8 ms·

Show HN: Gamejoy – hosted Zoom games for remote teams

69 points by phprecovery 6y ago

phprecovery 6y ago
Hi HN! Founder here. Just wanted to share my latest venture with the HN community. Backstory: the teams at my company got really tired of the usual remote "Happy Hour" activities and thought it would be fun to do something a little different — a little more fun! I decided to run a session of “Family Feud” for my team and everyone had a great time. Before I knew it, multiple teams throughout the company were reaching out to me to run a session! After thinking about this experience and talking with numerous managers, I found it was getting harder to keep things fresh as many teams continue to work remotely and thought there was an opportunity to do something more scalable and high quality. Hence, Gamejoy was born! Right now, we're focusing on games that combine fun + universal appeal/ease + the opportunity to get to know your teammates better (i.e. games with built-in icebreakers). We're starting with a few games and hoping to launch more (i.e. Poker is a common request) shortly. Would love any thoughts or feedback. Thanks!
- abhinuvpitale 6y ago
  Interesting idea, though I am wondering how you are going to scale since games involve live hosts? Rather you could use this as a platform to connect "live hosts" (who make up and publish their games) with companies wanting to connect. You could provide platform, services, payment gateway etc.
  - phprecovery 6y ago
    abhinuvpitale, love your suggestion about scaling to a platform to connect "live hosts". One of our hosts is actually an out-of-work actress affected by the pandemic and a big goal of mission is to help more artists affected like this. So, your suggestion really takes this to the next level!
    - sentinel 6y ago
      This is not a bad idea, but of course you don't necessarily want to become an alternative to AirBnB experiences either. There are a number of team building activities there as well, but I don't think they have the game element to them that you have here – this could be your differentiation.
- paxys 6y ago
  Man, you would have made an absolute killing 9 months ago. I hope there's still space in the market and people aren't too burned out/tired of virtual meets. Best of luck!
- cryptozeus 6y ago
  Video or Demo showing how it works would be great !
- sentinel 6y ago
  I think you have zero-ed in on the right problem. In our remote team we have tried a number of these team-building games / airbnb experiences, but tbh: 1. I did not feel like I knew my teammates better after the experience, and 2. it wasn't that fun The most fun I had was actually playing Among Us with the team. But even that game has a couple of issues that makes it no 100% suited for team building. My guess is you'll probably have to continue experimenting with games. I'm not sure if all in-person games will translate well to zoom, but some will do better than others. You def want people to be engaged, work together and change teams often. It's also always great to hear that your games are helping someone – e.g. actors that are out of work. Good luck! I'll be keeping an eye on your website and I'm already thinking of recommending it as an option for the next time we do a team building activity.
  - phprecovery 6y ago
    Thanks for kind words sentinel. Totally agreed about the two pain points you described with existing remote activities: 1. Not getting to know your teammates better 2. Not being fun This is what really led us to want to do something different with Gamejoy. To this end, we try to train our hosts and pick games that not only encourage participants to have fun but also get to know each other better—through interactive and maybe slightly embarrassing questions. :-) And, agree about needing to continue to experiment with games. We have a couple of ideas in the pipeline but we want to make sure they bring that combination of fun + team building that we want.
  - shepherdjerred 6y ago
    How did Among Us go? My co-worker and I are considering hosting a few games for our team.
    - diN0bot 6y ago
      try avalon. it's much more social and way easier to learn, plus everyone gets to play until the end. avalon is both logical-deduction-gamey and mafia-style-social. among us just feels like a video game.
- masonhipp 6y ago
  This looks really neat and I'd love to connect and talk about partnering somehow. I'm working on a related project[1] aimed at the same problem but with a slightly different take. We don't do game hosting and our software is more of a "build your own zoom games" platform with a slideshow/presentation UI. But I think a lot of companies probably want a dedicated host and would be happy to pay for it (I'd be interested to know what that breakdown looks like). In terms of what games you're working on, I think you're on the right track with games that help create real connections and deeper relationships. It looks like remote work will be permanently elevated (not to current numbers, but estimates look like >300% above pre-pandemic levels[2]). Bottom line is I think the team bonding and remote closeness problem is here to stay. [1] Slides With Friends — https://slideswith.com https://slideswith.com [2] Predictions 2021 — https://go.forrester.com/blogs/employee-experience-in-2021/ https://go.forrester.com/blogs/employee-experience-in-2021/
- phprecovery 6y ago
  Founder here again! Just wanted to thank everyone again for all the candid feedback. It’s been super helpful. We’ve already made a few changes including adding a lower price point with a “no prizes” option and other copy updates. We’re also hard at work to add more compelling social proof. Thank you HN community!
hill613 6y ago
$350 for one session? Just buy one jackbox games for like $30 (has multiple games). One person screen shares the game, and you have a ball.
- phprecovery 6y ago
  That's fair feedback about the price and this is not for everyone. We're hoping people will experience value in prizes, a trained host, team-building aspects like ice breakers, and a high-quality game experience.
  - RankingMember 6y ago
    You might want to make it more obvious on the landing page that this price includes a live host. I thought this was a free, automated thing at first and was blown away when I saw the cost.
    - ircshotty 6y ago
      To be honest I thought the same thing. Pricing was also a little hidden. I have been looking for something like this - as patio11 would say, you should always charge more than you think but I’ll be honest, my workplace could not really justify this price for an hour.
      - phprecovery 6y ago
        Curious, what do you think would be a more reasonable price that would "justify this price for an hour"?
        GordonS 6y ago
        I'm not the person you are replying to, but just wanted to add another data point, even if it's probably not what you want to hear - I think $50-$125 is more realistic. FWIW, I also just polled my manager about this (without revealing my thoughts above), and he said $100 absolute max. For reference, this is at a megacorp (technically they could of course afford more, but budgets for anything related to employee happiness are squeezed tight).
avree 6y ago
Sorry, but for $350.00, you need way stronger testimonials/evidence of the host being worth it. A grainy picture taken in someone's bathroom with the caption "She's hilarious and unpredictable, so get ready for laughs!", and a couple one-liners from names that could be completely fake, does not tell me that this is going to be worth the money.
- phprecovery 6y ago
  Great feedback. We could definitely work on improving the testimonials and social proof on the website. Honestly, we weren't expecting such a strong response on HN so didn't much as much thought/effort into this as we should. We'll work on improving this ASAP.
  - rolha-capoeira 6y ago
    I mean this only constructively, but why share if you're not ready for or expecting a strong response? You only get one chance to make a first impression. If this is simply a concept or beta product, you should indicate that. If you're looking for customers, put your best foot forward. Best of luck.
    - phprecovery 6y ago
      That's fair. Would definitely not consider this a concept as we have many paid, satisfied customers but we're always iterating on our website/product based on feedback and this is definitely an area of improvement. But point taken about "making a first impression". How do you balance making a good first impression with getting feedback on an early-ish version of your product?
      - acct776 6y ago
        Your communications via your landing page & website tell your consumers if you're looking to scrape a buck, or passionately work hard to solve a problem or desire.
- 6y ago
fasdf1122 6y ago
lol @ $350. no chance.
sentinel 6y ago
This is a solid idea.
dyeje 6y ago
Had a similar idea myself and registered the domain remoteteams.fun, but never got around to building. Congrats, this looks great and I think there's alot of appetite for this sort of service. FWIW, the pricing and live host align exactly with what I was considering building. Might be worth hiring a designer to give a face lift to the sight, website feels a bit spartan at the moment. I agree that strong testimonials could go a long way, maybe include a clip of people having a good time in a game? How many repeat customers do you have, maybe offer a first time discount?
- phprecovery 6y ago
  Thanks for the feedback! And, FWIW, remoteteams.fun is a pretty great domain name. Appreciate your point about hiring a designer and adding more social proof. A video of people having a good time would be great but we haven't been able to get a one yet for confidentiality reasons. I think it's definitely something we should prioritize. We're still in the early stages but are seeing decent repeat business with other teams at an organization wanting to run a similar game. We do try to encourage social sharing by providing winning pictures and prizes.
jonny_eh 6y ago
Is there support for Google Meet? Some employers refuse to use Zoom.
- phprecovery 6y ago
  Great question. Unfortunately, we need to use Zoom at the moment because we require the breakout room functionality. We are looking into how to support other platforms but don’t have an ETA yet.
  - jonny_eh 6y ago
    https://support.google.com/meet/answer/10099500?hl=en https://support.google.com/meet/answer/10099500?hl=en
    - phprecovery 6y ago
      Thank you for the feedback! We’ve tested out Google Meet and happy to announce we can now fully support games on Google Meet.
      - jonny_eh 6y ago
        Sweet!
harrisonjackson 6y ago
This is pretty cool. I've worked at companies that would probably go for it. Though these companies also usually have someone in-house that is happy to MC or host Jackbox tv or another option so maybe more info and testimonials to talk up the value of your host. It reminds me of https://startplaying.games/ https://startplaying.games/ which matches DMs/GMs with people that want to play dungeons and dragons and other TTRPG games online. Pricing is per person per session. Some of the DMs might be able to hit that $350 price point but it'd be for a 3+ hour session and their value add is very very obvious with number of games/hours they've DMd and reviews from players at their tables. There's also a bar trivia company in Denver that's been hosting bar trivia over zoom - I think pricing is per team with some fun prizes. They support many more people than what you are offering too though. I have participated in a bar pre-covid and on Zoom and both experiences were fun.
- phprecovery 6y ago
  Thank you for all the feedback and points of comparison. Based on all the feedback here, we lowered our initial price point by making prizes optional. The way https://startplaying.games/ https://startplaying.games/ shows feedback is a great reference for how we could handle host reviews.
Tajnymag 6y ago
Reminds me of AirConsole. The price and game selection is waaay worse though.
bromuro 6y ago
I have been invited to one of these “team” zoom games with my fellow devs and other teams. While everyone seemed to enjoy the game, I felt bored and that I was wasting my time. I didn’t want to break their fun by quitting the game so I had to play for a whole hour. It was a bitter and ridiculous experience and not joyful at all.
- phprecovery 6y ago
  bromuro, what game did you play?Do you know service you used? While you cannot please everyone, curious to learn more details so we have a wider appeal.

69 points by phprecovery 6y ago

Hi HN! Founder here. Just wanted to share my latest venture with the HN community. Backstory: the teams at my company got really tired of the usual remote "Happy Hour" activities and thought it would be fun to do something a little different — a little more fun! I decided to run a session of “Family Feud” for my team and everyone had a great time. Before I knew it, multiple teams throughout the company were reaching out to me to run a session! After thinking about this experience and talking with numerous managers, I found it was getting harder to keep things fresh as many teams continue to work remotely and thought there was an opportunity to do something more scalable and high quality. Hence, Gamejoy was born! Right now, we're focusing on games that combine fun + universal appeal/ease + the opportunity to get to know your teammates better (i.e. games with built-in icebreakers). We're starting with a few games and hoping to launch more (i.e. Poker is a common request) shortly. Would love any thoughts or feedback. Thanks!

abhinuvpitale 6y ago
Interesting idea, though I am wondering how you are going to scale since games involve live hosts? Rather you could use this as a platform to connect "live hosts" (who make up and publish their games) with companies wanting to connect. You could provide platform, services, payment gateway etc.
- phprecovery 6y ago
  abhinuvpitale, love your suggestion about scaling to a platform to connect "live hosts". One of our hosts is actually an out-of-work actress affected by the pandemic and a big goal of mission is to help more artists affected like this. So, your suggestion really takes this to the next level!
  - sentinel 6y ago
    This is not a bad idea, but of course you don't necessarily want to become an alternative to AirBnB experiences either. There are a number of team building activities there as well, but I don't think they have the game element to them that you have here – this could be your differentiation.
paxys 6y ago
Man, you would have made an absolute killing 9 months ago. I hope there's still space in the market and people aren't too burned out/tired of virtual meets. Best of luck!
cryptozeus 6y ago
Video or Demo showing how it works would be great !
sentinel 6y ago
I think you have zero-ed in on the right problem. In our remote team we have tried a number of these team-building games / airbnb experiences, but tbh: 1. I did not feel like I knew my teammates better after the experience, and 2. it wasn't that fun The most fun I had was actually playing Among Us with the team. But even that game has a couple of issues that makes it no 100% suited for team building. My guess is you'll probably have to continue experimenting with games. I'm not sure if all in-person games will translate well to zoom, but some will do better than others. You def want people to be engaged, work together and change teams often. It's also always great to hear that your games are helping someone – e.g. actors that are out of work. Good luck! I'll be keeping an eye on your website and I'm already thinking of recommending it as an option for the next time we do a team building activity.
- phprecovery 6y ago
  Thanks for kind words sentinel. Totally agreed about the two pain points you described with existing remote activities: 1. Not getting to know your teammates better 2. Not being fun This is what really led us to want to do something different with Gamejoy. To this end, we try to train our hosts and pick games that not only encourage participants to have fun but also get to know each other better—through interactive and maybe slightly embarrassing questions. :-) And, agree about needing to continue to experiment with games. We have a couple of ideas in the pipeline but we want to make sure they bring that combination of fun + team building that we want.
- shepherdjerred 6y ago
  How did Among Us go? My co-worker and I are considering hosting a few games for our team.
  - diN0bot 6y ago
    try avalon. it's much more social and way easier to learn, plus everyone gets to play until the end. avalon is both logical-deduction-gamey and mafia-style-social. among us just feels like a video game.
masonhipp 6y ago
This looks really neat and I'd love to connect and talk about partnering somehow. I'm working on a related project[1] aimed at the same problem but with a slightly different take. We don't do game hosting and our software is more of a "build your own zoom games" platform with a slideshow/presentation UI. But I think a lot of companies probably want a dedicated host and would be happy to pay for it (I'd be interested to know what that breakdown looks like). In terms of what games you're working on, I think you're on the right track with games that help create real connections and deeper relationships. It looks like remote work will be permanently elevated (not to current numbers, but estimates look like >300% above pre-pandemic levels[2]). Bottom line is I think the team bonding and remote closeness problem is here to stay. [1] Slides With Friends — https://slideswith.com https://slideswith.com [2] Predictions 2021 — https://go.forrester.com/blogs/employee-experience-in-2021/ https://go.forrester.com/blogs/employee-experience-in-2021/
phprecovery 6y ago
Founder here again! Just wanted to thank everyone again for all the candid feedback. It’s been super helpful. We’ve already made a few changes including adding a lower price point with a “no prizes” option and other copy updates. We’re also hard at work to add more compelling social proof. Thank you HN community!

hill613 6y ago

$350 for one session? Just buy one jackbox games for like $30 (has multiple games). One person screen shares the game, and you have a ball.

phprecovery 6y ago
That's fair feedback about the price and this is not for everyone. We're hoping people will experience value in prizes, a trained host, team-building aspects like ice breakers, and a high-quality game experience.
- RankingMember 6y ago
  You might want to make it more obvious on the landing page that this price includes a live host. I thought this was a free, automated thing at first and was blown away when I saw the cost.
  - ircshotty 6y ago
    To be honest I thought the same thing. Pricing was also a little hidden. I have been looking for something like this - as patio11 would say, you should always charge more than you think but I’ll be honest, my workplace could not really justify this price for an hour.
    - phprecovery 6y ago
      Curious, what do you think would be a more reasonable price that would "justify this price for an hour"?
      - GordonS 6y ago
        I'm not the person you are replying to, but just wanted to add another data point, even if it's probably not what you want to hear - I think $50-$125 is more realistic. FWIW, I also just polled my manager about this (without revealing my thoughts above), and he said $100 absolute max. For reference, this is at a megacorp (technically they could of course afford more, but budgets for anything related to employee happiness are squeezed tight).

avree 6y ago

Sorry, but for $350.00, you need way stronger testimonials/evidence of the host being worth it. A grainy picture taken in someone's bathroom with the caption "She's hilarious and unpredictable, so get ready for laughs!", and a couple one-liners from names that could be completely fake, does not tell me that this is going to be worth the money.

phprecovery 6y ago
Great feedback. We could definitely work on improving the testimonials and social proof on the website. Honestly, we weren't expecting such a strong response on HN so didn't much as much thought/effort into this as we should. We'll work on improving this ASAP.
- rolha-capoeira 6y ago
  I mean this only constructively, but why share if you're not ready for or expecting a strong response? You only get one chance to make a first impression. If this is simply a concept or beta product, you should indicate that. If you're looking for customers, put your best foot forward. Best of luck.
  - phprecovery 6y ago
    That's fair. Would definitely not consider this a concept as we have many paid, satisfied customers but we're always iterating on our website/product based on feedback and this is definitely an area of improvement. But point taken about "making a first impression". How do you balance making a good first impression with getting feedback on an early-ish version of your product?
    - acct776 6y ago
      Your communications via your landing page & website tell your consumers if you're looking to scrape a buck, or passionately work hard to solve a problem or desire.
6y ago

fasdf1122 6y ago

lol @ $350. no chance.

sentinel 6y ago

This is a solid idea.

dyeje 6y ago

Had a similar idea myself and registered the domain remoteteams.fun, but never got around to building. Congrats, this looks great and I think there's alot of appetite for this sort of service. FWIW, the pricing and live host align exactly with what I was considering building. Might be worth hiring a designer to give a face lift to the sight, website feels a bit spartan at the moment. I agree that strong testimonials could go a long way, maybe include a clip of people having a good time in a game? How many repeat customers do you have, maybe offer a first time discount?

phprecovery 6y ago
Thanks for the feedback! And, FWIW, remoteteams.fun is a pretty great domain name. Appreciate your point about hiring a designer and adding more social proof. A video of people having a good time would be great but we haven't been able to get a one yet for confidentiality reasons. I think it's definitely something we should prioritize. We're still in the early stages but are seeing decent repeat business with other teams at an organization wanting to run a similar game. We do try to encourage social sharing by providing winning pictures and prizes.

jonny_eh 6y ago

Is there support for Google Meet? Some employers refuse to use Zoom.

phprecovery 6y ago
Great question. Unfortunately, we need to use Zoom at the moment because we require the breakout room functionality. We are looking into how to support other platforms but don’t have an ETA yet.
- jonny_eh 6y ago
  https://support.google.com/meet/answer/10099500?hl=en https://support.google.com/meet/answer/10099500?hl=en
  - phprecovery 6y ago
    Thank you for the feedback! We’ve tested out Google Meet and happy to announce we can now fully support games on Google Meet.
    - jonny_eh 6y ago
      Sweet!

harrisonjackson 6y ago

This is pretty cool. I've worked at companies that would probably go for it. Though these companies also usually have someone in-house that is happy to MC or host Jackbox tv or another option so maybe more info and testimonials to talk up the value of your host. It reminds me of https://startplaying.games/ https://startplaying.games/ which matches DMs/GMs with people that want to play dungeons and dragons and other TTRPG games online. Pricing is per person per session. Some of the DMs might be able to hit that $350 price point but it'd be for a 3+ hour session and their value add is very very obvious with number of games/hours they've DMd and reviews from players at their tables. There's also a bar trivia company in Denver that's been hosting bar trivia over zoom - I think pricing is per team with some fun prizes. They support many more people than what you are offering too though. I have participated in a bar pre-covid and on Zoom and both experiences were fun.

phprecovery 6y ago
Thank you for all the feedback and points of comparison. Based on all the feedback here, we lowered our initial price point by making prizes optional. The way https://startplaying.games/ https://startplaying.games/ shows feedback is a great reference for how we could handle host reviews.

Tajnymag 6y ago

Reminds me of AirConsole. The price and game selection is waaay worse though.

bromuro 6y ago

I have been invited to one of these “team” zoom games with my fellow devs and other teams. While everyone seemed to enjoy the game, I felt bored and that I was wasting my time. I didn’t want to break their fun by quitting the game so I had to play for a whole hour. It was a bitter and ridiculous experience and not joyful at all.

phprecovery 6y ago
bromuro, what game did you play?Do you know service you used? While you cannot please everyone, curious to learn more details so we have a wider appeal.