Five in a row board game, with the board on your TV

Coming soon

New from Keyhole Games: KEYLINE.

If you like a five in a row board game with cards in your hand, this is one for the TV. The board is on the screen, the cards are on your phone, and teams race to lock in rows of five pins. No box, no shuffling, no counting out pins. It is coming soon, and this page explains the rules so you can see how it plays.

• How it plays
• The board and the cards
• At a glance
• Launch alert

How this five in a row board game plays

1. Play a card. Tap a card in your hand and your phone lights the spaces on the board that match it. Tap one and your team's pin goes down. Your replacement card arrives by itself.
2. Make a row. Five of your team's pins in a line, across, down or diagonal, make a row.
3. Win with two rows. Two rows win with two teams, and one row with three teams. A short game plays rows of four.

Two special cards stir things up. A Key puts your pin on any open space, including the four gold Lock spaces that no ordinary card can reach. A Broken Key lifts one rival pin off the board, unless that pin is already part of a finished row.

The four Lock spaces move: they are placed at random at every deal, one in each quarter of the board, never in the middle and never two in the same line of five. So the board is never quite the same game twice.

The board, the cards and the fair bits

The board is a 10 by 10 grid of 100 spaces on the TV. Every space carries one of five lock-part suits with a number from 1 to 10, and every face appears twice, so each card gives you a real choice between two spaces. A card with no open space is a dead card, and the game swaps it for you for free. The team that is behind holds one extra card.

On a teammate's turn you can tap a space to point at it, and only your team sees it. The TV never shows anyone's hand, so there is no hidden information to leak by looking over a shoulder.

At a glance

Players

2 or 3 teams. Players share the board and each holds their own hand, and bots can fill seats.

Length

About 15 to 18 minutes for a standard game. A short game takes about 7 to 9.

You need

A phone each and a shared screen for the board. No box, no pins, no deck.

Learning it

The rules fit in six lines. Suits are marked by shape as well as color.

Who it is for

Teams of friends and families who want a proper board game night without a table big enough to spread it on. Because the board is on a screen the whole room can read, spectators join in too, and teams have a reason to whisper.

Get a launch alert

It is not open yet and no date has been set. Leave your email and you get one message when it is ready.

While you wait

There is a sister board game coming too, a team board game with a turning cog board. For something on the TV tonight, try Crazy Eights or browse all our party games.

Updated 2 November 2026.