Looking for New Virtual Team Building Games?
While meetings might not be the most fun event on your calendar on a given day (virtual or in person), games and team bonding experiences during a meeting definitely can be! An opportunity to have some fun and take a break from thinking about work is beneficial to everybody.
Nearly an infinite number of games have been either born entirely online or brought online in the past decade (a good amount since 2020 due to you know what). While there are plenty of great ones – such as Codenames, 20 questions, Bingo, scavenger hunts, virtual escape rooms, murder mysteries, and plenty more – here are a few of Boom Visibility’s favorites.
Wordle for Team Building
The Boom team members are (mostly) all big fans of Wordle, so we have scoured the web for the best versions of the game. All of these revolve around the traditional idea of Wordle: guess the 5-letter word with 6 chances. We prefer the versions that don’t put you on the spot too much because once you get anxious in Wordle, your guesses tend to flop.
Here are some of the versions we have tried:
- WordleOff: A straightforward version of Wordle where you set up a room and compete head-to-head. Once a participant guesses correctly they go into “God Mode” where they can view guesses.
- Pros: Simple, others don’t see guesses until after they “win”
- Cons: No options for different versions, may be stressful when few people are remaining
- WordleCup: This tournament-style version can accommodate up to 8 players through 4 rounds of Wordle with classic rules.
- Pros: Simple, minimal time constraint, other players can’t see your guesses
- Cons: Can’t compare how you did in the guessing, only by points
- Squabble: This version is speed-based and has multiple game modes with classic rules. Squabble can accommodate up to 99 people in Royale mode, making it perfect for large groups looking for some competitive fun.
- Pros: More competitive, adds fun time constraint + health points, head-to-head options
- Cons: Time-based stress, others can see your guesses
Scattegories
Scattegories has been another favorite of ours! A letter is chosen for the round and then players must make a list of words that all begin with the same letter within set categories. When the timer is up, you reveal answers and get points for unique answers that other team members did not use. You also get double points (or more) for alliterative answers — just don’t try and throw in a bunch of adjectives to lengthen your response!
Our go-to website for playing Scattegories is Swellgarfo. It’s a simple interface where you can easily default to pre-selected categories or add some of your own. We normally have one participant share their screen with the group when playing this and each team member records their answers on a Notes app or a piece of paper. You also can try out different lengths of time depending on how much time you have to play and how challenging you want it to be.
Other Games to Play Virtually
Numbers/Cheers to the Governor
This may have started as a drinking game, but it can be played with or without a beverage. Some refer to it as “Numbers” while others nostalgically call it “Cheers to the Governor.” We play our version with our virtual campfire to establish an order. Players go around clockwise counting 1 at a time — the first player says “1,” the second says “2,” etc. until you reach 11. At that point, the person who said “11” creates a rule that takes the place of a number of their choice. Some options include:
- Make an animal sound
- Show and tell with an object in the room
- Reveal a guilty pleasure
- Say your number in a different language
As the rules grow, it becomes harder to keep track so it usually becomes full-on chaos. Keep playing until every number is replaced with a rule.
2 Truths & 1 Lie
You’ll need someone on the team to be the “truth keeper” in this one, but it’s one of those games you’ll often be forced to play as an icebreaker. For the virtual version, have everyone email over 2 truthful facts about themselves and 1 lie. The truth keeper then compiles and mixes the order up to present to the group. They can either read them one-by-one or have everyone view a Google Doc with the full list to prepare their guesses. Then the truth keeper goes through all of the answers and usually, the truthful facts lead to some good stories to share with the group.
Crossword Puzzle 
When we’re looking for a more relaxed game without the competition element, we like to pick a crossword puzzle on Down for a Cross. Choose from weekly puzzles from The New York Times, LA Times, USA Today & more. One person selects the puzzle and sends the link to the group and everyone can participate on their own screen. Everyone seems to find a section to focus on, and eventually, we spend 5-10 minutes debating the final clues.
Trivia/Jeopardy
For trivia or jeopardy, it’s best to have one team member “host.” We always choose our web developer, Scott, because he’s too good at trivia to compete. Plenty of Jeopardy-style websites also exist where you can have everyone participate. We have also had fun trying “Trivia Murder Party” on Jackbox Games.
Wikipedia Speed Runs
You can either use the site they are actively developing just for this game, or just open up wikipedia.com. The whole premise of the game is very simple: get from one predetermined Wikipedia page to another one, only by clicking the links in the writing of that page.
Of course, there are a few extra rules thrown in to keep it interesting. When we have played, we have not allowed clicking on date-specific events, as well as countries, and states. House rules are common to add as well, but another important rule is not using the ‘command F’ shortcut or any of its equivalents!
Cards Against Humanity
Normally this is not exactly a game most would describe as “work friendly”. However, the good folks over at Cards Against Formality made an online version that contains a ‘Family Edition’ pack that keeps the potential for laughs high while keeping the NSFW answers to a minimum.
You’re able to set up your own custom games with up to 50 people, but due to the nature of the game we’d recommend keeping the groups closer to ten people or less for engagement and time saving purposes. You can also add time limits to the rounds, and increase or decrease the target score (points required to win) to make games shorter or longer depending on how much time you’re trying to fill.
Virtual Office Olympics
If once every two to four years you find yourself enthralled by some of the world’s best competitors, bring back some of that competitive spirit and have your office’s very own “Internet Olympics”! While you can customize it to fit your team, we can share how we ran ours. We started our contest of champions with a reaction speed test, where you have five attempts to click your mouse as soon as a stop light goes from red to green. We then compared the best averages and quickest individual response times for our first medaling opportunity. We then used a website that puts up a predetermined number of targets for a few seconds at a time, to measure both click accuracy and who could click the highest number of targets. We recommend making a distinction in this event’s scores based on whether you’re using a trackpad or a mouse.
For the back half of “events” we started with a group typing speed challenge called TypeRacer that measures both the accuracy of your typing as well as your average words/minute. Then to wrap it up we had a sequential memory test (note: this site has a lot of other games you could try).
We kept track of the “events” and scores in an ancient Greek-inspired spreadsheet and even gave everybody Ancient Greek names to play into the drama of the competition. After two rounds of each event, totaling up all of the “medals” everybody earned, and having a gold medal count to break a tie for overall bronze, we announced our winners!
Virtual Escape Room
When we’re together we love doing escape rooms, but we don’t want our remote employees across the country to miss out, so we have played around with Funtivity’s escape room games that can be accessed from Zoom. Choose from various rooms (they make it easy to find one that is your target length of time and difficulty level). Then work together to share clues and ultimately make it out of the room…virtually. Once you escape, you can also try out some of our other favorite Funtivity games like Name That Song or Guess That Movie. Note that you may need to pay for an upgraded version of Funitivity to play.
