Game Overview: Cross Clues and Crossed Words, or Game Design at Cross Purposes

Knowing that I'm a fan of So Clover! — which I reviewed in June 2021 — at BGG.CON 2021 my boss, Scott Alden, had me try Cross Clues, a game from Grégory Grard and Blue Orange Games that plays similarly.

While scanning the BGG Library shelves at the end of the show for games to borrow — something I do so that I can write up games in this space — I ran across Crossed Words, a Q3 2020 release from Evan Davis, Nick Little, and Indie Boards & Cards that also plays similarly.

It's not unusual for games to have nearly identical concepts, especially party games and other games with minimal rulesets. In many cases, that concept is the game's hook, the selling point that will make someone want to play, and ideally the other parts of the game design all support and reinforce that hook.

The concept for all three of these titles is that players are given two things and challenged to find a word or phrase that ties them together. Cross Clues and So Clover! are more similar to one another as both of them are co-operative games that challenge players to look at two words, then come up with a single-word clue that somehow connects to both of the original words. Crossed Words, on the other hand, is a competitive game that presents players with two concepts, e.g. liquids and actors/actresses, or things in a pocket that start with the letter U.

Those differences in Crossed Words create a discordant feel during gameplay because I find it harder to find answers that land squarely in both concepts. The game's cover depicts the gameplay in a literal manner, with a Venn diagram showing the overlap between two concepts, but in practice I find myself needing to mentally list things that fit one concept, then cross-reference this list with the other concept. It's tedious and the opposite of what I find in So Clover! and Cross Clues, games in which I do visualize the single words at the center of a sphere of related words.

Starting Cross Clues with white...chicken

In those games, given the words "studio" and "turnip" or "disease" and "spring", I can somewhat easily picture how those words would come into connection with one another. In a sense, I get to create a story about that connection, then name that story with a single word — ideally one that will resonate with other players, and since the games are co-operative, they're not going to argue that my answer is wrong. Instead they're going to try to see what I was seeing and figure out the original words that sparked my idea. As long as that happens, we're good. Connection made, both in the game and in real life!

In this video, I go into detail about how the games work, give examples of gameplay, and explain in more detail why I think So Clover! and Cross Clues nail the crossover concept — while still differing from one another — and why I find Crossed Words comes up short.