Gone are the days when you and your favourite co-worker sipped a cup of tea, went for a quick stroll or simply played a round of Solitaire before the boss stepped into the office. Now that we’ve all been so used to the “WFH” routine & with remote teams coming into play as a working concept, socialising with colleagues is a term that has gone ancient. While, ofcourse meetings happen, but only with an agenda! And that has further eliminated a chance to build personal bonding which is equally important to bring the team closer (you’ll always remember mates you laughed with) It is important to schedule events, ice-breaker sessions now more so than ever to blow off some work steam. Being a part of the design team for “Bored”, a slack-based Trivia Game has pushed us to try out different games every week. And trust us, we wouldn’t be lying if we said we have enjoyed every single gaming/bonding session.

Here are a few hand-picked games we truly cherish playing:

1. Gartic Phone – How to Play

It’s a game that allows you to play with 4 or upto 30 friends, all on a web browser (Goodbye, temporary app installs) You can simply go to www.garticphone.com and start playing either on your PC, Mac, Android or iOS. If we were to define this brilliant game in one sentence, it’s “Chinese Whisper Meets Pictionary”. The game has different formats, but we usually prefer the classic mode. Gartic Phone ensures a round of laughter when everyone’s stories and drawings come together in the end, plus it comes with an added benefit of downloading the end result into a gif and saving to mock your mate on Insta stories 😛

1. Code Names – How to Play

Awarded as the “Board Game Of The Year 2016”, Code Names is a simple yet challenging game that gives you hours of fun to remember. The audience is split into 2 teams, with a minimum of at least 2 players required for a standard game. Each team has a spymaster who has to communicate the clues to their team without giving it away to the opponents. Code Names is sure to keep the whole group entertained while also enhancing communication amongst team members.

1. Scattergories – How to Play

A perfect ice-breaker activity, Scattergories is a fun social game on www.letsdive.io. Players compete with each other by listing down words that start with the same letter. All you have to do is be the smartest person in the room and get as creative as you can. And by the end of the game, you’ll be surprised to know how people miss the most obvious of answers.

1. Icebreakers

This one’s close to heart & home, Coz we were a part of the design team that built Bored. Bored brings fun short-break games that you and your colleagues can bond over. With Icebreakers, Trivia, Roasting & more among its games it is a guaranteed bonding session with your team members. We have installed it on our Slack channel and it helps us connect with each other so well. Bored is a great way to play a quick round of fun games without the need of pre-planning.

Takeaway:

We all know that after-work meet-ups will never come close to online gaming meet-ups, but
it does keep us socially stable & going. Therefore, gaming is a great way to enhance
interpersonal communication. Find your team favourites, play for a while and get back to a
better coordinated team. Coz playing the same games can get boring after a while. Happy
Gaming & Bonding!