About Imposter

What it is

Every player at the table gets the same secret word — except one, the impostor, who only gets the topic. Players give one-word clues, argue about who sounded fake, and vote. It's a game about describing something precisely without naming it, and about noticing when someone else can't. A full round takes five to ten minutes.

There are two modes: pass-and-play on a single shared device, and online rooms where every player is on their own screen and a four-letter code ties the table together. Read the full rulesif you're new.

Who makes it

Imposter is built and maintained by a single independent developer. It isn't backed by a studio and isn't affiliated with any other party game. The project started as a way to play a table game with friends who weren't in the same room, and grew from there.

If you want to reach the person behind it — feedback, a bug, a pack idea, a press question — the contact page has the details, or email almostfelixwu@gmail.com.

How the topic packs are made

There are currently 44 topic packs holding 440 words. Each pack is written by hand, not scraped or generated. A word earns its place only if:

• nearly everyone can picture it instantly — no trivia, no jargon;
• it supports a range of honest clues, so the crew has room to be clever;
• and its pack has a clear enough theme that the impostor has a fighting chance from the pack name alone.

Each word also carries a loose sub-theme (“Ocean Animals”, “Birds of Prey”) that's shown to the impostor as a faint hint. You can see every pack, its full word list, and pack-specific clue advice on the topic packs page.

How the game is run

The game runs in your browser. Online play uses a realtime database to sync roles, clues and votes between devices; role assignment and results are validated on the server so the game state can't be tampered with from a browser. Public rooms that go quiet are cleared automatically after about ten minutes.

Accounts are lightweight — you can play online as a guest without an email. What data the game stores, and why, is spelled out on the privacy page.

Supporting it

Imposter is free and stays free. It's funded by Imposter+, an optional subscription for extra packs and match history, and by unobtrusive display advertising on the informational pages. If you'd like to help without paying, the best thing you can do is play a few rounds with friends and tell them where you found it.