As we head into holiday gathering weekend, I thought it would be fun to do a little roundup of great group games that are facilitated by your smart phone or tablet.
As much as I love hard copy games, I so appreciate the flexibility of being able to find a new game on your device to play with a group. Most everyone is coming to a gathering with a smart phone anyways, and when including kids, they either use their iPads or share a device with an adult.
Space Team: This is probably my favourite new group game. Each player needs to download it on their device (up to eight players). The premise is that your spacecraft is falling apart while flying through space. You need to operate the controls to keep it flying.
The trick is that each person has a different part of the control panel and the instructions are being sent to your teammates’ devices. You’ll have to call out instructions, listen for instructions and operate your panel. The game is hilarious in that you’ll find yourself yelling out “Set flubberguster to five!” and “Activate Nobblethrust!” It’s a funny and exciting teamwork game.
Psych: This game, made by Ellen, is similar to Balderdash or Slang Teasers. You create words for definitions or definitions for words and then guess to figure out the real one. The app does all the work of tracking and awarding points. It can get pretty silly.
Who Can’t Draw: This game is a mix of Pictionary and Telephone. Player 1 starts with a word they need to draw. Player 2 guesses the word. Player 3 draws player 2’s guess. You can see where this is going. It gets really funny and playing with kids is awesome.
Party Doodles: This is more like traditional Pictionary but is supported by Apple TV so you can have the person’s drawings on the big screen for everyone to try and guess.
What I love about app party games is that it’s not a big deal if you forget to bring a game. Just search and download.
