It’s hard to decide what games to play at a welcome party for new students, isn’t it? Everyone’s meeting for the first time or feeling nervous, and it’s hard to know what will get people excited.
So here, we’ll introduce games that are likely to liven up a new-student welcome party.
We’ve included plenty of games that help you learn everyone’s names and encourage communication.
We’ve focused on games that everyone can enjoy, even those who aren’t comfortable with self-introductions or speaking in front of others.
Most of them don’t require any props, so feel free to give them a try!
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[New Student Welcome] Games to Liven Up the Welcome Party (1–10)
Reverse Playback Telephone Game
Guess the prompt from reversed audio in the Reverse Playback Telephone Game! Use an app to record your voice, play it back in reverse, and pass along exactly what you hear to the next person.
Record the last person’s voice and reverse it—if it matches the original prompt, you win! Unlike simple backward-speak, both consonants and vowels are reversed, so the reversed audio hardly resembles the original.
Accurately hearing and pronouncing these nonsensical sounds is far harder than you’d imagine.
Participants desperately relaying these strange words—and everyone listening—won’t be able to hold back their laughter.
It’s a guaranteed laugh-out-loud party game.
We can’t go home until everything is ready.
@ayk213 Okinawa#FreshersWelcomeWe can’t stop until we’re all lined up
Classic Medley 2019 – Pianica Magician
The “You can’t go home until your answers match” game! For prompts like “When you think of snacks?” or “When you think of juice?”, everyone answers or shows an item at the same time, and if everyone’s choices match, you clear the round.
On social media, a popular rule is to go on a shopping run to a convenience store and succeed if everyone’s purchases match.
For a new-hire welcome party, it’s fun to adapt it by writing answers in sketchbooks at hand or picking items from personal belongings.
When you match perfectly with someone, it kind of feels like you’ll get along better, doesn’t it?
Two-choice game
The two-choice game that went viral in short videos on social media! You present two options for a prompt, and everyone moves to the side they choose.
If you’re doing this at a welcome party for new students, topics that help people warm up to each other are great, like “Cat person? Dog person?” or “Cute style? Cool style?” It’s also recommended to use prompts that help you learn about others, such as “Humanities? Sciences?” or “Outdoorsy? Indoorsy?” The game gets more exciting when you keep a brisk pace, so prepare lots of prompts that people can answer without overthinking.
One-minute exactly self-introduction
A steady, matter-of-fact rotation of one-minute-on-the-dot self-introductions.
People vary: those who aren’t good at self-introductions finish too quickly, while those who love to talk can go on forever.
But with the one-minute-on-the-dot format, everyone condenses their introduction into one minute.
With a stopwatch in hand, each person wraps up exactly when the minute is up.
People who are usually brief will think about how to fill the time, and those who tend to ramble will focus on what key points to convey.
Setting a strict time keeps things moving smoothly, so this is especially recommended for large welcome events!
Self-Introduction Spot-the-Difference Game
A get-to-know-you game where each person adds exactly one lie to their self-introduction.
First, form teams of about two people.
Each person writes a brief self-introduction on paper and compiles it.
Once finished, share within your team which part of each introduction is the lie.
Then one representative from each team reads their compiled self-introduction aloud.
After both sides have read, each team discusses and comes up with just one question to ask the opposing team.
The teams ask their questions, observe the responses, and try to detect the lie in each other’s self-introductions.
Through the single inserted lie, you learn whether the other person matches the image you had of them—or not.
Who am I? game
A game where one person pretends to be someone or something, and everyone else guesses what they are—“Who am I?” First, without telling anyone, one person becomes something.
They then give hints about its characteristics and what category it belongs to.
People listening can also ask questions! Using those hints, the listeners try to guess what the person is pretending to be.
During the game, attention focuses on the person giving the prompts, so to help everyone get to know each other, it’s recommended that, time permitting, everyone takes a turn as the prompt giver.
NG word game
The NG Word Game is a conversation game where everyone tries to get others to say their assigned NG (no-go) word.
Each participant is given a different word, which they can’t see themselves and is stuck somewhere like on their head.
While looking at others’ NG words, you steer the conversation and ask questions to make each person say their NG word.
The NG word can be a noun, verb, adjective, or even a filler response! Anyone who says their NG word is immediately out.
The last person who doesn’t say their NG word wins.
As you desperately chat to win, you’ll naturally grow closer with each other!
Name demon
A natural way to learn each other’s names: the Name Tag game.
First, choose one person to be “It.” That person calls out someone’s name among the participants.
The person whose name is called must immediately call someone else’s name.
However, if “It” tags them before they call another name, they switch and become “It.” If they manage to call another name before being tagged, they’re safe.
In a large space, it’s fun to run around like regular tag, but in a smaller space, have everyone form a circle around “It,” keep their hands out in front, and stay in place.
This version feels even faster than the running one, so the key to winning is how well you remember everyone’s names and how quickly you can say them on the spot!
Finding commonalities
A game where you look for commonalities and have fun: the Common Ground Hunt.
Set a time limit of about three minutes, and during that time, talk within your group or pair to see how many things you share in common.
The group or pair that finds the most commonalities wins.
Even though the time is short, you’ll need plenty of conversation to draw out those common points.
Finding commonalities not only brings people closer, but the act of conversing itself also helps build rapport.
If the team that couldn’t find many common points gets a lighthearted penalty to help them bond more, the activity gets even more exciting!
fast typing on a smartphone
A game that favors people who are used to smartphones: the Smartphone Speed Typing Challenge! The rules are simple—compete to see who can finish typing a given prompt on their smartphone the fastest.
Using predictive text is allowed, but if you want to raise the difficulty, you can ban predictive text.
Line breaks and punctuation must match the prompt exactly.
For those from the feature phone generation, fast typing on a smartphone might be tough, but younger people whose first phone was already a smartphone might have the edge with their mastery of flick input and everything else.
No matter how fast you finish, typos will cost you points.
It’s a game you can play anytime as long as you have a smartphone—why not try it during some downtime at a welcome event?