PULTEVENT
Youth group games on a screen: 8 formats for a Wednesday night that the leaders don't have to reinvent
Wednesday, 7.15pm, a church hall with stacking chairs and a tea urn that clicks when it's ready. Twenty-three twelve-to-sixteen-year-olds, half of them already on their phones, the other half kicking a football against the fire door. The youth leader doesn't ask them to put the phones away. She plugs her laptop into the old projector, and the wall shows a board of questions in six categories and the line "Scan to join your team. Winners pick the music." The football stops.
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Anyone who has run a youth group knows the problem. You need something every week that gets a mixed-age, mixed-energy group into the same room mentally before the main session. Most weeks you improvise. Some weeks it works. Having a few reliable screen games in your back pocket means the start of the evening is sorted and you can spend your planning time on the part that matters.
PULTEVENT runs in a laptop browser and goes to a projector or TV over HDMI. A leader runs the laptop. Young people join by scanning a QR code on the screen with their phones: no app, no accounts, no personal details. Those phones need internet. Those without a phone pair up with a friend, and several games run from the laptop with no phones at all.
8 youth group games for the projector
1 The game-show board
A board of categories and points values on the screen. Teams pick a square, the question opens, first team to answer from a phone takes the points.
How to run it. Mix general knowledge with categories about your group: leaders' embarrassing facts, last summer's camp, songs from the Sunday service.
A proper competitive format that feels like television and keeps teams talking.
2 Would you rather
Two options on screen, everyone votes from their phone, and the bars show where the group stands. Then someone defends the minority view.
How to run it. End on a question that leads into the evening's theme. It's a far better way in than "so, tonight we're talking about..."
It gets quieter young people giving an opinion without having to speak first.
3 Drift Arena
Twelve cars on a 3D track, steered from twelve phones. Heats, a final and a lot of noise.
How to run it. Run heats by age group so the older teens don't dominate the eleven-year-olds.
The one they'll ask for every single week. Use it as a reward.
4 Guess the member
Everyone submits a fact about themselves in advance. Each fact appears on screen and the group guesses who it belongs to.
How to run it. Great for the first week of term when new members join. Collect facts on paper at the door.
New members get known quickly, and regulars learn something about each other.
5 Task randomizer
The screen spins through challenges and lands on one: say the alphabet backwards, balance a hymn book on your head for thirty seconds, name ten countries in Africa.
How to run it. Load only challenges you'd be happy to see anyone in the group do. No food challenges, nothing physical that a less mobile member can't manage.
Unpredictable in a safe way, and nobody chooses their own task, so nobody looks like a show-off.
6 Charades
A word on screen for the actor, the team guesses against the clock.
How to run it. Use themes from the evening's session. Bible stories, film titles, jobs, whatever fits your group.
Still works when the Wi-Fi gives up, and it gets the football crowd using their energy on something.
7 True or false about the leaders
"Dave once met a member of the royal family." "Sarah has never seen snow." Two buttons on every phone.
How to run it. Get the leaders to agree to their facts first. Some will offer surprisingly good ones.
Young people find their leaders more interesting than they'd ever admit.
8 The term scoreboard
Keep team points running across a whole term. At the last session, an awards ceremony on screen with special awards and a winning team.
How to run it. Keep teams stable for the term so there's something to play for.
It gives a reason to come back next week, which is most of youth work.
Built for weekly use
Set up once, reuse every week. New questions take ten minutes.
Their phones do the work
The phones already in their hands become controllers, instead of distractions.
A leader in charge
One leader at the laptop controls what goes on screen and when the game stops.
No personal data
No sign-ups, no accounts. They scan the code and they're in the game.
A running order that works
The first fifteen minutes of a youth evening decide the rest. Start with a quick screen game while stragglers arrive, then the main game, then the session, then a short game to end. The game-show board works best as a main game; drift racing and would-you-rather are good openers.
Keep a game for the end that you can cut if the session runs over. There's always one week when the discussion goes somewhere you didn't plan, and you want to let it.
Phones in the room
Many youth groups have a no-phones policy, for good reasons. Screen games flip that for twenty minutes: phones out, for the game, then away. Young people respond well to having a clear rule for when they can use them.
Some members won't have phones or won't have data. Pair them up, or run team versions where one phone per team is enough. Every phone that plays needs internet, so share the building's Wi-Fi or check the signal.
Nothing is installed on their phones and no personal details are collected. That matters to parents and safeguarding leads.
Mixed ages
A youth group often covers eleven to eighteen, and the gap between a Year 7 and an upper sixth is enormous. Put ages across teams. Let the older ones lead the team, the younger ones hold the phone. Write questions at two levels on the board game: easy ones in the lower values, harder in the higher.
Leaders who don't like tech
You need one leader who's happy with a laptop and a projector cable. That's it. The rest of the team can run the physical games and look after the group. Once it's set up, a new leader can learn to run it in one evening.
"I don't do computers."
"You don't need to. Press the green button when they're ready."
Using it beyond Wednesday nights
The same setup works on camps and weekends away, for parent evenings and for the end-of-year celebration. Share the stage window in a video call and a youth group can play together online when meeting in person isn't possible.
Before you pitch it to the team
Set up a board and a round of would-you-rather in the free 3-day demo, no card required, and run it with the leaders at your next planning meeting. After that, a single license covers it with no subscription; pricing is on 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 run youth group games on a screen
- 1
Build a game-show board and a would-you-rather round with your group in mind.
- 2
Collect facts from members and leaders for the guessing games.
- 3
Connect the laptop to the projector and check the Wi-Fi reaches the hall.
- 4
Split the group into mixed-age teams and put the QR code on screen.
- 5
Run an opener, the main game, your session, then a short closer.
- 6
Keep the team scoreboard running across the term and hold the awards at the end.
FAQ
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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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