The original Codenames can be played with as few as two people (more on that later), but really plays better with four or more (per the box it can accommodate “eight plus,” hence its party-game reputation), while Duet is designed for two players. Codenames: Pictures was released in September 2016, and includes 200 two-sided cards that feature images instead of words.

Codenames and Codenames Duet game review: why you should get Codenames and Codenames Duet game review: why you should get

Codenames: Duet was released in October 2017 as a two-player cooperative version of the original game.To give all clues from one side before even starting to give clues from the other side is not in the spirit of the game. Codenames Duet does a great job of replicating the gameplay of the original for two players and is a far superior option to the two-player mode in the original. Otherwise you could give one person full control to provide clues, but it would exclude their teammates and defeat the “collaborative” aspect of the game.

Codenames: Duet | Board Game | BoardGameGeek

In my experience, the spymaster winds up taking protracted turns to think of clues, while the guesser is bored, waiting with nothing to do. Each clue that's given costs one “timer token,” a designated number of which are set out at the beginning.The official translations are done by our distribution partners in various countries and in cooperation with them, we progressively add new translations of the game interface. But it’s amazing how much one thinks in this game, about stuff that may have nothing to do with the keywords.