Variants[edit]

A picture of children playing hide and seek.

Different versions of the game are played around the world, under a variety of names. [4]
One variant is called "Sardines", in which only one person hides and the others must find them,
hiding with them when they do so. The hiding places become progressively more cramped,
like sardines in a tin. The last person to find the hiding group is the loser, and becomes the hider for
the next round. A. M. Burrage calls this version of the game "Smee" in his 1931 ghost story of the
same name.[5]

Hide and Seek (painting 1881)

In some versions of the game, after the first hider is caught or if no other players can be found over a
period of time, the seeker calls out a previously-agreed phrase (such as "Olly olly oxen free", or "All
in, All in, Everybody out there all in free") to signal the other hiders to return to base for the next
round.[6] In another version, when hiders are caught they help the seeker locate the remaining hiders.
In one variant, once all hiders have been located, the game then becomes a game of tag where the
seeker chases after all the other players and the first person tagged becomes the seeker for the next
round.
In another, the hiders who are found help the seeker track down the remaining hiders, but the first
person to be found becomes the next seeker.