Remote games for colleagues: pick the right format and run it well.

A remote team never bumps into each other at the coffee machine. Conversations stay on work topics, and new hires know their colleagues mostly by their profile pictures. A short game, played together on a video call or alongside a meeting, brings back a moment where people talk about something else without it feeling forced.

What changes when the team is spread out

Remotely, three constraints shape any game.

• Screen sharing is not enough. If one person holds the mouse, everyone else watches. A good remote game gives each player their own screen and their own move.
• Audio is fragile. Muted mics, lag and shaky connections make games where everyone talks at once painful. Favor games where people answer in writing, with a drawing or with a click, and the conversation happens afterward.
• Attention spans are short. One more video call at the end of the day will not hold for an hour. Aim for rounds of a few minutes that you can chain if the group asks for more.

Add a practical one: nobody wants to install software to play for twenty minutes. A game that opens in the browser, on a laptop or a phone, removes half the friction.

Game types that work remotely

Bluffing and written-answer games

The idea: a question goes up, everyone writes a believable fake answer, then the group has to spot the real one among everyone's inventions. It works well online because people write on their own, in silence, and the reveal kicks off the conversation.

Kwoji Verita is built on this idea: one real answer hidden among the ones your colleagues made up.

Drawing games

Getting people to guess a word from a drawing, or playing an illustrated version of telephone (a sentence becomes a drawing, which becomes a sentence again), takes zero talent. Bad drawings are what make the round fun.

Estimation games

A question with a number for an answer (how many steps a landmark has, what year a gadget came out), everyone guesses, then you compare. It is the gentlest format for a team that barely knows each other: nobody has to put themselves forward, and the gaps between answers are enough to get people talking.

Short arcade games

Rounds of a few minutes where everyone plays at the same time on their own screen. Arcade games spread the attention around when the same people always do the talking.

Games about the colleagues themselves

Guessing whose photo that is, or who is behind an anonymous secret. These games build the most connection, but they need some trust. Save them for a team that has already played together a few times, and always leave room for people to stay low-key.

For an overview by category, the guide to games for colleagues walks through each format.

How to start a round without losing ten minutes

1. Send the link before the meeting. A link or QR code in the invite spares you fifteen minutes of "I can't get in."
2. Explain the rule in one sentence. If it does not fit in one sentence, the game is too complicated for a first try.
3. Play a practice round. It explains the game better than any speech.
4. Set an end. Announce "three rounds" or "fifteen minutes." A game that stops while it is still funny makes people want to come back.
5. Leave time for reactions. The most valuable part is not the game itself, it is the minute when everyone comments on the answers.

Make it a habit, not a special event

A game held once a year does not change how a team talks to each other. Repetition is what counts: fifteen minutes every week, on the same day, matters more than one big annual party.

A few ways to set it up:

• keep the last ten minutes of a weekly team meeting for a game;
• open a round at a fixed time, drop-in only, for whoever wants to join;
• rotate who hosts, so it is not always the manager suggesting it.

Never make it mandatory. A required game becomes one more meeting, and people who do not want to play experience it as a chore. If you are unsure about the format, our piece on no-prep games for meetings suggests options you can launch in two minutes.

Common mistakes

• Picking a game that runs too long. An hour-long session drives away half the group by the second time.
• Putting people on the spot. Overly personal questions, or challenges where one person is watched by everyone, make people uncomfortable, especially remotely.
• Forgetting time zones. For a distributed team, rotate time slots, or pick an asynchronous game that plays out over several hours.

One option among others: Kwoji

Kwoji is a multiplayer game platform built for these moments between colleagues. It runs in the browser with nothing to install; people join with a link, a QR code or a short code, and everyone plays on their own screen.

The free plan welcomes up to 200 members and includes 4 games with unlimited rounds, among them Kwoji Whisper (illustrated telephone) and Kwoji Ezagutza (estimates on a slider). The full catalog has 18 games. To learn how teams use it at work, see the business page.

If you are planning an end-of-day get-together instead, also read our ideas for after-work team games, or our icebreakers for team meetings.