The basic loop
A facilitator hosts a game and shares a six-character code (e.g. HEX-934) with their team. Players join with that code and a display name — no accounts, no passwords. As they arrive, the facilitator pairs them up:
- One builder per pair — they have a blank canvas and a tray of coloured polygons.
- One guiderper pair — they see the goal pattern, but their builder doesn't.
- Optional observers — they watch one pair, see both screens live.
When the round starts, players talk on their video call. The guider describes the picture. The builder drags polygons onto the canvas. Neither sees the other's screen.
The twist: secret briefs
Each player gets a sealed envelope before the round begins. The brief is a private rule that distorts the conversation — for example, the builder must place pieces opposite from the direction the guider says, or the guider can only describe shapes using nautical terms.
Players can't reveal their brief to their partner. They can ask each other questions. The whole game is the negotiation between the two private rules.
Facilitator accelerants
The game master has a deck of eight in-game mechanics they can trigger on any pair (or all pairs) mid-round, each modeling a real workshop dynamic:
- 🔮 Prototype unlock — a 5-second glimpse of the goal, ~25% wrong on purpose.
- 📖 Reveal briefs— both players see each other's rule.
- ✓ Test build — turn on per-piece correctness markers.
- ↻ Agile share — builder snapshots their progress for the guider.
- ⏱ Time pressure — drop 3 minutes off the clock.
- ✦ Vocab swap— re-roll the guider's constraint mid-round.
- 🎲 Randomizer — wipe the goal pattern, generate a new one.
- ✎ Requirement change — mutate exactly one piece in the goal.
Each accelerant has a per-round cap. The point isn't to use them all — it's to reach for the right one when the room gets stuck.
After the game
When the round ends, every player sees the goal alongside what they built, plus everyone's briefs. The facilitator runs a debrief on the call: where did the picture diverge? Which brief got in the way? What would you have asked your partner that you didn't?