Uncovered! is an original 2-to-6 player cooperative game of imperfect information, heavily inspired by Hanabi and the Rubik's Cube.
Uncovered! is meant to evoke the experience of a group of friends solving a Rubik's cube together by taking turns... Except each player may see only a part of the cube and make only a single move at a time.
This repository is a boardgame.io implementation of this game that, in addition to the rules described below, implements an automatic scoring mechanism based on the game's initial state.
The game was conceived during COVID-19 lockdown by friends looking to play board games together while respecting social distancing.
Thus, while still staying true to genre of table-top board games, certain features of Uncovered! (e.g. scoring and information tracking) are specifically designed with computer assistance in mind.
While this game is designed to be played via the web-app, for the sake of clarity and respect to the genre, the rule specifications that follow assume an in-person tabletop setting.
The game is played with a deck of 8-24 numbered cards:
1(1 copy per player)2(1 copy per player)3(1 copy per player)4(1 copy per player)
The game board consists of a hand of 4 cards for each player seated around the table.
Cards are shuffled and distributed equally among the player hands.
Beginner: Players place their cards face up on the table in front of them. The card to the player's left (or viewer's right) is the card in the 1st position, the adjacent card is in the 2nd position, and so forth. During the course of the game, players may look at all cards on the table.
Intermediate: Players, without looking, (as in Indian Poker) fan their hands facing away from themselves. The card to the player's right (or viewer's left) is the card in the 1st position, the adjacent card is in the 2nd position, and so forth. During the course of the game, players may not look at cards in their own hand facing away from themselves.
Additionally for intermediate play, if players would like to keep score, each player writes down the sequence of cards in the
hand of the player to their right (in other words, the player with the previous turn, counterclockwise).
Advanced: The Advanced variant of Uncovered! requires 3 or more players. Players fan their hands toward themselves. The card to the player's left (or viewer's right) is the card in the 1st position, the adjacent card is in the 2nd position, and so forth. During the course of the game, players may only look at their own cards. The webapp version of this game will help each player keep track of the location of any cards previously in the player's hand, but in person, players are encouraged to take private notes or just have a really good memory.
Additionally for advanced play, if players would like to keep score, each player writes down the initial sequence of cards in
their hand on a slip of paper and then places it face down.
The game begins with the youngest player and turns proceeds counterclockwise around the table. (Obviously, any alternative convention is also acceptable). The first player (for scoring purposes), is called Player 0, the next player counter-clockwise is Player 1, and so on.
At the beginning of each player's turn, the player says aloud the current turn number (beginning at 0) and must take one of 2 actions:
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Uncover: The player may lay their hand face up on the table (or simply stating their intent in the Beginner version). At this point, the game ends. Proceed to the Winning the Game section for scoring.
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Swap Cards: The player may swap any card from their own hand with any card in any other player's hand.
- Each card entering a player's hand assumes the position of the card that just left it.
- The cards are swapped face up over the table, so the identity of the swapped cards are known to all.
- Intermediate: When a card enters a player's hand and the card's value matches the position in the hand (for example, card
3is placed in position 3), that player may turn the card to face themselves. This indicates that this card has reached its intended position and should be avoided where possible in future swaps. Players should agree before cards are dealt on how to use this card-turning convention as it is not intended as a message passing mechanism.
The game ends when a player Uncovers during their turn. In Intermediate and Advanced versions, this action prompts all players to lay their hands face up on the table in order to determine the outcome of the game.
The game is considered won if every player's hand has the same sequence of card numbers.
For example, in a won game, every player's hand might contain the cards 3, 2, 1, and 4, in that order.
Intermediate/Advanced: To score a winning game, enter the following pieces of information into the webapp's scoring screen in the appropriate boxes:
- The last turn number said aloud.
- The player's initial hands (written on the face down slips of paper).
The score determined by the webapp will be non-negative integer (e.g. 0, 1, 2, etc...).
The lower the score, the better, while a score of '0' should be considered a great achievement and represents a perfect victory.
TBD. (I don't yet know an algorithm that's plausible to execute by hand).