Olly Olly is hide and seek in the dark for 2–9 players. One of you is the kid, home alone in a house
full of booby traps. Everyone else is a burglar with a flashlight. The burglars win by grabbing the kid;
the kid wins by staying out of reach until the parents get home. Everyone takes a turn as the kid, and whoever
has the most points after the last turn wins the match. The house is new every round: different rooms,
doors, vents and hiding places, so use the casing seconds to look around.
Getting a game going
- Pick a name and an emoji, then Create a game. You get a four-letter room code.
- Send your friends the invite link (Copy invite link in the lobby) or read them the code. Anyone with it
lands straight in your lobby. It takes 2–9 players; 3 or more is best.
- While you wait, chat in the lobby, and change your name or emoji with edit next to your name. The host
can remove a player with ✕ (tap twice).
- The host can change the match settings first: the setup time (15–60 seconds), the round's length, the
kid's starting parts, the house's size, and whether it's a new house every round or the same one all match.
"By players" sizes them to the lobby.
- The host presses Start the match. The lobby always shows who's the kid next.
It plays on a laptop with a keyboard and mouse, or on a phone held sideways with touch controls. People who
join in the middle of a round come in as burglars straight away, and get their turn as the kid later.
A round, start to finish
- Casing — 30 seconds (unless the host sets another). The kid has the house to themselves: grab parts, set traps, lock doors, arm the
fixtures. The burglars run around outside — they can't get in yet, but they can bonk each other — and see and
hear nothing of the inside.
- The break-in. The burglars come in and the clock starts: 2:00 with 1–2 burglars, 2:30 with 3–5, 3:00
with 6–8, unless the host sets a length. It blinks for its last 15 seconds.
- The end. A burglar grabs the kid, or searches the furniture or vent they're hiding in — or the clock runs out and
the parents are home.
- The replay. The round's best hits in slow motion, with the catch (if there was one) last. Skip it
whenever you like.
- Points go on the scoreboard, and the next player is up as the kid.
Playing the kid
You see the whole house and every burglar in it, with each flashlight drawn as a yellow wedge. They see only
what their own light or a lit room shows them. The dark is on your side.
- Stay out of the light. A burglar sees you when you're in their flashlight, or in a lit room they can
see into, or right up against them. Walls and closed doors block the view. While any burglar can see you, the
edge of your screen glows red.
- Walk, don't run. Walking is silent. Running is faster, but every footfall is heard by burglars nearby —
roughly where you are, not exactly. Crawling through a vent is quiet, but not silent.
- Hide in the furniture — every piece you can hide in wears 👀. Walk up to it and press E (on a phone, HIDE). For 0.6 s you're climbing
in, visible and grabbable; after that nobody can see you, even in the light. But a burglar who searches that
spot finds you.
- Vents — the grilles set into the walls — are shortcuts between rooms that only you fit through, and
nobody can see you in one. But a burglar can search a vent just like furniture, so don't wait in one.
- Work the house from anywhere. Click or tap a door to lock it (slamming it first, if it's open); tap a
locked one to open it. Click or tap a lit room to kill its lights. Doors, lights and fixtures share one
cooldown: after each, you wait 3 s. You never have to be near — the burglars can't tell where you are from
what the house does.
- Mind the doors. Walking into a closed door opens it — and a door swinging open is a clue.
- Parts (🔩) pay for traps: every trap costs 🔩1. You start with 3 (4 in big games), and each box you walk
over is +2 more. A burglar can see a box only in their light — and if one vanishes while they're watching, they
know you were standing right there.
- Drop traps at your feet with one press: a number key, 1–4, or a click (or tap) on the trap in the trap bar. Burglars see
a trap only once it's in their light, or under their foot. Drop one standing right at a piece of furniture and it goes inside: whoever searches there gets it — and
if you're hiding in there too, it saves you.
- Arm the fixtures by clicking or tapping them. An armed fixture waits — nobody else can tell — and goes
off on the next burglar under it (the doorknob, on the next burglar through the back door). Each works once a
round, and never on you.
Playing a burglar
Your flashlight is all you've got. You see what's in its beam, rooms with the lights on, and your teammates.
You don't see what your teammates' lights see — so talk to each other, out loud or with pings.
- Listen. A running kid makes noise: you'll see a ripple roughly where it came from. Slams, locks and
traps going off are heard too.
- Turn the lights on. Step on a switch — the little yellow square by each room's door — and the room
lights up. A lit room shows you everything in it, but the kid can kill the lights from anywhere.
- Search the furniture (👀) and the vents by staying next to one — standing still, or leaning into it — for a
second. The kid inside: caught. A trap inside: that's yours.
- The crowbar breaks a locked door in 3 hits and knocks aside any trap you can see. It also bonks any
teammate in the way — a 1 s stun.
- Shout HERE! to point your team at something: click the spot (on a phone, 📣 shouts where your light points). Everyone sees it —
the kid too.
- Grab the kid by walking into them. Nobody grabs anything while they're seeing stars.
Traps and fixtures
Traps stun — nobody is ever hurt or knocked out of the round, and no stun lasts longer than 5 seconds.
| Trap | Cost | What it does |
|---|
| 🔮 Marbles | 🔩1 | Whoever steps on them slides until they hit something, then falls flat for 2 s. A slide into another trap sets that one off too. |
| 🪜 Rake | 🔩1 | Handle to the face: 2.5 s of birds circling. |
| 🕷️ Tarantula | 🔩1 | Three seconds of screaming and running in random directions. Not a stun — worse, and they can still stumble into you. |
| 🍯 Glue | 🔩1 | Stuck to the floor for 3 s. They can still swing and look around. |
| Fixture | Where | What it does |
|---|
| 🎨 Paint cans | Over the front hall | The next burglar under them is knocked down the hall, with anyone beside them: 3 s. |
| 💡 Chandelier | The living room | Drops on the next burglar under it, and anyone with them: 4 s, flattened. |
| 🧺 Laundry-chute iron | The laundry | Drops on the next burglar standing under the chute: 3 s. |
| 🔥 Hot doorknob | The back door | The next burglar to open the back door is singed: 2.5 s. |
Scoring
| The kid lasts until the parents get home | kid +5 |
| Each trap or fixture that catches a burglar | kid +1 |
| Grabbing the kid, or finding them in the furniture | every burglar +3 — the catch is the team's |
| A round called off because the kid (or every burglar) left | nobody scores |
A match is one turn as the kid for everyone. The most points after the last turn wins; then the host can start a
new match from zero.
Controls
| Keyboard and mouse | Phone, held sideways |
|---|
| Everyone |
|---|
| Move | WASD or arrows | Your left thumb, anywhere on the left |
| Mute | M | 🔊 |
| The kid |
|---|
| Run (loud) | Hold Shift | Push the stick past its edge (it turns red) |
| Hide, come out | E | HIDE / OUT (it appears by furniture) |
| Drop a trap at your feet | 1–4, or click it in the trap bar | Tap the trap |
| Doors, lights, fixtures | Click them | Tap them |
| Burglars |
|---|
| Aim the flashlight | The mouse | It points where your thumb does |
| Crowbar | Right-click (or Space) | SWING |
| Lights, search | No button: step on a switch; stay by furniture or a vent |
| Shout HERE! | Click the spot | 📣 |
Tips
As the kid: use casing — a locked front door buys you seconds, and nobody sees you arm the fixtures.
Kill the lights in the room they're heading for, not the one you're in. Put a trap in the furniture you mean to
hide in. Keep moving between the boxes of parts; a kid who camps runs out of tricks.
As a burglar: split up and say where you're going. Switch lights on as you pass. Call out traps before
a teammate finds one the hard way — shout HERE! at it. Watch the doors: one that opens on its own had the kid behind it. And keep
that crowbar away from your friends' heads.