A remote (party?) game for non gamers

bazzabear · 4 Apr 2020 at 18:38

This is a bit of an odd one. Perhaps belonged in one of the gaming forums, but not sure whether to aim for PC or mobile.

On Friday, it is my Mother In Law's birthday, and she lives alone so will have been alone for 3 weeks by then.
I'm wondering if there's anything we (that being her, me and my wife and daughter at my house, and her other daughter and her husband from their house) can do that's a bit more involving than a Facetime chat.

Is there any kind of web based board game or something we could all play together on one device while chatting together on another?
For that matter, what's the best solution for chatting? Just something like Whatsapp? Or is this HouseParty that seems to be suddenly popular a better solution?

If we'll need to install something it might be doable - she's actually become quite into tech more recently with a smart phone and the like. But her laptop won't be capable of anything extreme.

Thanks for any thoughts and advice.

kaiowas · 4 Apr 2020 at 19:00

Is isketch still a thing?

iamdjdz · 4 Apr 2020 at 19:32

I haven't used it but is this not what the app houseparty is good for?

Puzzled · 4 Apr 2020 at 19:35

Houseparty has a few games (they don't work in Chrome though) which are ok, not amazing but pass some time.

andy_mk3 · 4 Apr 2020 at 19:45

kaiowas said:
Is isketch still a thing?

That's pretty much gone, although still up it uses shockwave which isn't ideal.

There's https://skribbl.io/ which runs on HTML5 now though as a replacement.

Bickaxe · 4 Apr 2020 at 20:21

Jackbox might be possible. You host via Steam, players use a website to play from their phones or tablet.

Janesy B · 4 Apr 2020 at 22:07

+1 for jackbox, played a few games and it's fun.

explicit4u · 4 Apr 2020 at 22:14

Another vote for Jackbox

Haggisman · 4 Apr 2020 at 22:22

Keep talking and nobody explodes?

Derek W · 4 Apr 2020 at 22:25

I thought house party was getting bad press recently with folk just dropping in on it unexpectedly?

Rickyw88 · 4 Apr 2020 at 22:36

That's only if you don't lock your room

We played scribblio during our team meeting for work the other day, was a good laugh

bazzabear · 4 Apr 2020 at 23:47

Cheers for the tips. I reckon Skriblio will definitely be used. Will look into HouseParty too.

Jackbox I realise I have on the Switch rather than PC. That doesn't stop us using it - but I guess most players won't be able to see the 'main' screen, so many (if not all) of the games won't really work. I'll give it a try myself and see if it looks feasible.

DB_SamX · 5 Apr 2020 at 00:42

Jackbox

TrannyBill · 5 Apr 2020 at 01:11

Cards against humanity could be good if your daughter is old enough

Nitefly · 5 Apr 2020 at 08:31

Make a quiz? That’s what my family have been doing - we each take it in turns to do a different quiz. We make it fun by having brain teaser rounds, some multiple choice, some questions relation to the family etc. Has been really good.

Robert · 5 Apr 2020 at 08:42

We’ve been using jack box via steam, sharing the screen on a video conf app (google hangouts) so people dial in via email phone browser.

Mrs Seabiscuit · 5 Apr 2020 at 09:24

Houseparty app was hacked last weekend i believe?

Puzzled · 5 Apr 2020 at 12:48

Mrs Seabiscuit said:
Houseparty app was hacked last weekend i believe?

Doesn't seem to be any proof that it was, just lots of people sharing stories but more likely that was due to people using same account details across several sites / services or falling for one of the many email scams rather than houseparty itself.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52112172

You should lock the room though, especially if kids are using it.

bazzabear · 5 Apr 2020 at 19:26

Quick try out of Jackbox suggests it won't work. Everyone needs to be able to see the main screen, and I have it on Switch not Steam, so I can't think of a way of achieving that.

GeX · 5 Apr 2020 at 21:05

Been playing Jackbox (but on Steam) streamed via Twitch and then chat / video via Google Meet with friends. Worked well for the most part.