Form words with letters that may or may not be in your opponents' hands.

Kiitos is the brainchild of first-time game designer Matthew Thredgold, an Australian who has made his home in Levin.

It is a fast-tempo, card-based word game with novel, simple rules and deep, emergent game play that has already attracted rave reviews.

You are not trying to make a word with the letters in your hand but rather with those letters and the letters that you hope may be in your opponents’ hands.

The first player puts down a letter and says a target word starting with that letter. The following players are obliged to play the next letter of the target word if it’s in their hand. If anyone can’t continue the word, they can play a different letter and change the target word. If they can’t think of a new target word, they must pick up the played letter cards, which will become negative points for them. When a target word is completed, the player who set the target word picks up the cards, which go in their positive point pile.

Kiitos means ‘thank you’ in Finnish, so you can say Kiitos when another player finishes your word. The game includes variations, including Super-Kiitos, where the words can be built in either direction. Cheeky Parrot Games is the exclusive distributor for Kiitos in New Zealand. It has been on the market since November 2020.