Group Games: youth group app review
Need an ice-breaker activity for Friday night? Just pick up your phone.
Introducing Group Games
Another Wednesday night approaches, and it’s time to think of a youth group game for this week. You scroll through the Bible passage for the week, think about it what it means, scribble down some ideas on what you could do, and continue to reflect and procrastinate about it. By the time you know it, it’s already Friday afternoon and you’re in a panic, trying to think of an engaging and appropriate game (and hoping you won’t have to resort to Pictionary).
Surely there is a better way to find ideas for youth group games!
How does it work?
Group Games is an app created by Calum Henderson, and contains over 100 games, available on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. The app contains a database of many popular and effective games, and covers a multitude of categories.
Let’s say your youth group is commencing again after a long summer’s break, and you’re looking for ice-breaker games to allow people to mingle and settle before the big stuff kicks in. This is where Group Games can be your best friend.
Not only are the games sorted alphabetically, you can also browse by category (e.g. ball games, messy games, class room games, or games with no resources required). Taking this a step further, you can customise your search results, using the selector button, which allows you to choose the group size and game duration, which definitely helps with logistical issues the average youth leader faces when preparing each week.
Once you have selected and found the game you want, it’s time to view the actual explanation of the game. Each game has a picture at the top, with a set of handy instructions and basic information (such as how many people, the length and preparation), all sorted within different colours. The instructions are clear and succinct enough to explain the game well, whilst short enough to avoid confusion. The picture at the top of the game also provides a nice contrast to a wall of plain text.
Find a dollar, and you're ready to go
As we all know, good ice-breaker games can be harder to find than you think, and most of us want to avoid the simple: “state your name, school and favourite movie” scenario. By using the app I can select the category of “Get to Know you games” and determine which games will work best; whether that be something simple such as “2 truths and 1 lie”, or something more mysterious like “Toilet paper” or “Knights, Horses, Cavaliers.”
Because all the games are in one place, you'll never again have to go through the torrent of internet sites referring us to unrelated or average games. At a cost of only 99 cents it’s quite a bargain too. However, this app is only available on IOS systems (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch), so Android and Microsoft users may have to wait a while before they too can share the delight!
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