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For the wedding

Sangeet & Wedding Games

A sangeet crowd is the hardest audience there is. Half the room has never met the other half, everyone is dressed up, people drift in and out, and nobody wants to be the first to look silly. The games that land are the ones with a very low entry cost.

What actually works at a function

Three things matter more than the game itself. It has to be joinable late, because people will wander over halfway through. It has to work standing up, because there are never enough chairs. And it has to be explainable in one sentence, because you are competing with a dhol.

Antakshari — the default for a reason

It needs no equipment, no setup and no explaining. Two teams, alternate songs, each one starting with the letter the last song ended on. Everyone from the youngest cousin to the oldest uncle can contribute something, which is rare.

What usually breaks it is bookkeeping — whose turn, which letter, and whether that song has already been used. Put those on a phone and the singing doesn't have to stop.

Play Antakshari2–4 teams · keeps the letter, the score and the song list

Bollywood dumb charades — for the couple's friends

Traditionally the opposing team picks the film, and the huddle where they choose something brutal is the best part. The awkward bit is getting the title to the actor without anyone else seeing — whispering, or scribbling on a napkin.

The other team types it on their own phone and it appears only on the actor's screen. They can also cycle a built-in list of films if they're stuck.

Play Dumb CharadesTwo teams · the other team picks your film

A quiz for the seated crowd

Elders often prefer something they can play sitting down with a plate in one hand. A Bollywood quiz split by decade does that nicely — pick the 70s and the room's parents suddenly dominate, which is usually the point.

Play Bollywood JeopardyChoose a decade · turn-based, no buzzer race

One practical note

Venue wifi at weddings is often terrible. All of these are light enough to run on mobile data, and each player only needs their own phone — there is no host device to set up and nothing to connect to a screen.

Every game here is free, runs in a browser, and needs no app or sign-up. One person creates a game, shares the link, everyone plays on their own phone.

For the room between the dancing

Sangeet crowds are large, loud and half strangers to each other — which is exactly what these are for.

• Two Truths and a Lie — two true things and one invented; the phone shuffles them so the lie is not where its author put it.
• Most Likely To — everyone votes on who in the room is most likely to — secretly, so nobody follows the crowd.
• This or That — one person answers, everyone else guesses what they said; it turns into an argument about who really knows whom.
• The Dial — one person sees a hidden spot between Mild and Spicy and has to name something that sits exactly there.
• Face Down — three petals and one thorn each, hidden, and a bet about how many you can turn over.

Playing more than one of these in an evening? Start a lobby — add everyone once and every game you open puts the same people straight into their seats. There is also a new puzzle every day.