Take a Break with Zoom Games
For an afternoon break or a holiday get-together, here's some fun stuff to play
This is the Wonder Tools newsletter—useful tools and creative resources for pandemic life. I’m Jeremy Caplan, a journalist & director of teaching & learning at the Newmark J-School. I relish games both for fun and as an antidote to Zoom fatigue. What do you like to play?
For a July 4 virtual BBQ 🎉 — or just a work break — try a Zoom game. Make it something fun, free, easy to play and quick to start. Here are some notable options:
1. PlayingCards.io lets you play chess, checkers, backgammon, memory, crazy eights and other games. Fast and easy. After picking a game you get a private link to share.
2. Ziago offers amusing instant Zoom party games you can play free in a browser. Options include Team Taboo and Partner Wars, a 21+ game you can play with couples.
3. Brightful has Would You Rather, Spot My Lie (like Two Truths and a Lie), a taboo variant called Describe It and a nice get-to-know-people game called Q of the Day where people take turns answering thoughtful questions. No downloads, ads or sign-up.👍
4. BoozyQuiz 🍻is a free grown-up quiz game you can play over Zoom. Decide which types of quiz questions to include, drawing from trivia and games like Never Have I Ever, Truth or Drink, Most Likely To, Would You Rather. 🍺
5. In Quarantine Bingo you win by spotting overused pandemic-era jargon 🎯
Zoomed Out? 🙇♀️
6. Here are some OFFLINE creativity card games for a screen break.💡
7. Here are some of my family’s favorite board games. 🎲
Drawing by Brandon Mendoza, customized by JC on blush.design
Drawing games
Skribbl.io is a Pictionary-like favorite in my family. It’s simple, free and fast. Players take turns drawing an assigned word while others try to guess it. Letters are gradually revealed as hints. Guessers earn points based on how quickly they guess the word; drawers earn points when others correctly identify the drawing.
Set up a private room to play with friends, family or colleagues instead of strangers. During family Zoom chats, we set up a private room for a break.
Letsdraw.it is similar, with themed drawing rooms and options to play a copy-the-drawing game or a drawing contest.
Try Drawful 2 — “the game of terrible drawings and hilariously wrong answers”— for 3 to 8 players. It’s $4.99 until July 9. Use a phone or tablet as a controller. It’s by Jackbox Games, lauded in this Wirecutter piece about hosting a virtual game night. You can get the original Drawful in the Jackbox Party Pack ($12.99 until July 9), along with the classic trivia game You Don’t Know Jack.
Trivia Games
Kahoot’s a terrific family-friendly site for making and/or playing free quiz games. Earn points based on how quickly you answer correctly. Play live over Zoom or challenge people to play on their own whenever they’d like.
Join me on Kahoot— I set up two challenge games for you to try: Baby Animals and Amazing Facts. Play the five-minute quiz anonymously or not —at your leisure — and see how your score stacks up against other readers. 🏆
To use the Random Trivia Generator over Zoom, share your screen and race to see who can answer each question first. Then click to expose the answers.
Slido now lets you create a Pub-quiz style game to play over Zoom. To skip the time-consuming process of researching questions and making up answer options, just click a random-question button to auto-generate trivia questions.
Slido uses the Open Trivia Database, an awesome free, user-contributed trivia question database with thousands of verified questions.
Reply if you’ve got a favorite remote game I should add to this list, or to invite me to a game you’re setting up. 💬
To catch up with past posts, check out the archive here. Or for more games, see an expanded version of this post.