PULTEVENT
Games to play on video calls: 8 formats that survive a shaky connection
Tuesday, the weekly team call, eleven faces. Priya is on a train and her tile has frozen mid-sip. Marco's kid is narrating something in the background. The team lead says, 'Right, before we start, a quick game,' and you can hear the collective sigh. Then a QR code appears on the shared screen, eleven phones come out, and for ten minutes nobody talks about the backlog.
★ Free for the first 3 days, no card required
Most games people try on video calls rely on talking in turn, and a call is the worst place for that. Half a second of lag and two people answer at once, then both stop, then both start again. The games that hold up are the ones where the call only carries the picture and everybody's input goes through a separate channel. Here, that channel is the phone in their hand.
You open the host console on a laptop and put its stage window into the call as a screen share, on whichever call service you normally use. People point their phone camera at the QR in that share and play, with nothing to download and no account to make. Phones need internet, of course. The eight formats below work for a team meeting, a friends' catch-up or a family call across three time zones.
Eight games for video calls, from two minutes to twenty
1 Quick quiz
Five to ten questions on the shared screen, answers tapped on phones, scores shown straight after each one.
How to run it. Write your own questions in the quiz builder. A round about the team's own projects lands better than general knowledge.
The easiest opener there is, and once it's done every player is already logged in for the next game.
2 True or false
A statement appears, phones tap true or false. Fast, simple, and it works on the weakest mobile signal.
How to run it. Mix statements about the company with odd facts about the world. Read each one aloud for the people listening on headphones.
A two-minute warm-up that wakes up a sleepy call without anyone having to perform.
3 Put them in order
Timeline shows a set of events or inventions and asks players to sort them by date.
How to run it. Be generous with the clock. On a call, people glance at the shared screen, then down at the phone, then back again.
Ordering sparks the 'no, surely that came first' chatter that makes a call feel like a room.
4 Who said that?
Guess the Guest shows a fact or a quote from someone on the call, and phones pick the colleague it belongs to, no unmuting required.
How to run it. Collect facts by private message beforehand. When the answer is revealed, ask that person to unmute and tell the story in one sentence.
Remote teams rarely learn anything about each other outside work. This fixes that in ten minutes.
5 Quick poll
Ask a question, give four options, and live voting counts the answers from phones. The result stays hidden until you reveal it.
How to run it. Mix a silly one (best office snack) with a useful one (which day for the offsite). The silly one gets more votes.
Polls get quiet people's opinions in front of the group without asking them to speak.
6 Horse Race
Six horses on a 3D track. Players pick a horse on their phone and ride it, and bots take any free stalls so the race always runs full.
How to run it. Run heats for bigger calls and a final for the winners. Everyone not riding picks a favorite in the chat.
It's the loudest thing you can do on a video call, and it needs no knowledge at all.
7 Charades on camera
One player acts out a word on camera, everyone else guesses out loud. The host sends the word to the actor in a private message and keeps time on the shared stage.
How to run it. Ask the actor to switch to speaker view and step back from the camera. Bring your own English word list, since the built-in lists lean Russian.
The one game here that uses the camera on purpose. Watching a finance manager mime a lawnmower is worth the lag.
8 Team league
Divide the group into a few sides and let the team scoreboard total the points from every game above.
How to run it. Announce the standings at the start of each weekly call. Keep the league short, four weeks is plenty.
A running score gives a regular ten-minute game slot something to build towards.
Nothing to install
You share a browser window. Players use their phone's browser. There's no plugin on the call and no app on anyone's phone.
Tolerant of lag
Answers go from phones, not through microphones, so a frozen tile or a delayed feed doesn't wreck a round.
Year-round, any group
Short formats for a Monday stand-up, longer ones for a Friday social. Nothing is tied to a season.
Scores persist
A team scoreboard keeps points across games, so a ten-minute slot every week can turn into a running league.
Share the stage, not your desktop
The platform gives you two windows. The console has your buttons, notes and the answers. The stage is what players should see. Share the stage window only, so nobody spots the answer to question four while you're scrolling.
If the call has a 'share sound' option, tick it. Otherwise the players hear your voice and none of the music. Test it once with a colleague before the call. Sound is where almost every remote game goes wrong.
Living with lag
Shared screens arrive a second or two late, and that delay differs from person to person. Give every question a longer timer than you'd use in a room, and read the question aloud as it appears so people with a slow feed hear it first.
A player whose phone loses signal can come back within ten minutes and pick up where they were. If their video freezes, it doesn't matter much: the game is on their phone, not in their tile.
Muting etiquette
Ask everyone to stay muted while answering and to unmute for reveals and reactions. That's the rhythm that makes a call feel alive: silence, then a burst of noise.
'Can everyone mute please?'
'I am muted.' (He was not.)
Move on. Nobody remembers it by the next round.
What players and hosts need
The host needs a laptop with a modern browser and a steady connection. Players need a phone with internet and a device for the call. Playing on the same laptop they're calling from is possible but fiddly. The phone in their pocket is the better controller.
The host console is being localized into English. Guest screens follow each player's phone language, which helps international teams. The built-in quiz decks are largely Russian for now, which is one more reason to write your own rounds in the builder.
Getting started
Try the free 3-day demo on your next team call, no card asked. The full version is a one-time license, no subscription, priced at https://pultevent.ru/en/. The demo is at https://pultevent.ru/login.html?mode=register&next=/app/
About the author
PULTEVENT was built by Ruslan Barashkin, who has hosted events since 2014: more than 500 weddings, office parties and birthdays. TOP 100 Awards named him best host in Moscow in 2024 and in Saint Petersburg in 2023, and he still runs his own nights from this console. More at pultevent.ru/en.
How to run games on a video call
- 1
Pick two or three formats that fit the time you have.
- 2
Write your questions or collect facts from the group beforehand.
- 3
Open the console in your browser and screen-share the stage window with sound on.
- 4
Ask everyone to point their phone at the QR in the screen share.
- 5
Play, read each question aloud and give generous timers.
- 6
Show the scores at the end and save them if you're running a league.
FAQ
Which video call apps does this work with?
Do players need to install anything?
What if someone doesn't have a smartphone to hand?
How many people can join?
Does it work on a weak connection?
Can we use it for a family call?
Is it free?
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