Playing games can be a great way to build team cohesion, get to know each other and have fun. Games are great because they can be played both in-person and remotely and they offer a little bit of structure which can make it easier for people to get into discussions, especially if the team is new.
Kai Klostermann posted his list of favourite games and few picks that I’ve enjoyed from that list:
- Codenames: two teams try to find words from a grid that belong to their team based on one-word clues by their team captain
- Gartic Phone: people write sentences, draw based on others’ writing and then explain each other’s drawings
- Spyfall: players get cards describing a location and a role - except for one who is a spy. Players then ask questions from each other, trying to figure out who the spy is.
One of my favourites is Wavelength, for which I created a web version for video calls called Taajuus. In it, two teams compete for points and on each turn, one player gets a pair of opposite qualities (like Overrated and Underrated) and a visual cue for where they need to aim for with their clue, somewhere between these two qualities. They then give a clue (like Stargate Atlantis) and their team needs to figure out where they think it lands on the spectrum.
Wavelength is a great game that helps get to know each other while having a lot of fun.
Another option is to play non-party games. For those, Board Game Arena is a great platform as it’s purely browser-based and a lot of games are available with the free account and to access the ones that require paid account, only one player needs to have that.