The classic game of Pictionary can be played over Zoom or FaceTime. You will just need to set up your phone or camera so the person or the team on the other end can see your drawings. See how we set up Boggle below for one idea. You can also do it on an easel white board.

As the COVID19 pandemic continues to keep extended families, youth groups, and church friends physically separate, here are some games to enjoy via video conference (Zoom, FaceTime, Google Hangout).

These games can be used as stand alone events or as part of larger programs, for example as a meeting ice breaker or part of a youth group gathering. Either way, if you are using games in a church context we encourage you to include a formation element. You might begin with a prayer and brief check in (tell us your name, one thing you are mourning today, and one thing giving you hope) or you might end with Compline (here’s a Google Slide deck of Compline ready to use).

• Who doesn’t love a good game of BINGO? While this isn’t the classic game with numbers, balls, and clever calls, it is using the set-up of Bingo as a way to review facts, geographical locations, scientific terms, or even mathematical applications.
• If there's any sense of office normalcy, it would be the meetings—through the ever-popular Zoom—the discussion of the week's agenda. Meetings can take its toll though. There's only so much of 'increasing KPIs' or 'ways to disrupt the industry' buzzwords that can keep you awake. So, we've made a Zoom bingo card for you to play on the sly.
• Zoom Icebreakers! As 2020 continues on, virtual meetings have become a normal part of many people’s work life. Many of us have experienced online meetings to be dull and unenergetic, with many video screens off.

Bingo

Can You Play Bingo Through Zoom

Bingo is simple & extremely intergenerational. It translates well to Zoom and requires basically no prep work.

Suggested Age Range: 3 Years-Older Adult
Tips & Ideas: I generally do 4-5 rounds with my intergenerational group. The first three winners get prizes (a $5 gift card for ice cream in the mail). We close with Compline led by volunteers from the group.
Resources: My group uses these free printable bingo cards. The first time we played, I sent cards in the mail to families. But these can also be printed at home. The “Traditional Cards” offers 75 unique cards. I’ve been using a physical bingo board and spinner to call the numbers, but you can also use an online bingo number generator like this one.

Pictionary

In Pictionary one player draws a picture of a word/phrase that the other plays have not seen. Other players try to guess the word/phrase based on the drawing.

Suggested Age Range: Lower Elementary-Adult
Tips & Ideas: My group used the whiteboard feature of Zoom. I made everyone a co-host so they could pull up the whiteboard when it was their turn. I sent words via text, but they could also be sent privately in the chat. We did not keep score.
Resources: This Pictionary word generator worked well for my group. As the moderator, I picked slightly easier words for our youngest players and used the “hard” or “really hard” category for adults.

Scattergories

Scattergories is a quick thinking game that draws out players creativity. Players number a piece of paper 1-5. They are given a letter of the alphabet and five categories. They have 90 seconds to fill in all five categories with words/phrases that start with the chosen letter. Players are awarded points for each unique answer.

Suggested Age Range: Upper Elementary-Adult
Tips & Ideas: This game was a huge hit with a middle school group at church as well as a group of six adult friends.
Resources: Here’s a Google Slide Deck version of the game. Or you can share your screen and play this online version that offers 11 categories per round. If you want to roll letters for each round, here’s a Scattergories dice and timer.

Jeopardy

Jeopardy is a great game for accessing a groups knowledge on a particular topic (for example, the season of Lent), but the topics can also be purely fun (for example, music, gardening, TV shows).

Suggested Age Range: Upper Elementary-Adult
Tips & Ideas: Assign a score keeper. Make sure you keep track of which categories have already been picked (for example, liturgical season for 200).
Resources: Here’s a template to make your own Jeopardy game using Google Slides. Here’s a keynote presentation with categories relating to the seasons of the church year.

Lamentations or Taylor Swift Lyric

Participants in “Lamentations or Taylor Swift Lyric” are presented with a quote and asked to decide if it is a passage from the book of Lamentations or a lyric from a Taylor Swift song.

Suggested Age Range: Middle School-Young Adult
Tips & Ideas: Depending on the size of your group, this can be played in teams or by voting using the poll feature in Zoom.
Resources: This game is available from Download Youth Ministries for $4.00 per powerpoint. There are four versions available for purchase here.

Balderdash

In Balderdash, participants are presented with an obscure word or person. Each player makes up a definition or reason the person is famous. The moderator reads all the answers to the group, mixing in the real answer. Everyone votes on the correct answer. Participants are awarded points for guessing correctly as well as for fooling others with their fake answers.

Suggested Age Range: Middle School-Adult
Tips & Ideas: For this game it is easiest to have everyone on a separate device so they can message the host separately using private chat. Alternatively, each player can text the host if everyone has a cell phone. If you have a large group, have someone make a list of the answers in the chat so everyone can vote more easily or use the poll feature in Zoom.
Resources: You can play using this Google Slide deck or share your screen and play this online version.

Digital Escape Room

Sydney Krawiec, a Youth Services Librarian in McMurray, PA creatively used Google Forms to create a Harry Potter themed digital escape room! The storyline is compelling and the challenges include math and geography. It might take a group about 20 minutes.

Suggested Age Range: Upper Elementary-Middle School
Tips & Ideas: This game works well with screen share and someone reading each page. Players may want to have paper and pen available.
Resources: Here’s the link to this escape room!

Many of us have found ourselves quarantined at home due to the corona virus outbreak. Being able to associate with our friends can be a challenge, but with many of us using Zoom for our meetings we have a new option to have fun remotely. With Zoom you can setup your own free account and then can invite others to join your own private meeting. Here are some Bible games that can be played using Zoom.

Bible Charades – To play Bible Charades, all you need is to see others and your own imagination. Since Zoom gives all the players the capability to see each other, take turns acting out your favorite Bible character or story and see who can guess it first.

Bible Pictionary – To play Bible Pictionary you use the Whiteboard feature in Zoom. One person shares their screen and selects the whiteboard. The same person who is screen-sharing uses the tools on the toolbar to draw a picture of a Bible character or story. Everyone else’s tries to guess what the picture is. Each person can take turns sharing their screen and drawing while others try to guess.

Play Bingo Through Zoom

Who Am I – This game is based on the Heads Up! Board Game but uses the Bible character cards from jw.org. If everyone has some of the character cards printed out at home, then this game could easily be modified to be played over Zoom. See this previous post showing how to play this game: Who Am I Bible Character Game