Fun activities that liven up the office: recreation games
Here are some fun games and recreational activities that will liven up the office.
We interact with bosses and colleagues a lot at work, but many of us don’t have much contact in our private lives.
If you’re thinking, “I actually want to get closer to everyone…!” why not try playing a quick game when you have a little spare time?
We’ve gathered activities and games that are perfect for breaks or in-between moments at office parties, so feel free to use them for ideas.
Forget about work for just a bit, and let’s build camaraderie while having a great time together!
- [Simple Games] Recommended Indoor Recreational Activities for Adults
- Team-based recreational activities for adults that are fun even with large groups
- [In a Short Time] Icebreakers and Fun Games That Shine at Morning Meetings
- Games you can play with just conversation. Classic and popular activities you can enjoy without any props!
- Simple yet exciting! Recommended games and activities for year-end parties
- A collection of simple indoor recreational games
- [For Adults] Fun recreational games. Perfect for short breaks too!
- A simple and fun co-op game that enhances teamwork
- Office party games that get everyone excited
- Games that liven up social and networking gatherings
- Recommended indoor games and recreational activities for the workplace
- Break the ice with intros and team battles! Party games to spice up your welcome event
- Fun games recommended for making friends with people you’ve just met
Fun games to liven up the office: Recreation Games (11–20)
100-yen rock-paper-scissors
It’s a recreational activity where everyone brings a 100-yen coin and plays a rock-paper-scissors tournament.
The loser gives their 100-yen coin to the winner, and then the winners face off against each other again.
Depending on the number of participants, the final pot can exceed 10,000 yen.
It gets a lot more intense than a regular rock-paper-scissors game, doesn’t it?
Do-Re-Mi Song Game
It’s a game that uses the song everyone knows, Do-Re-Mi.
You start with “Do is the do in donut,” then specify the next person to sing and where they should sing.
The rules are simple, and because people end up singing off-key or making mistakes, it’s super fun and guaranteed to get everyone excited!
Drawing Telephone Game
This game is like the classic telephone game—usually played with whispers or gestures—but done through drawing! The person who knows the correct answer starts by drawing a picture, and then several people pass it along by redrawing it in sequence.
At the end, everyone guesses what the original drawing was.
Simple prompts tend to make it all the way through accurately, but if the prompt is complex, the idea might not carry over, and the final drawing could end up completely different! You can have fun not only with the final answer, but also by enjoying the whole chain of drawings along the way.
A game where you clap with overlapping hands
The hand-slapping game we used to play as kids.
It actually gets surprisingly exciting when you play it as adults.
If your hand gets slapped, that hand is out, and the person whose hand remains last is the winner.
Also, if you try to slap but miss everyone, you’re out.
In the midst of the subtle mind games, you might even end up slapping your own hand by mistake—it’s full of fun, so give it a try.
Up-Down-Left-Right Game
A game where you prepare a passage in advance and move your head in the indicated direction whenever the characters for “up, down, right, left” appear in the text.
You can adjust the difficulty based on the length of the passage and the reading speed.
It also seems interesting that it would vary depending on whether the characters are read with on’yomi or kun’yomi readings.
Hula hoop down
Hula Hoop Down is a game where multiple people work together to skillfully lower a hula hoop all the way to the ground.
It demands things like cooperation and leadership, and although it’s a game, it’s serious enough to be used in new employee training.
If you’re doing it with company staff, it can be fun to form groups by department, cohorts of new hires, or management teams.
Real Escape Game
This is an immersive event where participants gather clues at the venue, solve puzzles, and escape the location within a time limit.
Since teamwork is essential to escape, it helps strengthen bonds among employees.
Many of these events require tickets, so please keep that in mind.
Tic-tac-toe (Three-in-a-row)
Many of you probably played it with friends on chalkboards or desks back in your school days, right? Tic-tac-toe is something you can enjoy even as an adult! Two players take turns placing O’s and X’s in a 3×3 grid, and the first to line up three in a row—vertically, horizontally, or diagonally—wins, just like bingo.
How about taking a quick break and playing with a colleague during your work downtime?
paper tower
“Paper Tower” is a game that requires teamwork and is often used in training.
Using 20 sheets of A4 paper, you have to build a tower taller than the other teams’.
Because everyone collaborates and quickly discusses things like what shape to make, the teams that are well in sync tend to win.
It’s a game with potential that goes beyond being just a game.
Shiritori Gesture Game
Shiritori you can enjoy with nothing at all! Shiritori, where you keep linking words one after another, is surprisingly a game you can enjoy for a long time, right? Let’s try that shiritori using gestures instead of words! The rules are the same as regular shiritori.
You express the word you want to link with through gestures and continue the game.
Of course, if your word ends with “n,” you lose.
Saying it out loud is easy, but when it comes to gestures, it’s quite hard to express! And above all, it’s nerve-racking wondering whether your message gets across!