Meet Concept.

This new game from Repos has captured my imagination in a big bad way!

So, what’s the deal with Concept?

Concept is a game in which you try to get the other players to guess a word or phrase by marking different items on the board as concepts related to that word or phrase.

What makes Concept special?

I am a big fan of “guess the word” games, so I’m already on board with Concept from the start. I love the challenge of trying to use the (not so) limited set of pictures to try and communicate complex ideas! It is definitely a lot harder than it initially seems, but it’s just so rewarding when you are able to get your fellow players to guess the word or phrase. The game opens up a lot of ways to be clever and creative in your communication.

Alright, so what’s the gameplay like?

Let’s just play together, yeah? Sorry if my clues are a little wonky – it’s not an easy game!

I check one of the cards to get a word or phrase. Each card has 9 items, grouped by difficulty – green is challenging, red is even more challenging, and grey is for experts only!

Alright, now that I’ve got my word/phrase, I use the green question mark to mark the main concept.

So the main concept is some kind of animal or wildlife. I also use green cubes to add detail. In the picture above, I’ve marked the “fast” concept. A fast animal? That’s not going to be enough – I need to add more green cubes.

Black and white…

…and three cubes on a line?

Alright, so we have here a fast black and white animal with lines. Any guesses?

I was going for zebra. Did you get it?

As the words and phrases get more complex, you’ll need more than just one concept. Fortunately, there are four other colors that can be used to mark sub-concepts. Let’s try another, a little trickier.

A toy or game…

…that is electronic.

Associated with the electronic game is an animal or animals or some kind of wildlife…

…that flies…

…fights…and is sad?

This one is definitely trickier. An electronic game with a fighting flying animal…that is sad?

Something might not be as specific as we’d like here. Any guesses?

The phrase is Angry Birds. Did you get it?

That’s really the idea! There is some simple scoring, and the official game rules suggest that 2 people work together to mark the concepts, but for me the real joy is in just playing rounds without caring about scoring.

I’ll leave you with one more – post guesses in the comments!

I think I get it. Who do you recommend this game to?

As much as I’d like to say it is, this is definitely not a game for everyone. It takes a reasonably high level of abstract thought to communicate the “easy” words and phrases and just gets more challenging from there. The “challenging” words and phrases are just downright daunting! So for anyone who doesn’t enjoy these kind of abstract challenges would probably be dissatisfied or even frustrated.

On the other hand, The game is really unique and if you do enjoy abstract thought challenges, I highly recommend Concept. I always find games that allow for reaching goals in creative ways to be the most rewarding, and Concept has that in spades.

It’s also great for a big group. Players can feed off of each other’s guesses and the teamwork that comes out of solving the puzzle is delightful!

Whether you want to play a full game with scoring or just want to try your hand at cluing with the Concept board to challenge friends or Knight Moves staff, Concept is a lot of fun and its flexible nature makes it easy to incorporate into any game time!

To Summarize:
Players: I say 2 or more. Box says 4-12+
Time: As long or as short as you like! Box says 40 minutes.
Strategy: 1
Luck: 1
Complexity: 2
Challenge: 4
Game Elements: Creativity, Abstract Communication, Imagination