The Secret Flower

The Game

The Secret Flower is a microgame from Singapore, by Daryl Chow and Daniel Lee. It is a cooperative deduction game. There are only 16 cards, numbered from 1 to 16. One of them is randomly removed face-down. The others are distributed to the players. Your goal is to find out the missing number. That is the secret flower. Every card features a different flower. The challenge in this game is you may not freely communicate information you have. You can only communicate through card play. After a fixed number of actions, everyone must be able to guess the secret flower correctly for you to win. 

During game setup, other than the secret flower, the rest of the cards are dealt out to players based on the player count. Some of a player's cards are to be placed face-down in a row before them, in order from small to large number. The other cards are held in the player's hand. During the game these cards will be played as actions. 

In addition to the number, a card has two other properties - whether it is herbaceous or woody, and what colour it is. The card also has a question. You pose the question to a specific face-down card belonging to a player in order to obtain and share information. 

During the game, players take turn playing cards. When a card is played on one of your face-down cards, you answer the question. This is how you share information with your teammates. When a card is played, the card itself also contributes to public information, because it is now exposed. You know what number it is, so you can rule it out as the secret flower. Once all cards are played, the players must immediately and simultaneously declare what they think the secret flower is. You win together only if everyone gets it right. 

This is a 2-player game in progress. The secret flower is in the middle. Cards which have been played as questions are face-up and tucked under the cards they are posed to. You can pose a question to your own card. This is for you to share information about your card to others. Also, a card can have more than one question posed to it. 

This is the card back. It is designed this way so that it also serves as a reference card. All 16 cards are listed here, showing their colours and also whether they are herbaceous or woody. 

The Play

So far I have only played this with 2 players. Jon likes this a lot and recommended it to me. The moment I started playing, I decided I needed to take notes. I used Jon's smartphone which has a stylus to take notes. I wrote down all 16 numbers and crossed out those I had seen. I also took notes when I managed to narrow down the possibilities of some of the face-down cards. It's possible to keep all this in your head, but I am too lazy to do so. 

The game is a process of elimination. You are not really meant to guess the secret flower. You go through a logical process to calculate what it is. If you play well, you should be able to work out what it is without needing to resort to guessing. One challenge though, is everyone must be able to work it out, not just one person. This is a game of logical reasoning. 

The icon in the top left corner indicates whether the card is herbaceous or woody. Along the edges of the card are the possible answers to the question on the card. 

I am guessing the 2-player game is easier than the 3- to 5-player games, because at the start of the game you'll have seen almost half the cards in the game. With more players, you initially have access to fewer cards. There will be more you need to figure out. 

The Thoughts

This game is a clever idea. It's short and sweet, and it gives your brain some exercise. This is a deduction game, so you do have to do some work. It is a group puzzle solving activity. You start with limited information. You need to work out how best to use the questions you have to uncover as much information as possible, so that everyone can work out the secret flower. 

I realise there is some similarity to Snow White and the Eleven Dwarfs.