Just after Boxing Day, we invited our friends to come and celebrate our buddy dog Mabel’s sixth birthday, and at the same time, I also planned a list of individual and team games with our guests. This game show took me nearly three days to plan and print!
I wanted to share my ideas with you in the hope that they can give you some inspiration should you host any party games in future. This game is suitable for teenagers and above and is great for 10 or more people.
Before we started the games, I split everyone into groups of five and ensured we had a mix of ages within each team. Of course, you can have more teams if you wish. Either get the team to pick their own captain or the host picks it for them. The role of a captain is to represent their team, distribute points (Share or Steal) and organise their best individuals to earn points for team games.
In total, I had a list of 12 games with five games for individuals (I) and seven for teams (T). Overall, the game show is won as individuals. The top three individual winners will win prizes, whilst the bottom three individual losers will be punished.
I always like to source my prizes from Chinatown supermarkets. They stock a range of delicious snacks. As all our guests are not Chinese/Asian, it was quite nice for them to try out some Asian snacks and drinks! As for the losers, I had prepared them a shot of black sesame soup. It is not everyone’s cup of tea. It is a thick, black paste and sticky in consistency.
These are the 12 games to be played as follows:
- Musical Number Game (I)
- Back to Back Drawing (T)
- Marshmallow Challenge (T)
- Blowing candles (I)
- Battleship Challenge (T)
- 3, 2, 1 Look Here (T)
- True or False (I)
- Math Challenge (T)
- Who is the imposter? (I)
- Articulate Phrases (T)
- Music Dance (T)
- Swimming Ring Challenge (I)
Musical Number Game
For this musical number game (individual), I printed a range of numbers (front and back the same number): 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4 and 5. For 10 players, you will need strings, a hole puncher, scissors and 20 A4-size clear plastic sleeves. If you didn’t want to buy this stationery, you could use safety pins to pin the number at the front and back of the t-shirt of the players. Place the printed numbers into the clear plastic sleeves and punch holes on both sides of the top of the plastic sleeves. Thread the strings into the holes to make it wearable. Please see the photos.
Get everyone to wear a number and put on the music. Get them to mix around the room. As the sum of the numbers is 24, the host could ask for any numbers ranging from 6 to 15.
For example, if the host asks for “six”, you will have four groups of people. If the host asks for “eight”, you will have three groups of people. If the asked number is seven number, you will have three groups of people and a few numbers that can not make it into the group. For those leftover numbers, they do not get the chance to answer a question for that round.
In total, I had set eight rounds of musical number games and a total of 32 questions. Everyone in the group has to either sing or say the right answer before each scores a point. If one of them in the group cannot answer or takes more than 5 seconds to answer, the whole group of individuals don’t score any points.
These are some examples of questions I had asked the players:
- Sing one sentence of a Christmas song.
- Name a singer who sang a Christmas song.
- Name a Christmas song title.
- Sing one sentence of a song with an animal in the lyrics.
- Name a Simpsons character.
- Name a Star Wars character.
- Name a Finding Nemo character.
- Name a Peppa Pig character.
Back to Back Drawing
For this team game, there are three rounds to play. Team captains will have to send two players each round. One person draws, while the other describes the image. They have to sit back to back. You will need a table, paper, a pen and two chairs. Before the game, I prepared six images of shapes with lines. To make it fair, each round had the exact number of lines to draw. See image for ideas. They are just random lines I drew via the Canva website.
In each round, players get one minute to draw and describe. The best image of the group will win the round. The first to win two rounds wins the whole game. The winning team will get 20 points and the losing team get 10 points.
This is a share or steal round. I have printed out five sets of share and steal images and stuck them on hard cardboard. The team will make their decision, either to steal all the points or share the points equally. For example, if one player placed the steal card, whilst the rest of the players placed the share card, the steal player got all the points. If two players placed the steal card, while the rest placed share cards, all of them got no points. If all of the players placed share, their points were distributed equally.
Marshmallow Challenge
For this team game, you will need marshmallows (one marshmallow for each team only), a pack of spaghetti (20 strands of spaghetti for each team), two tubs of plasticine, a roll of masking tape and a timer. Each team has five minutes to build a tower to support the marshmallow. The team with the tallest marshmallow wins.
The winning team gets 20 points and the losing team gets 10 points. This is an ‘agree and disagree’ round. Team captains get the chance to distribute points and if any players disagree with the distribution, they can get a chance to steal it all or lose it all. I have printed out five sets of agreed and disagreed images and stuck them on cardboard. If any players disagree with their team captain, they will have to draw straws. I prepared five straws and only one of the straws was marked. Whoever picks the marked straw wins all the points and the rest of the players get no points as individuals.
Blowing candles
For this individual game, you will need candles and lighters. I placed the candles in a straight line on the table. I placed a sheet to protect my table surface. Then I marked a line on the floor and no one should cross this line. Each player has one chance to blow as many candles as they can with just one breath.
I only awarded points to the first three players who blew out the most candles: the third placed player got 1 point, second got 2 points and first got 3 points. The rest of the players got no points.
Battleship Challenge
For this team game, there are three rounds to play. The first team to win two rounds wins. Team captains will have to send one player to play each round. I created three sets of two waterproof sheet boards (printed numbers 1 to 20) and two small number sheets (printed numbers 1 to 20).
You will need a table, pens, two tokens, 38 shot glasses, a shield, raincoats, goggles and towels. Place the shield in the middle of the table. Fill 32 shot glasses with drinks, it could be black coffee, milk tea or soft drinks. Fill 6 shot glasses with water as this is for splashing. Each team will get 16 shot glasses with drinks, 3 shot glasses of water and one token.
Each player places them on the numbers they wish. To play the game, a player calls out a number, if it is a drink, the opponent will have to drink it, but if it’s a shot of water, the opponent will get to splash the player. If the player calls the number where the token is located, they will win the game.
The winning team gets 20 points and the losing team gets 10 points. This is a share or steal round. See the back to back drawing for guidance on awarding scores.
3, 2, 1 Look Here
For this team game, there are three rounds to play. The first team to win two rounds will win five points. Team captains will have to send two players to play each round. The first player to play and the second player to splash the water. You will need cups of water, a bin cover/flat saucepan, raincoats, goggles and towels.
To play, the first player of each team sits opposite one another. The second player of each team has a cup of water in one hand and places the bin cover/flat saucepan in the middle of the table within reach of both player.
The first player lifts up their hand and places it near the opponent’s face and says “3, 2, 1, look here”. The player can point up, down, left or right. If the player points left and the opponent player’s head turns up, down or right, then nothing happens and the players switch roles. However, if the player points their hand left and the opponent player’s head turns in the same direction, the opponent player loses. When the player loses, the teammate will use the saucepan to protect the player, while the opposition’s second player splashes them with water. Watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHH5y0-UrTI
The winning team gets 10 points and the losing team gets 5 points. Points are distributed evenly among all the players in the team.
True or False
This is an individual game. I set 15 questions of True or False and got all of them to guess. I researched the questions online and took some from the board games we had. For each correct answer, the player scores one point.
Maths Challenge
For this team game, there are three rounds to play. I set the maths questions on a PowerPoint, for example, 3 x 4 – 2 – 2. Team captains will have to send two players each round. Place the players back to back. One player reads out the question and the other player answers. Then they rotate. They have one minute to answer as many questions as they can. The most maths questions answered wins the round.
The first team to win two rounds get 20 points and the losing team gets 10 points. This is a Share and Steal round. See above for the distribution of points.
Who is the Imposter?
For this game, individual players get a word (for example, “cat”) and two of the players will get the word “Imposter”. The imposters will not know what they need to draw. They have to be smart enough to bluff it and pretend they know what to draw to not reveal themselves.
Place an A3 size blank sheet of paper and a few coloured pens on the table. Each player takes it in turn to draw one line. Once all players have drawn their lines, they have to guess who the imposter is (they only need to name one). If no one identifies the imposter, the imposter scores two points. If the players name the imposter correctly, the players score one point each and the imposter scores no points.
Articulate Phrases
For this team game, there are three rounds to play. I set a list of phrases using some of the past board games we had. Each team will send one player to articulate and the rest of the players will answer. They have three minutes to answer as many phrases as they can. The most answered phrases win the round.
The first team to win two rounds gets 20 points and the losing team gets 10 points. This is an agree and disagree round. The team captain distributes the points among themselves. If anyone disagrees with the team captain, please see the scoring system as described in the Marshmallow Challenge.
Music Dance
For this team game, there are three rounds to play. I set three parts of popular song’s chorus from 2023. I then highlight the words they have to dance and not sing the words. See the image below for an example.
I then teach them different dance moves for each word and they have to dance the word when it appears in the song, but the important thing is they can’t sing it. This team game involves all players. They have to sing along and dance when the highlighted word appears. The best-performing group with the least faults wins the round.
The first team to win two rounds get 20 points and the losing team gets 10 points. Team captains to distribute the points evenly.
Swimming Ring Challenge
This is an individual game. To play this game, players have to keep their hands in their pockets. Then stand in the middle of the swimming ring. They have two minutes to get the swimming ring up over their body. If they take less than one minute, they score three points. If they take more than one minute but less than two minutes, they score two points. If they give up or do not complete it within two minutes, they don’t score anything.
All shapes and sizes of body can play this game. They have to be quite flexible and quick! I used less than 30 seconds and my son did it in seven seconds. A few others did not even complete the task. It was great fun! I bought an adult-size swimming ring where the hold measures 90cm in diameter.
I hope you all like the games I shared above. If you have any other party game ideas, please let me know!