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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 "Hap

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!

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!