Covid-19 has shown us that physical distancing doesn’t have to mean social distancing. You can still have fun with your friends, even if you’re not in the same state. If you ever find yourself in a situation where you cannot invite your loved ones to come over for a game night, you can organize a virtual one. No matter how big or small your friend group is, you can have your game night through Zoom.
Though Jeopardy! is not exactly meant for big groups, there’s no reason why you should shy away from playing it anyway! Here is a step-by-step guide for having a Jeopardy! contest on Zoom.
Pick a Theme
As with any trivia quiz, you must pick a theme or topic first. You can keep your game’s theme general knowledge, but you need to let people know. If you want to pick something more specific, like your friend group’s favorite TV show or a popular holiday like Christmas, you can have more fun with the preparation. Decorate the slides you’ll use on the Zoom call, pick a fun background, and ask the contestants to arrive wearing a costume.
Picking the theme is the first step because it helps you determine the direction in which the game will go. From this point on, you can begin to choose the categories and questions, invite the players, and work on the presentation. If you’re having a tough time finding a unique theme, you can look online.
Prepare the Game
The theme is the sauce that flavors the dish, but the game’s contents make the main ingredient. This step is crucial in determining the success of your quiz. You can prepare your game in many ways. While the game’s design is important, you also need to think about the questions and categories. Consider including picture questions, as well as audio-visual rounds. All of these additions can take your Jeopardy! game from homemade to game show level. Here are some tools you can use to make the preparation process a breeze:
Make Your Own Presentation
You can make your own presentation using an online template. You can find templates with questions already in them or source your own questions. Buy questions from vendors online or write your own. If you choose to buy, you can find a vendor that will supply you with new questions every couple of weeks! Alternatively, find questions online for free. Trivia websites often offer questions that you can use for your own quizzes.
Use Jeopardy! Labs
Jeopardy! Labs is a web application developed by Jeopardy!. It makes it very easy to play a game of Jeopardy! virtually. The application has a paid version and a free version. The paid version only asks you for a small fee that secures a lifetime membership and gives you access to all the capabilities of the website. You can also try the free version first before paying for the membership.
Jeopardy! Labs has templates that include everything you need for a successful virtual game of Jeopardy!. You can create your own Jeopardy! game using the templates offered by the website, or use a pre-made game with questions already included.
Use Another Platform
If, for some reason, you don’t want to use Jeopardy! Labs, you can try another web-based app. Third-party platforms like Sporcle can be very helpful too! Sporcle, for example, offers a wide variety of different quizzes. You can find virtually any topic, no matter how niche it is. The experience will not resemble a real game of Jeopardy! as much as Jeopardy! Labs, but it is a solid alternative if you’re looking to spice things up. The benefit of Sporcle is that you can find pre-made quizzes, so you don’t need to source your questions from anywhere else. Other online trivia platforms can be helpful too.
Send Out the Invitations
Once you have your quiz ready, the bulk of the work is done. All you need to do is send out the invitations! How you choose to do it is entirely up to you. The benefit of using Zoom is that you can create a meeting room ahead of time and send your invitees a link to access the room. When the game day comes, and it’s time to play, the invitees will knock on your virtual door, and you can let them in.
Form Teams
Since we are designing a game for a big group of people, we need to consider splitting them into teams. Jeopardy! usually only brings three contestants on stage at the same time. Of course, you don’t have to follow this format if you don’t want to. You can have five, ten, and even 15 contestants! However, if you’d like to adhere to the well-known Jeopardy! standards, you can ask your contestants to form three teams.
Each team should have a leader who will be in charge of answering the questions and, essentially, buzzing in. Encourage team members to create a group chat to communicate privately about each question. This way everybody gets to participate in answering the questions.
If you’re going to choose this route, keep in mind that each team will need a few seconds to communicate before they can answer. You can even set a timer after each clue that will notify the teams when they can start buzzing in their answers.
When everyone is ready to play, all you have to do is join the Zoom call and share your screen. Remember that one person always has to be the host, thus they cannot play. If you are the host, you will have the presentation that you prepared or downloaded with the help of Jeopardy! Labs or a different platform. This presentation will have all the clues for your players.
Zoom makes sharing your screen very easy. You can do so with a click of a button. It also gives you the option to share the sound from the computer. That will add to the game show experience, provided your presentation has sound effects. If you’ve included audio-visual rounds, you will appreciate this feature.
Final Words
The beauty of organizing your own trivia quiz is that it can be anything you want. You can use Jeopardy! as a guiding compass to establish the structure of the game, and make all other parts of the game your own. It’s a great balance of guidance and freedom. Use it to your advantage and have fun with creating the game! Helpful applications like Jeopardy! Labs can make the process a breeze. For games for smaller groups, check this article out.
Have you ever created your own virtual Jeopardy! game? What platforms did you use? How did you source your questions? Share your experience with us in the comments below!
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