Ver. 1.00

All players co-operate, trying to put down cards of the same shape in the same order. When the lead player says a word from a Subject card, what shape do you think matches that? Everyone has their own ideas, things get confused. And the shape cards are put face-down, so who knows what to think?

When all the players have put 5 of their cards face-down, the cards are turned up and checked. If the cards all have the same shape in the same order, all players win!

The game can be played at different skill levels. As you play, the game gets harder. But for variation, you could choose to play an easy game, or a very hard game.

96 Shape cards (16 cards for each)

Circle, Connected Circle, Double Circle, Double Lines, Square, Double Square, Drop, Star, Ellipse, Circle and Square, Heart, Half Circle, Square and Square, Circle and Line, Trapezoid, Triangle.

Each player receives 16 Shape cards with the same colour on the back. Unused colour cards are put back in the box.

One player chooses 6 cards from their 16 Shape cards at random, and places them face up.

All players pick out the same 6 Shape cards as a new pile, and they’re placed side by side on the table, leaving 10 matching Shape cards in each player’s hand.

60 Subject cards
The 60 Subject cards each show 5 Topics. The no. 1 Topics are easy, getting harder through to the no. 5 Topics, which are difficult.

One side is Regular, and the other side is Hard.The players agree which side to use at the start of the game. The Subject deck is shuffled and placed with the chosen side face-down, so the Topics are not seen in advance. The deck is placed next to the unused Shape cards. (See “Preparation figure” below.)

The start player is the one with a shape in their name. If no-one fits, choose a start player randomly.
The start player draws one card from the deck of Subject cards.

The start player is the turn player. The turn player will advance clockwise each turn. The turn player draws the top card from the Subject deck, and looks at both cards in their hand. They choose which Subject card to use and place the chosen Subject card showing the Topic face up on the table, starting a column below the draw deck. The unused Subject card is passed clockwise to the next player.

At the start of the game, the first Topic on the Subject card is used for the first turn. The next turn player will be using the second Topic on the Subject card for the second turn, and so on.

NOTE: from the start of the game, if the turn player does not like their two hand cards, they may discard them both and draw two fresh Subject cards from the deck. But now they must choose and cannot discard these two cards.

Now all the players, including the turn player, play one Shape card from their hand face-down in the centre. The chosen Shape cards stay face-down on the table, forming a row next to the first Subject card. In the second turn, another row is formed below this, and so on. (Please see the figure further down).

Going clockwise, the next player is the turn player, and continues as above by drawing a Subject card to their hand. They then choose which Subject card to use from the two, and the unused Subject card is passed to the next turn player, and so on. 

The turn player puts their chosen Subject card face-up below the previous Subject card, and reads out the Topic. All the players choose a Shape card face-down, placing it to below the previous face-down card.

When a new game starts, the first turn player chooses a level no.1 Topic for the first turn. Each turn following, the new turn player should choose the next level Topic. For the final turn, the turn player should be on the level no. 5 Topic.

The game ends once 5 Shape cards are played. Now all the players turn up their face-down Shape cards one by one, to check with each other. If all the players played the same shapes in the same order, the players win the game. Congratulations! If there is even one mismatched shape, the players all lose the game. Work together and win the game!

Agree one Topic level for the whole game (playing five turns at no. 5 is very hard!). Change the number of Shape cards players can hold (down to a minimum of five). Does having fewer shapes to choose from make it easier or harder? Or add more Shape cards and more rounds.