Concept

This game is so fun and easy to explain. Good for 2 people or larger crowds. We don’t follow the rules, we just have one person do the board and everyone else guesses. Like charades.

Such a great family/ large friend group game!! Easy to learn how to play, but great for all types of gamers. This game is fun even when you don’t play for points!

The first time you play with anyone new it will take a bit of time to learn the new "language" of Concept. It's totally worth it. It's such a fun challenge, and every time I've played the new players start out hesitant and stick with the easiest ones. As we play though, everyone wants to try the harder ones, and we get more and more comfortable with the board and learning how to communicate with it. My 21 year old niece has Downs Syndrome and her parents were initially skeptical that she would be able to play on her own. Once she caught on, she absolutely loved it and really excelled! Her parents were really excited for her to have a game that enabled her to communicate really well without requiring a lot of language skills. Would also highly recommend for groups where not everyone speaks English as a first language. Its nice that there are 9 options on each card, as everyone can find at least one option that they can confidently get.

I don't know how it took me almost 10 years after its release to find this game. Such a clever concept (pun intended) and surprisingly challenging. The game pieces are of good quality and the three icon cheat sheets were a great addition to have for players new to the game. It takes a lot of creativity and is quite fun to play. What keeps this game from getting 5 stars? There are two issues I have with it. First, there are many, many clues that I have no idea what or who they are. Like, a ton of them. You can get around this by allowing somebody to come up with any concept they want on their own, but this is still pretty limiting. The biggest issue I have is with the scoring- it just doesn't work effectively, and, after almost 10 years in production, there should be some good ideas by now (the instructions even disclose that scoring is a potential issue and suggest that scores may not be kept. I get it, but c'mon, it's a game!). I have experimented with awarding points for the number of markers used to get somebody to guess the word or phrase (i.e., each round is worth a maximum of 10 points; if the concept is guessed with 5 markers used on the board, the round is worth 5 points; if the concept was guess with 7 markers on the board, the round is worth 3 points, as so forth). We do not play on teams; points are awarded to both the person giving the clue and to the person who first guessed it. I suggest the developers release a 10th-anniversary edition with new clues and revised scoring options.

This is now in the permanent rotation for games on our weekly game night. It is hard but also extremely fun and great for like minded people. My group of friends are all so different that sometimes it's so hard to guess what they are thinking. It's like pictionary meets charades. This would be an amazing gift for anyone who loves Charades!! The rules leave a lot open for interpretation. Our group of friends decided that we would add a 2 min timer and if you can't guess it the other team has a chance to guess once. It's incredibly simple so there really aren't a lot of rules. There are easy, medium, and hard categories and depending on which you chose depends on how many points you get. All in all I would say that it is the type of game that even non gamers would enjoy. I was so happy when I saw Rhett & Link play it on TableTop with Will Wheaton. That show has lead to me trying so many new and fun games that I hadn't previously given the chance. The price of this game fluctuates quite a bit though on Amazon. I bought it at $20 while my friend pay $38 a few weeks later. It looks like either way though if you buy it at a game store it'll run you about $40 so Amazon is a great place to stalk until they lower the price again.

While this is not traditionally the type of game I would purchase, I saw it played and it was intriguing. It's easy to teach and learn but still provides a very nice challenge to both the clue giver and guesser(s). The rule book is very helpful but is also very open to how you play. This game can be played cooperatively with everyone at the table guessing together. It can be played semi-cooperatively with someone else helping you to get the clues out with the intent of their team guessing the answer instead. It can also played competitively between individual players, or teams. You can have many small teams, two large teams, it doesn't matter. The game can accommodate as many as you'd like without any downtime. The rule book teaches you the basics of the game but lets you play your way. The gameplay is fun and very unique. I personally like to give the clues instead of guess but there are people who prefer to guess. The components are of good quality. The cards are made of nice card stock and are pretty durable. Recommend.

This game is a lot of fun. It's not really competitive, though. It's more of a freeform, "challenge yourself and have a good time with friends" sort of game. The basics of the game are as follows: you draw a card that has a list of words and/or phrases on it, grouped into three different levels of difficulty. You choose one of the words or phrases and must get the other players to guess your chosen word. You do this not by talking, drawing, or even acting, but by placing markers on the included board of concepts. The board consists of around 50 or so (I haven't counted) concepts, such as tall, short, hot, cold, sad, happy, yes, no, location, colors, type (phrase, object, etc.), and materials (rubber, plastic, wood, etc.). This isn't a comprehensive list, but you get the idea. You have several different types of markers: one for the main concept, and 4 markers for subconcepts. You also have little blocks that are color-coded to each marker so that you can communicate several ideas within the same concept. This probably sounds confusing, but the instructions are very helpful, as is this Youtube play-through: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFPYiUaGJNk It is unlike any other game I've ever played before, and I love the unique and well thought out concept (see what I did there?) behind the game. The game has a scoring system, but honestly, after a couple of rounds we usually stop keeping track. It is fun enough on it's own trying to challenge yourself to communicate without having to compete to do it. I highly recommend!

This is a wonderful and challenging group game. It can also be used at parties, but there are a lot of pre-determined symbols on the game board that there are included cheat-sheets for to help people who are new to the game. It's nice that the clue cards have different levels of difficulty, and if you ever manage to exhaust them due to repeated play, it should be pretty easy to just go online and get lists of clues for DIY charades, Pictionary, etc and just print them out. There are some great youtube videos that cover how-to-play, so it's definitely worth checking those out if you're on the fence. I also highly recommend checking out Concept on BoardGameGeek to read up on some of the play-variants people have created. The included instructions are good, but depending on the group of people you're playing with you can very easily alter how the game is played to create a more enjoyable experience for those with children, or who may be ultra-competitive, or who may simply be looking to pass the time without necessarily keeping score. The use of generic pictures and concepts in an attempt to get your teammates to correctly guess the clue is sometimes easy and sometimes very difficult since there are so many available pictures to help give hints. It is always well-received when I introduce new people to it.