Break the ice with intros and team battles! Party games to spice up your welcome event
It’s about time for welcome parties, isn’t it?
With new students and fresh graduates coming in, many of you are probably planning welcome events.
In this article, we’ll introduce party games and fun activities that will liven up your welcome party.
If you’re thinking, “I want games that are fun even with people meeting for the first time,” or “I want to plan simple, easy-to-run games,” this will be a great reference.
In particular, games that help you learn about each other through self-introductions, and team-based cooperative games, are recommended because they make it easier to get to know one another and create a friendly atmosphere.
Now, let’s take a look at our recommended games!
- Games to Liven Up the Freshers’ Welcome Party
- [Self-Introduction & Games] Icebreaker Ideas Collection
- Fun games recommended for making friends with people you’ve just met
- Team-based recreational activities for adults that are fun even with large groups
- Games you can play with just conversation. Classic and popular activities you can enjoy without any props!
- A simple and fun co-op game that enhances teamwork
- A great way to get to know each other! Entertainment and performances to liven up a welcome party
- Ideas for team-based games to enliven a party
- [Let’s Get Closer] A Collection of Engaging Questions for Self-Introductions
- [Simple Games] Recommended Indoor Recreational Activities for Adults
- [For University Students] A Roundup of Fun Games and Recreational Activities
- A roundup of recommended icebreakers for college students
- Games that liven up social and networking gatherings
Break the ice with self-introductions and team battles! Fun games for welcome parties (41–50)
Word association game
It’s a game where you guess the theme, and I’ll give you three hints.
Using those hints, you try to infer what the theme is and guess it.
If the topics span too many genres it can be too hard, so it might be better to set a restriction like “types of animals” or “things sold at the supermarket.”
Factoid Doubt
It’s a game where each person shares a bit of trivia, and one of them is a lie—you have to guess which one.
Since it requires acting skills, it’s fun for the players, and the listeners can enjoy the deduction.
It also makes a great icebreaker for talking with new people.
Lyrics hijacking game
It’s a game where you start singing a song and then keep taking over with other songs that share words in their lyrics.
The key is to read ahead in the lyrics and decide which song to switch to.
Since you can learn the other person’s musical tastes, it seems like a perfect game for getting to know each other.
Spinach Game
Form a circle with the participants and decide who will start.
At the beginning, one person has two “spinach” sticks.
Holding spinach is represented by making a fist.
The first person chants a three-beat rhythm: “Spinach, spinach, spinach.” On the second and third “spinach,” they pass a spinach stick to someone else.
Anyone who is given spinach follows the same pattern, but if they have only one stick, they switch to a two-beat rhythm instead of three.
It’s a game where it’s hard to track who has the spinach, but as you play, that challenge becomes fun and things get very lively!
Flag-raising game
The flag-raising game is a classic in many settings, but adding things like penalty challenges can make it even more fun.
However, since it’s a welcome party, it’s better to avoid anything too harsh for the new members.
Because players naturally have to focus on listening to each other’s voices, it’s a game that helps people become friendly more easily.
Do-Re-Mi Song Game
It’s a simple game where everyone sings the Do-Re-Mi song that you’ve known since childhood.
You assign Do-Re-Mi scale notes to each person and sing in turn, but people tend to get influenced by the previous person’s pitch or go off-key, which makes it hard to do well—and that’s exactly what makes it exciting.
It’s a classic recreation game that really gets everyone fired up.
Air Chair Yamanote Line Game
The Yamanote Line Game is a classic party game often played at mixers, but in this version you play while doing a wall sit.
Anyone who can’t come up with a word in the Yamanote Line Game, or whose wall sit collapses, loses.
Since it uses both knowledge and physical stamina, pace yourself in a well-balanced way.
Gesture Game
Welcome parties—especially company onboarding parties—have their own unique tension, don’t they? While it’s important to have icebreaker activities to help people relax, how about giving them a small challenge instead? Enter the gesture game: now that’s quite a trial, isn’t it? Even a normal self-introduction is nerve-wracking, but relying only on gestures could make things pretty interesting!
Pencil Holder Game
The “Pencil Standing Game” is a simple yet exciting game that’s perfect for welcome parties—as long as you have pencils.
The rules are very easy! At the start signal, players try to stand pencils upright on the table.
The first person to get 10 pencils standing wins.
If a pencil you’ve stood up falls over, you have to start that one again, of course.
It’s a great test of concentration and balance! For a welcome party, you can do one-on-one matches or team competitions to liven things up.
Simple games like this don’t require much thinking, so people of all ages can enjoy them.
Ten people, ten colors game
Let me introduce a game that helps you understand others more deeply: the “Ten People, Ten Colors” game.
From a small group, choose one person as the respondent and have them think about the given prompt.
However, they must not say their answer out loud.
The remaining players will try to figure out the answer the respondent came up with.
Of course, you may ask the respondent questions.
The key to this game is to ask good questions that lead toward the answer.
Consider what the respondent is likely to think, recall what they like, and explore these ideas to arrive at the answer.
