PULTEVENT
Family game night on the TV: 7 games where the eight-year-old and the grandparents both stand a chance
Friday, seven o'clock, a terraced house in Leeds. Dinner plates still on the table, the dog under it. The eight-year-old has the remote hidden behind a cushion because she knows what's coming. Her older brother is pretending to be above all this. Grandma has put her reading glasses on for the first time in an hour. On the TV there's a QR code and the words "Put these in order: the first moon landing, the day Grandma got married, the invention of the microwave."
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Family game night has a problem that everybody who's tried it knows. The board games are either too hard for the youngest or too boring for the teenager, and someone ends up refereeing instead of playing. Putting the game on the TV changes that: everyone's looking at the same thing, the scoring takes care of itself, and the rules are on the screen instead of in a booklet under the sofa.
PULTEVENT runs from a laptop connected to the TV. One grown-up drives it from the laptop. Everyone else plays from a phone after scanning a QR code: no app, no accounts. The phones need internet. Younger children who don't have a phone play on a team with a parent, and several games need nobody's phone at all.
7 games for a family night on the TV
1 The family timeline
Events appear on screen and each team puts them in order on the phone: world history mixed with family history. Which came first, the first mobile phone or Dad's first car?
How to run it. Mix one or two family dates into each round. Grandparents know them, kids don't, and it sparks stories.
It's the one game where the oldest person at the table has a real edge.
2 Whose photo is it
Old photos from the family albums, one at a time. Is that Mum at six or Auntie Carol? The room guesses, then you reveal.
How to run it. Scan a few prints from the loft a week before. Phone photos of photos work fine.
The kids see their parents as children for the first time, and the questions keep coming for days.
3 Family true or false
"Grandpa once met a famous footballer." "Mum failed her driving test three times." Two buttons on every phone.
How to run it. Check each claim with the person it's about first. Nobody likes a surprise confession on the telly.
Half the facts are family legend, and some of them turn out to be false.
4 Charades on screen
The word appears on the TV for the actor only while the team guesses against the clock.
How to run it. Give under-sevens picture words or animals. Give the teenager something impossible.
It's physical, silly, and the youngest can win it outright.
5 Bowling
A 3D bowling lane on the TV, played from a phone. Every roll is a small drama.
How to run it. Hand the phone around the room. Everyone gets one frame.
Nothing to learn, over in a few minutes, and Grandpa will want a rematch.
6 The family quiz
A proper quiz from phones with a scoreboard: general knowledge rounds and one round about the family itself.
How to run it. Write easier questions for the kids' round and let the kids' team pick that round when they're behind.
It gives the evening a spine that the other games hang off.
7 Prize-giving
The team scoreboard ends with an awards ceremony: special mentions first, then the winners, with fanfare on the TV.
How to run it. Make up the special awards on the night: best loser, most suspicious answer, fastest guess.
The evening finishes on a moment instead of a squabble about who won.
One screen for everyone
The whole family faces the same TV. No squinting at cards across the table.
Phones instead of pieces
Nothing to lose down the side of the sofa. The scores keep themselves.
Mixed ages, mixed teams
Kids on grandparents' teams. Everyone contributes something different.
Your family, your questions
The quiz builder lets you write rounds about your own family history.
A family night, an hour long
An hour is enough. Start with something quick like bowling, then the timeline, then the photos, a break for pudding, then the quiz and the prize-giving. Stop while people still want more and they'll ask for it again next week.
Leave charades in your back pocket for when the youngest is fading. Nothing brings a seven-year-old back like being allowed to be a crocodile.
Teams that are fair
Split generations across teams. Put one grandparent, one parent and one child on each side. The grandparent carries the history, the parent carries the pop culture, the child carries the enthusiasm and occasionally, annoyingly, the right answer.
"How did you know that?"
"We did it at school, Dad."
When the family is spread out
Game night doesn't have to be in one living room. Share the stage window in a video call and relatives in another city or country see the same screen. They scan the QR code from their own phones and play along on their own team.
Guest screens follow each phone's language, which helps when half the family speaks something else at home. The host can turn that off if everyone prefers one language.
What you need at home
A laptop with a browser, a TV with an HDMI input, a cable, and Wi-Fi that reaches the sofa. Nothing else. Phones need internet to play, so the Wi-Fi password is the first thing you share.
If you're doing this weekly, keep the cable plugged into the TV and tucked behind it. Setup becomes a thirty-second job.
Sound matters more than people expect. TV speakers are fine for a living room, but if the house is loud, a small speaker plugged into the laptop makes the fanfare and the race music feel like an occasion rather than background noise. Dim the big light and leave a lamp on; the screen looks better and the room settles down.
Kids and phones
An adult runs the laptop and decides which games go on. Young children don't need their own phone. They play on a team with a grown-up, or they own the rounds that need no phone at all, like charades and the photo guessing.
Older kids who have phones can join directly through the QR code. It's a nice excuse to point their phone at the family for once.
Try a night first
Build one evening with the free 3-day demo, no card, and see if the family goes for it. If they do, the full version is a one-time license without a subscription, with pricing at pultevent.ru/en.
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 set up a family game night on the TV
- 1
Pick four or five games and gather a few old photos and family facts during the week.
- 2
Write a family round and a general round in the quiz builder.
- 3
Connect the laptop to the TV and check the Wi-Fi from the sofa.
- 4
Split everyone into mixed-generation teams and put the QR code on screen.
- 5
Play for about an hour with a pudding break in the middle.
- 6
Close with prize-giving and ask everyone what to play next time.
FAQ
Can young kids play without a phone?
What does the family need to download?
Can relatives in another city join?
Will grandparents manage it?
Can we write our own questions?
Can we play every week without repeats?
What does it cost?
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.
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