Hide And Seek Variations: Sardines, Torch Tag And 12 More

Hide and seek is the first game most people learn and the one with the best variations, several of which are better than the original.

Here are the rules for fourteen of them, from a toddler's version to one that takes an entire summer evening.

Sardines - the best one

• The rules are reversed: one person hides and everyone else seeks.
• When you find the hider, you don't call out. You silently squeeze into the hiding place with them.
• The hiding place gets more and more crowded, and increasingly difficult to keep quiet.
• The last person to find everyone is the next hider.
• Best played in a house with the lights low, and it is genuinely funnier than it sounds.

Outdoor versions

• Kick the can: a can in the middle of a base. The seeker must spot a hider and race them back to the can. Any hider who kicks the can first frees everyone already caught.
• Forty forty, or block one two three - see our full rules for that one.
• Hide and seek tag: once found, you're chased, and you're only safe at base.
• Manhunt: teams, a large space, one team hiding and one hunting, with a whole park in play.
• Torch tag, played at dusk: the seeker has a torch and catches you by naming you in the beam.

In the dark

• Murder in the dark: lights off, one murderer chosen secretly, and a scream when they strike. Lights on, accusations made.
• Hide and seek in the dark - the same game with the lights off, which changes everything.
• Glow stick hide and seek: hiders carry one glow stick each, which makes it fair and safer indoors.
• Sardines in the dark, which is the best and loudest version there is.
• Ground rules first: nothing on stairs, no wardrobes or chests that latch, nothing outside. Say it before the lights go off.

For younger children

• Hide the toy: a teddy hidden in one room, with hot and cold called out.
• Hide and seek with a count of ten and one room only.
• Peekaboo hide and seek, where the hider giggles deliberately.
• Follow the clues - a short trail of paper arrows to a hidden object.
• Hide and seek where the adult hides very badly on purpose, which is fifty per cent of the job.

Safety and house rules

• Never inside anything with a latch - chest freezers, trunks, old wardrobes.
• Agree boundaries out loud: this floor only, indoors only, garden but not the front.
• A whistle or an agreed call ends the game, and everybody comes out. Essential outdoors.
• A time limit per round. Someone always hides so well they're forgotten.
• Count out loud, or nobody believes you counted at all.

Shop cards

How to write it so it lands

• Sardines beats the original. Try it once.
• Nothing with a latch. Say it out loud first.
• An agreed call that ends the round, every time.

Where to shop next

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• All guides

Frequently asked questions

What is sardines?

Hide and seek in reverse - one person hides and everyone else looks for them. When you find the hider, you squeeze into the hiding place with them in silence. The last person to find the group hides next.

How do you play kick the can?

A can stands in the middle of a base. The seeker must spot a hider and race them back to the can to catch them. Any hider who reaches the can and kicks it first frees everyone already caught.

What are good hide and seek variations?

Sardines, kick the can, forty forty, murder in the dark, torch tag at dusk, manhunt for a big outdoor space, and glow stick hide and seek indoors.

How do you play hide and seek safely?

Agree the boundaries out loud, ban anything with a latch like chests or old wardrobes, set a time limit per round, and have an agreed call or whistle that ends the game and brings everyone out.

Do you sell games or play equipment?

No - we make greeting cards, art prints and pin badges in the UK. Every game here needs a wall, a ball, a piece of chalk or nothing at all, and the only products on this page are our own cards.