A simple zoom game

The gist:

In each round, each player searches online for an image according to a category determined by rolling dice. The players share their images with one another through Zoom’s “share screen” functionality, and they jointly determine whose image best fits the category (and therefore, who gets the point for that round).

Category choices:

Optimize for…

1. Funniness
2. Beauty
3. Creativity

with the Constraint that the image be of something…

1. Round
2. With legs
3. Old

Here are the more detailed rules:

1. Player A rolls 2 virtual dice (each die has 3 sides). Here is an online dice roller.
2. The outcome of the first die indicates the choice in “optimize” and the second die indicates the choice in “constraint.” For example, if the dice roll is “1, 3” then each player has to find a funny image of something old.
3. Players have 40 seconds to search for an image
4. Each player takes a turn sharing their screen with their image
5. Together, the players determine whose image best fits the category, and this person gets a point.
6. Repeat steps 1–5, alternating who rolls the dice.
7. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins :)

Playtesting Observations:

The classmates who played my game enjoyed sharing the images that they found with one another through Zoom. The main improvement we came up with was to add more categories, which would help the game stay fun even as it is played over and over. A point of stickiness was deciding the “winner” of the round — it felt awkward to observe the players navigate between humility, honesty, and the desire to win. One option is to make this a multi-player game and to choose the winner by voting. Another option, if keeping it a 2-player game, is to remove the concept of winning, making the objective pure pleasure!