Today we’re tackling the subject of remote team building during this long period of teleworking. Whether your team is suddenly working remotely because of COVID-19 or is used to being apart, it’s important to continue cultivating a sense of community in your organization. This can help combat loneliness and isolation, but also build trust between team members.
Being more connected to each other will not only help team members feel happier, but also work more effectively together.
There are many options for bringing people together online. Many of these activities are facilitated by a videoconferencing tool (Google Meet, Teams, Slack, Skype, etc.). Today, we’ll be focusing on online games and their ability to bring teams together, despite this long period of teleworking.
Warm-up or ice-breaker games for some of your Agile ceremonies. You can also consider longer afterwork or lunch break sessions.
[This article contains no sponsored links. Our tests are subjective and based only on free games, tested on browser or mobile].
Virtual team building on computer and by videoconference
During my last assignment, I tested these activities with several teams of six people on average. The list of mini games and board games available online is endless. Here’s a list of free, fun and fast games to use in your remote team-building meetings. In this first section, we’ll focus on browser-based games.
Online Pictionary, perfect for an ice-breaker or remote gaming session!
Test Pictionary online! This game is a real classic, in which you have to make your colleagues guess a word or phrase with a drawing. The concept is simple, and can be played online in your browser or on your mobile. Your teams will enjoy sharing their Pictionary during this extended teleworking period!
Two versions of Pictonary have been tested by our teams. They are :
Skibbl
and
Drawize
. We have a slight preference for Drawize. We’ve encountered far fewer bugs on Drawize than on Skribbl. What’s more, creating a private party is easy. This is done with a unique code or a simple link to be communicated to the whole team connected on the Google Meet call, for example.
A game of UNO online with your colleagues!
Go to this link :
Uno Online
. For up to 4 players. It’s very easy to set up a game with this online game. Create a private room with a name and secret code. You send the code and the name of the room to the 3 other interested team members.
You can create a mini Uno tournament by running several games in parallel if you have a larger team. After a few games, we even manage to forget that we’re far away from each other during this long period of telecommuting.
Online BINGO, a classic
Very rarely have I seen Bingo appear in the “Top 10” online games on search engines. In my opinion, however, it more than deserves its place in this Top 10 of free online games for Team Building votes.
Visit Bingo is a game of chance, played with 75 or 90 numbered balls drawn at random by the master of the game (usually your Scrum Master or the event organizer). Each team member has a card. On these (virtual) cards there is a grid with numbers. To win the
JACKPOT
You have to fill in the whole grid with the numbers drawn at random. Don’t forget to send a gift to the winner!
You can use the My Free Bingo Cards (Free up to 30 players). Set-up is quick and easy even when teleworking, linked to Covid-19 . All you need is a call with the whole team and a link that you’ll share in the videoconference chat. Here’s a quick tutorial.
Loup-Garou, up to 20 players online
Would you like to play a werewolf online? You’re probably familiar with this famous role-playing game. Well, there’s a website where you can play it as a team, free of charge, on your browser. If you want to play the real Werewolves of Thiercelieux, go to
Wolfy
.
You can create private games for up to 20 players by sharing a simple link with your entire team participating remotely in the Team Building meeting. The only prerequisite for this activity is to have at least one person able to explain the rules at the start of the game!
Team Building with online mobile games
Among Us, the social phenomenon
If you’re more interested in short mobile games with a Werewolf-like concept, Then Among-Us is just the thing for your team. You’ll soon be playing games on cell phones(Apple, Android and PC). It will be a real pleasure to flush out the “imposters” in your team. The only drawback is that the game is not yet available in French.
Ludo King, games for up to 6 players
Fancy a game of Ludo ? Ludo King mobile game is the best “Ludo” we’ve found. You can play games with up to 6 players: guaranteed fun for colleagues! The game can be downloaded free of charge from Android and Apple. You can create a private Team Building game by easily sharing a code, something you can’t do with other versions of Ludo online.
Poker Now, the best game tested on mobile and PC by our teams
We end this test with the best game tested on mobile and computer for your remote Team Building activities! We wanted an online poker game that could meet these requirements:
- No installation required (on mobile or PC).
- Completely free (this is not a freemium game with paid options!).
- No registration is necessary, so games are quick and easy to get started in a teleworking context linked to covid-19.
- No advertising. (Yes, it does exist!).
- No real money is staked (we play with virtual chips and no money is involved in our games).
- A private table where only team members can connect (with a private link).
We’ve come across the only web alternative capable of meeting all these conditions! This is
Poker Now
. We really enjoyed playing online poker with this game alongside a video conference with Google Meet. The game is both completely free and ad-free, financed exclusively by donations via a “Buy Me a Coffee” campaign.
Finally, the most experienced players gave Masterclasses to all new players. This was the perfect after-work game for a warm, friendly moment with colleagues.
Further information
Send us your suggestions in the comments!
