During this period of social distancing and self-isolation, many people are keeping in touch with friends and family via video messaging apps. Primarily used for conversation and work why not use it to host family zoom games?
With the right software, you can host family zoom games successfully via zoom video conferencing. Some will involve more organisation than others but here are a few favourites.
Charades
Charades is a timeless classic that’s appropriate for every age. Essentially one person picks a word in a specified category and attempts to act it out without using words for his or her teammates to guess. To play Charades on a Zoom, start a Zoom meeting making sure that all players have their video turned on.
Once everyone has joined, split into two groups.
Firstly, Team A nominates one player from their team to act out the word. Team B decides on a movie title (or any other genre) and privately messages it to the chosen actor.
Team B then sets a timer (usually 1 minute) and the game starts. The player then has to act out the movie title that has been given to them using actions and facial expressions.
Team A keeps trying to guess the name of the movie until the timer is up by shouting out their guesses. As soon as they manage to guess right, they get a point.
After that, the roles are switched with Team B nominating a player, and Team A gives them a movie title to act out.
Battleship
The objective of Battleship is to locate and sink all the boats on your opponent’s board before they destroy yours. Neither player knows where their opponent has placed their battleships.
Two players can only play battleship, and at the beginning of every game, players place their five ships in various places on the grid. Every round the two players then guess where their opponent’s boats are.
A very simple game, the first player to sink all their enemy’s ships wins.
Quiplash
Quiplash is a game where players answer prompts with the wittiest answers they can respond with. The best answers are voted for by all the players and players receive points for winning each round out of three.
This is a game for up to eight players. There’s no limit or guidance on what kind of prompt you can make. Feel free to use any references or in-jokes that only your group of friends will recognise.
To play Quiplash remotely, the best thing to do is to buy the game and then play it on your computer to then share on Zoom, or any other video messaging service.
Heads Up!
Heads Up! is similar to charades in which players have to guess the word another player is acting out.
To play remotely, everyone must download the Heads Up! app on their phone. Players then select a deck of cards from a specific category, like movies or celebrities. At the beginning of each round, one person holds a phone to their forehead that displays the answer to the other players. Zoom allows users to cover their own computer screen otherwise the player would be able to see the answer.
Heads Up! can be played in teams or individually. When the clue is guessed the phone correctly is flipped down and the player/team takes a point. The goal is to guess as many terms as possible in one minute.