice, it’s much more difficult! The creativity juices begin to flow and you’ll be so proud of yourself when giving just the right clue! It’s also fun to try to match your cards to the opponents clues and then attempting to throw off others. You’ll really notice yourself get more and more creative with each playthrough and there’s just so many expansions for this game!

Let’s Play! If the clue was “Fairy Tale,” which would you guess and why?

Pictures

Designer: Christian Stöhr and Daniela Stöhr

Artist: Dominik Mayer

Publisher: PD-Verlag

Player Count: 3-5 players

Length: 20-30 minutes

Overview: The winner of the Spiel des Jahres in 2020! The biggest award in the board game industry. In Pictures, you will take turns manipulating different materials to get your opponents to guess the associated image. Each turn everyone will be assigned a specific material: sticks and stones, cards, colored cubes, wooden blocks and shoestring. Everyone will then draw a coordinate out of a bag to indicate which picture they will be recreating with their materials. Note: there’s multiples of each coordinate so you very well could be recreating the same image as one of your opponents. Once everyone has made their image, you’ll go around and mark your guesses on a sheet of paper. You’ll receive points for every guess you get correct and for everyone who got your picture correct as well. Materials are then passed clockwise and the game continues until everyone’s used each material once. The individual with the most points wins! Are you a shoelace artist?

Creativity Factor: This game is incredibly simple but so engaging! Each turn you’ll have to think of a creative way to represent your picture with the materials given. Some are certainly easier than others but regardless of the material you’ll find joy in creating these masterpieces. The creativity jumps in when you decide to hone in on a specific element or think in a more abstract way to represent your image. Will you get criticized or applauded by your friends?

Lets Play! Here’s five clues for five different pictures! Can you match them?

Creativity Overview Summary

• Hues and Cues: How do I interpret and perceive colors? Could experiences have a color?

• Wavelength: It’s easy to think in dichotomies but what would my example be of what’s in between Good and Evil?

• Just One: Word association is easy, but how far can I go and how can I have an original clue in order to help my team?

• Dixit: This is how I would interpret this picture, but is it too specific? How can I think outside of the box so I’m not too broad or too specific?

• Pictures: How on earth am I supposed to represent a bunch of locks with a shoestring? One line art? Am I an artist?

Have another game you would include in this list? Let us know by commenting or connecting with us on social media!