2020. Almost everyone’s lives have been turned upside down by COVID-19. With shelter-in-place orders, mandatory Work From Home (WFH) policies, and self-quarentining/social distancing as the new reality, how do we connect and build the trust and rapport that’s so necessary for teamwork?
Here at Gr8er Good Games, our mission is to help people connect through play. We think that even now, in our time of collective fear and pain, we should intentionally bring moments of playfulness and delight into our personal relationships and our work relationships. We believe that shared, fun experiences are vital right now for mental health and wellness. This can be done through games, through competition, and through sharing of our worlds.
We have a couple of remote team-building games, but it’s not for everyone and we love coming up with ideas of other fun ways to engage with geographically-distributed team-mates. So without further ado, here are team-building and team-bonding activities you can do as a virtual team.
Games for virtual teams
There’s a variety of off-the-shelf games that can be played on a videochat. Here are some of our favorites:
Jackbox Games are games where one host can screenshare the main control page and everyone can participate in the game by entering a code into their phones. They have some really fun party games.
Heads Up and Headbang are fun games where one player starts the game and holds their phone up to their forehead while others try to get them to guess the secret word, phrase, song or celebrity. You can easily play these games while on videochat and have the guessing player close their eyes so that they don’t see the clues.
You can play traditional board games: one player might have to be the game-master and move the physical game pieces on the table in front of them and everyone else sees the game via videochat and tells them how to move their pieces. Some games are much easier to do this than others (more work for the game-master if the game has hidden information).
Online board games: There’s many board games that you can play online with friends. We especially like Board Game Arena for their diversity of great board games.
Competitions
Competitions are actually quite easy to set up. Pick the time, a theme and pick a couple of challenges. Then let the players get creative.
Create a list of strange phrases for players to show their best interpretations of them. Perhaps you ask for submissions of taglines for fictional startups, or for motivational poster saying, or for 90’s boyband song lyrics. Then players must either construct something out of common household materials or act out a scene to convince everyone else that they have the best interpretation of each phrase. Vote for the best interpretations by poll (if your videochat supports this).
Scavenger Hunt: create a list of item properties and give players a specific amount of time to gather photos, selfies, and the items themselves. Share the end results with the group and have lots of laughs at how creative everyone is. Bad examples of scavenger hunt clues are ones that are too literal (find a black pot). Great examples of scavenger hunt clues are ones that lead to creative interpretation (create a Disney Villain out of things in your kitchen: give them a name and a backstory…)
Do something company specific. This can range from a quiz-off about company history to a video-submission of the best interpretation of the company’s values to the best rendition of the company song. The competition should be judged live by impartial judges and awards can be either shipped to the winners or given digitally (gift card codes).
Love watching Survivor or Minute to Win-it? Why not adapt some of these simple challenges to create some field day competitions? The more ridiculous the challenge, the better. See if Bob from accounting can outlast everyone else in the hopping on one foot while doing the YMCA dance with his arms, or if Jane from Engineering can move that cookie from her forehead to her mouth without using her hands…
Check out these gameshows from our friends at Let’s Roam: Let’s Roam makes it easy for you to have an epic game night any night. Invite your friends using our pre-written template, break into teams, and start the game. You'll take on five rounds of fun games through our one-of-a-kind game software with embedded video chat. Test your skills and compete for the high score. Find out more
Trivia Nights have become at staple at some companies. Trivia on Zoom is pretty simple to pull off. Plop some questions onto a powerpoint and have teams submit answers on a Google Survey.
We have a downloadable self-hosted scavenger hunt available. Use promo code ZOOMGAME for a free download in our store
Other Miscellaneous Shared experiences
Watch a movie together via screenshare and videochat
Take a Sporacle Quiz and discuss
Take an online personality test together and discuss your results. You can do serious personality tests like the Enneagram or fun ones like the Harry Potter Sorting Hat.
Funny 3 minute presentations: This is a game I hosted for my Birthday Festival, and it was amazing! I basically sent friends funny topics (is a Unicorn or a Dinosaur a better engineer? Who chucks more wood, woodchucks or beavers? How did Princess SOHCAHTOA win help win the Angle Wars) and asked them to create and present a powerpoint arguing their case.
Virtual happy hours: everyone pour themselves their beverage of choice and jump on a videochat to shoot the s*** and relax together.
Cooking together: Whether it’s creating fancy cream puffs or grilling, food brings people together magically. Send your team members a grocery list and make something together.
Icebreakers: Before every meeting, set aside a couple of minutes to go around pop-corn style, answering one of these icebreaker questions. You’ll be amazed how quickly you learn about your coworkers and how learning about their favorite hobbies or favorite smells improves the way that you work together.