PULTEVENT
Guess the baby photo game: 6 versions for offices, weddings and reunions
On the screen, a toddler sits in a plastic bucket on a beach, sun hat pulled down over one eye, holding a spade like a scepter. The room goes quiet for about three seconds. Then somebody from accounts says, not very sure, "Is that Gary?" Gary from IT puts his drink down very slowly. By the time I click to reveal the name, nobody needs me to.
★ Free for the first 3 days, no card required
Of all the games I run at office parties, this one needs the least explaining. You show a photo of a small child, people guess which grown-up it became. Everyone understands the rules before you finish the sentence, and it works the same way at a wedding, a family reunion or a twenty-year class reunion.
The difference between a good round and an awkward one is almost all preparation: how you collect the pictures, which ones you pick, and whether everyone agreed to be in it. That's most of what this page is about.
On PULTEVENT the photos go full screen on the projector or TV, and you reveal the name with a separate click. For bigger rooms, guests answer from their phones (scan a QR, no app), which needs internet on their side.
6 versions of the baby photo game, and where each one works
1 The classic office round
Ten to fifteen colleagues' baby photos, one at a time on the big screen. The room shouts guesses, you let it run for a few seconds, then reveal.
How to run it. Put the most senior person third or fourth. First is too early, last feels like a setup.
Teams who only know each other from video calls suddenly have something to talk about at the bar.
2 Departments against departments
The same photos, but played as a quiz from phones. Each guest sees four names and taps one, and the points go to their department.
How to run it. Pick the three wrong names from the same department as the right one. Otherwise people guess by elimination.
In a big room only one person can shout the right answer. Here everyone scores, and sales can finally prove it knows engineering better than engineering does.
3 The wedding party edition
Baby photos of the couple, both sets of parents, the best man and the bridesmaids. Guests match babies to grown-ups between courses.
How to run it. End with the couple side by side as babies. It's the one photo everyone wants to see.
Each family knows its own baby pictures and not the other's, so the two sides start swapping stories.
4 Three generations at the reunion
Grandparents, parents and cousins mixed together. Half the fun is guessing the decade before you guess the person.
How to run it. Ask the oldest relatives for their photos first. Those are the hardest to get and the most loved on the night.
Teenagers discover their grandmother once had very serious bangs. Grandmothers discover they're famous.
5 The class reunion
Baby photos of classmates you haven't seen since graduation. You're guessing people you already find hard to recognize as adults.
How to run it. Collect photos through the organizer, not the group chat, and keep the list of names somewhere nobody else can open.
It gives a room of semi-strangers an instant reason to laugh together in the first half hour.
6 Vote for the best photo
After the reveals, the room votes from phones for the best picture of the night: best outfit, best scowl, best haircut. The bars grow on screen.
How to run it. Set the vote to anonymous before you open it. People vote more honestly when nobody can see their name.
It ends the game on a winner who didn't have to know anything, just have been an extraordinary baby.
Full-screen reveal
The photo fills the wall. The name appears only when you click, after the room has had its guesses.
Four names on every phone
In the phone version each guest picks from four options, so the quiet people score too, not just the loudest table.
Teams if you want them
Departments, families or wedding sides can play as teams, with the points collected on one scoreboard.
Nobody left out
A guest without a baby photo can still join in through a fact about their childhood.
How to collect photos without spoiling the game
The fastest way to ruin it is a shared folder with a link. Within an hour everyone has looked, and the game belongs to the people who didn't get around to opening it. Have photos sent privately to one person: the HR lead, the organizer, the couple's maid of honor. Rename each file with a number the moment it arrives and keep the list of numbers and names somewhere only you can see.
Start two or three weeks ahead. Most people's baby photos are in an album at their parents' house, and that trip takes a weekend.
Ask first, and mean it
Some people will send a photo in five minutes. Others hate the idea, and they don't always want to say why: the house in the background, a family they don't talk about, how they looked. Ask each person individually, make it easy to say no, and never use a photo someone else sent on their behalf.
After the event, delete the files you don't need. People trust you with something personal here, and it's worth treating it that way.
Which photos work and which don't
Ages two to eight, face clearly visible, one child in the frame. School class photos don't work: the room ends up looking for the wrong kid. Newborns don't work either, because all newborns look like the same small potato.
The best pictures have a clue in them: a costume from a school play, a first bike, a holiday T-shirt, a prize fish. A faded print with a bent corner is fine, the room loves those. Scan it with your phone in daylight, no flash, and crop until the face takes up at least a third of the frame.
Scoring when a hundred people guess at once
In a room of thirty, shouting is fine and you're the judge. Past forty or so, only the loudest table gets heard, and someone will argue with your ruling. That's when I switch to the phone version: four names each, the scoring runs itself, and nobody argues with the host.
The catch is internet. Guests' phones need a connection, so check the Wi-Fi and signal in the room beforehand. If it's poor, go back to the shouting version from the screen; the photos run from your laptop either way.
How this differs from a baby shower game
At a baby shower the baby is the guest of honor and hasn't arrived yet. Here the babies are the guests, forty years later, holding drinks. It's a game about the people in the room, which is why it works so well at events where people don't know each other well enough.
If you are planning a shower, the related links below have a separate guide for that.
Setting it up
Load the photos and names in the free 3-day demo, no card needed, and click through the reveals on your own TV. If you like it, the full version is a one-time license rather than a subscription; see pultevent.ru/en for the price.
The same guest list feeds Guess the Guest, where people guess a colleague from a fact instead of a photo. That's the version for anyone who couldn't find a picture.
About the author
PULTEVENT was built by Ruslan Barashkin, who has hosted weddings, birthdays and office parties since 2014: over 500 events, best host of Moscow 2024 and of Saint Petersburg 2023 at the TOP 100 Awards. He made it for his own nights first. The rest is at pultevent.ru/en.
How to run a baby photo game on the big screen
- 1
Three weeks out, ask each person privately for a photo and for permission to show it.
- 2
Rename files by number as they arrive and keep the names list to yourself.
- 3
Crop each photo so the face fills at least a third of the frame.
- 4
Load the photos with names, and set up teams if departments or families will compete.
- 5
On the night, show each photo, give the room ten seconds, then click to reveal.
- 6
Finish with an anonymous vote for the best photo and put the winner on the screen.
FAQ
How many photos should I use?
Do guests need to download an app?
Can we play without phones?
What if someone has no baby photo?
Can remote colleagues join?
Is there a free trial?
See also
Run brighter events — with PULTEVENT
All audience interactions, a second screen and timing in one app. Guests join by QR — internet is needed for you and for them.
Start free