The Four Doors

Half an hour that behaves like a campaign, which is a neat trick in a box this size.

Matt Leacock designed Pandemic and Forbidden Island, and has spent twenty years working out how to make co-operative games that do not collapse into one person telling everybody else what to do. The Four Doors is his small-box version: four doors, a threat that escalates, and a group deciding together which one to open next.

It runs about thirty minutes and plays from solo up to five, which is an unusually wide range for something this compact. Reviewers keep describing it as feeling like a campaign in a single sitting — the state carries forward between doors, so choices made early narrow what is available later. Portable, quick, and considerably more game than the footprint suggests.

Perfect for: anyone who loves Pandemic but cannot reliably get four people around a table for ninety minutes.

1–5 players | About 30 minutes | Age 10+

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📖 New to the style? What Is a Cooperative Game? — how co-ops work, and which ones to start with.