Welcome!
It looks like you are logging on to Hanabi Live for the first time. There are some things you should know.
The Rules
Do you already know how to play Hanabi?
The Rules
Good, because the website assumes that you already know how to play - there isn't a tutorial mode or anything like that.
The Rules
Well, unfortunately Hanabi Live doesn't have a tutorial mode or anything like that. You will have to learn the rules on your own. Thankfully, Tricky has a nice writeup on Pastebin. Or, you can watch my video explanation.
Other Players
Do you already have a team / a group of players to play with?
Other Players
Good, because this website doesn't get that much traffic, so finding teammates online usually requires some coordination beforehand.
Other Players
Unfortunately, finding quick games with strangers on Hanabi Live is difficult because the website does not get that much traffic.
Fortunately, Board Game Arena is a website where you can play many different board games online, including Hanabi. Their implementation of the game does have not as many variants and features as this website does, but you will have much better luck finding random pick-up games on that website, so you will definately want to check it out.
Other Players
That's good to hear. In general, Hanabi Live does not get that much traffic, so most of the people who play games on the website are members of my group, the Hyphen-ated Group. I'd like to welcome you to play with us - we have been playing Hanabi for a long time, but we could always use new players.
Getting Games Going
Unfortunately, the group is fairly small, so we don't have enough players to have games going at all times of the day. However, we do get games going at various times, mostly during (American) evenings.
The members of the group hang out in a Discord server. (Discord is a voice and text chat application that you can run in a browser.) To get games going, we generally type "/here" into the Hanabi Live lobby, which alerts everyone who happens to be at their computer that someone is wanting to get a game going.
Some Basic Conventions
I'm glad you asked. If you try to play with our group and don't understand what some basic clues mean, things won't go well. We ask that before you start to play games with us, you spend some time and read the beginners guide.
Using the Website
Starting a game should be fairly straightforward. You click on the "Create Game" button in the top navigation bar. Then, other people join the game by clicking on the icon.
Once the game has started:
1) Play a card by clicking and dragging it to the center.
2) Discard a card by clicking and dragging it to the bottom-right-hand corner.
3) Give a clue by clicking the buttons in the middle of the screen.
For more detailed info, click on the "Help" button on the top navigation bar.
