| Wavelength | |
| Publisher: | CMYK (formerly Palm Court) |
| Genre: | Party game |
| Players: | 2–12 |
| Playing Time: | 30–45 minutes |
| Ages: | 14+ |
| Website: | https://www.wavelength.zone/ |
Wavelength is a party game designed by Alex Hague, Justin Vickers, and Wolfgang Warsch and published in 2019 by CMYK following a successful Kickstarter campaign. Two teams compete to earn points over multiple rounds by guessing the locations of a hidden target on a custom device based on clues relating to a chosen scale given by a player called the "Psychic".
Wavelength was designed by Alex Hague, Justin Vickers, and Wolfgang Warsch. It was originally released as a Kickstarter campaign that raised over in funding from about 9,000 backers. Following this, Wavelength was published by Hague and Vickers' game publishing company, Palm Court (later renamed to CMYK), in 2019.[1]
In 2022, a free mobile version of the game was released to the app store.[2]
Wavelength is played with a deck of Spectrum cards, each listing two extremes at opposite ends of a spectrum (such as hot and cold), and with a custom device that has a point tracker, a dial on the outside, and a sliding hatch which opens to reveal a wheel with five small radial slices of different colours acting as the target range.[3]
Players are divided into two teams and a player from the starting team is elected the "Psychic". The Psychic spins the device's wheel with the sliding hatch closed and secretly notes the position of the target range. A Spectrum card is then drawn and the Psychic gives a clue that suggests the location of the target slice on that spectrum. The Psychic's team attempt to interpret the clue and turn the dial to the location they guess it to be indicating.[4] The opposing team then predicts whether they believe the guess to be to the left or to the right of the actual location. Once all guesses have been made, the sliding hatch is opened and the correct location of the target range is revealed.
Points are awarded to the Psychic's team based on how close to the correct location their guess was. If the opposing team's prediction was correct, one point is deducted from the other team's awarded points. The opposing team then chooses their Psychic for the next round and the game continues. The first team to reach 10 points is the winner.[5]
Wirecutter listed Wavelength as one of their Best Board Games of 2022, praising it for its design and ability to inspire interesting conversations about players's perceptions. Charlie Theel, writing for Dicebreaker, described the game as "unmistakable brilliance" and "the best party game since Codenames" for its unique set up and interesting gameplay, but did note that "the element of downtime, for both teams, is the biggest criticism of Wavelength." In a review for Polygon, senior video editor Clayton Ahsley stated that "Wavelength might be one of the best party games we’ve played," praising the game for its replayability and design.[6] New York recommended the game as one of their "24 Best Board Games for Adults."[7] IGN listed the game as one of the "Best Board Games for Parties and Large Groups" as of 2024.[8]
Wavelength was the winner of the 2022 Årets Spill Best Party Game award. It was also one of the American Tabletop Awards 2020 Recommended Casual Games[9] and was nominated for the Board Game Quest Awards 2019 Best Party Game award.[10]