How to make a survey game
- Start from a game. Pick a starter (family game night, Christmas or classroom) or a new blank game. Each round is one survey question, like "Name something you take to the beach", with up to eight answers and their points.
- Write the answers and points. In the classic format the points are how many people out of 100 gave each answer, so a round's points add up to 100 or a little less. Answers are shown highest first; Sort by points puts your list in that order.
- Pick the multiplier. Set a round to double or triple points, usually the last one or two, so the game stays open until the end.
- Keep it. Save to my games stores it in this browser, Share game link copies a link with everything inside for a co-host, and Download file gives you a copy for another computer.
Run your own survey
The starter games come with points we guessed ourselves; they are not results of a real poll. A real survey makes the game: a few days before, ask your questions to another class, your colleagues or a group chat, and tell people to give the first answer that comes to mind. Count how many gave each answer, merge answers that mean the same thing ("phone" and "check my phone"), and type the top five to eight into the game. With 20 people, multiply the counts by five to get points out of 100.
Host the game
- Face-off. Click Play. The question shows and the buzzers open; the first team to press its key or controller lights up. If its answer is on the board, click that slot to reveal it. Then choose which team plays the round.
- Play the round. The playing team keeps answering. Click a slot to reveal each right answer; press Strike for each wrong one. The round's points add up under the board.
- Steal. After the last strike, the other team gets one guess. Reveal its answer if it's on the board, then give the round's points to whichever team won them.
- Next round. Reveal the rest to show the answers nobody found (they add no points), then go on. After the last round the final scores fill the screen, and Share result gives you a link to the scoreboard.
Made a mistake? Undo last score takes back the last points you gave. The host can also play without buzzers: just pick who plays each round.
Buzzers, screens and sound
Two teams start with A and L as their buzzer keys. Each can also take a game controller: 🎮 Pair, then any button on it. Before the first round, ask every captain to hit their buzzer once; their row lights up and plays that team's tone. A pad that stays silent can be checked on the controller tester. If a wireless pad falls asleep mid-game, the host bar says so, and waking it up gives it back to the same team. In a close face-off the press that reached the browser first takes it, and a cable is usually quicker than Bluetooth, so put both captains on the same kind.
On one TV or projector, Full screen shows the question, the numbered slots, the strikes and the scores, with your buttons in a strip along the bottom; the answers stay hidden there until you reveal them. With a second screen, Presenter window opens a copy that shows only what the room should see. Drag it onto the TV and keep this window on your laptop, where you can peek at the answer list. The two windows talk to each other inside one browser, so open both on the same computer.
Ideas for a game night or a classroom
- Use the classroom game to review a topic: "Name a planet", "Name a part of a plant". Every answer the class finds is a small win, even before the points.
- Keep four or five rounds for a 30-minute game, and make the last one double or triple.
- Timing the steal? The online timer runs a full-screen countdown next to the game.
- For a trivia game with categories and point values, try the quiz board maker, which uses the same teams and buzzers.
Privacy
No account and no upload: the game runs on this device. My games lives in the browser's local storage, and a game link carries the questions packed after its # sign, a part of an address that browsers don't send to a server. Our statistics are counts such as rounds played or a controller being used; the survey questions, the answers and your team names are never part of them.