No friendly greetings when you walk into work. No lunch with your office buddies. No water cooler chats. Although you may enjoy “WFH” in your favorite PJs, there’s no doubt that Coronavirus has made work, and everything else, feel way more isolated.

We don’t have to accept this fate lying down though. Working at home in their PJs too, your friendly neighborhood team building experts at Throwback have compiled a list of games you can play during your next virtual company rendezvous.

So whether you’re using Zoom, Teams, GoToMeeting, Google Hangouts, or HouseParty to stay in touch, let’s start a WorkParty!

1. Virtual 20 Questions

   • Split your group into 2 teams and appoint 1 volunteer as the Game Official

   • The Game Official will think of a person, place or thing

   • Teams alternate asking the Game Official yes-or-no questions, 1 player at a time

   • All players listen as to not repeat questions

   • A player may ask a question or guess the answer when it is their turn

   • The team to guess the answer correctly first is the winner

2. Trivia Contest

   • Kahoot! is an online platform that allows you to play and create your own trivia quizzes

   • Head to Kahoot.com to create a game or select one already prepared

     • Topics include pop culture trivia, history, geography, science, and many others

   • Share the quiz with your group – everyone answers independently but questions are presented in rounds with the leaderboard displayed after each

     • Keeping everyone logged onto the video conference while you play provides the perfect opportunities for cheering on other players – or talking smack!

3. Digital Pictionary

   • Break the group into 2 teams and select a theme

   • Some suggestions: zoo animals, famous landmarks, or things around the office

   • Someone volunteers to draw first for their team – that player may draw anything that fits within the chosen theme

   • There are a couple of ways a player can draw:

     • Use features within your video conferencing program (i.e. Zoom has a digital whiteboard)

     • Draw by hand with pen and paper and just point your computer’s camera towards your art

   • While a player is drawing, anyone on his/her team can guess the answer

   • Each round should be timed – starting the clock on “GO” and stopping when the correct answer is given

   • After the first team has gone, a player on the opposing team will draw for their team

   • Team with faster time is the winner for that round

   • Play a number of rounds with different “artists” for each – the team with the most wins is the overall winner

4. Family Feud

   • Split your group into 2 teams; assign a captain for each, and one overall Game Official

   • The Game Official flips a coin to see which captain gets to respond to the question first

   • The first captain answers the question and the Game Official reveals how many points the response was worth - then the other captain gives his/her response to the same question

     • Captain with higher point answer gets to decide if their team will pass or play

   • The team that plays gets to answer the question until they get 3 strikes - players answer individually like the game show

   • If the team doesn't clear the board by supplying every answer on the board, then the other team gets to steal the points on the board by correctly giving a single remaining answer on the board

5. Categories

• Pick a category (favorite childhood TV show, favorite junk food, etc.) and go around the virtual room until everyone has given an answer

  • You can specify the response order beforehand or play ‘hot potato’ format where the individual who answered last calls on the next person to respond

• You can also make it a competition by splitting the group into teams and specifying a category with limited answers (ie US States that begin with the letter N, Countries in Europe, Movies starring Brad Pitt, Rock Bands)

  • Everyone takes turns responding with an answer that has not already been said – your team gets a point if someone repeats an answer or takes more than 5 seconds to respond

  • It is the game official’s duty to call on alternate players on different teams to respond with an answer

  • The team with the fewest points at the end of 5 rounds is the winner

Looking for someone to host and officiate your virtual team building session? An experienced emcee that’ll keep your group engaged with creative games and organized structure?

Head to our Virtual Recess page for more detail about how we can customize an event for your team, whether it's virtual or in-person!