Codename:Hunter

Codename: Hunter is a game of intertwining timelines. A game of the Hunter and the Hunted, revolutionary and secret agent, criminal and deadly assassin. It seeks to challenge the traditional boundaries of linear time in board games and attempts to answer a specific question. Can a board game be played backwards as well as forwards?

Codename: Hunter achieves this through non-linear, asynchronous gameplay. Asynchronous gameplay is hardly a new concept. People have been playing chess by mail for centuries, to say nothing of the internet. In Codename: Hunter however, there is no need to wait for the other player’s move while you consider your own. In fact, beyond the medium of the game itself, players never need communicate with one another at all. If circumstances are right, they need not ever even meet.

This makes it a perfect game to have in those game meet ups where you seem to always have an extra player, or when someone has no desire to play a specific game. One player can play their half of the game while they wait, and another can pick it up at any point in the future.

How do you play?

The first player to sit down takes on the role of the Hunted player. Her aim is to collect five objectives from nine locations across the board that will change in position from game to game. As she visits these locations, she leaves a hidden path that the Hunter will later uncover. It is important she balances the need for expediency against the dangers of leaving a predictable trail. Judicious use of her sprint and sneak abilities will help keep the Hunter guessing.

The second player takes on the role of the Hunter. The Hunter must follow the Hunted player’s trail backwards through time. Using a limited amount of information about the Hunted player’s objectives, he must attempt to predict the Hunted player’s trial. If he can successfully predict and cut off the Hunted player’s trail three times, he will have succeeded in neutralizing her, collapsing her timeline. To help him achieve this goal, he comes equipped with a teleporter and temporal mines.