Signal

In Signal, players take on the role of experts seeking to understand the Alien player, who in turn seeks to be understood. The experts create and send 'signals' to the Alien player, who has particular rules for how to respond, and these rules have to be deduced by the experts. Once the experts understand the rules, they can make sure they reach agreement with the Alien and so succeed together.

On a turn, the experts arrange black and white pieces on a mat to represent a graphic signal, discussing and debating how and what to send. When they have finished, the alien responds using predetermined rules that only they can see, adding to, removing from and adjusting the signal, both to be helpful and to try to reach agreement, which is represented by a predetermined signal that they are trying to achieve with their limited means of response. As the experts analyse and come to understand the alien, they can use limited guesses and a few hint-like abilities to discover which signal they can send that will result in agreement. The alien even has a little leeway in how they respond; after all, they want to be understood.

After succeeding in the first round, the experts reset the game and continue with the same Alien, except that new rules come into play on top of the previous ones, showing a deeper and deeper familiarity with the Alien player. After three rounds of successful agreements, all players win together and receive a score based on remaining guesses and unused abilities.