Name Place Animal online with friends

You need no paper and no account: one of you opens a game, shares its link, and everyone plays in their own browser, on a phone or a computer. Up to twelve players, and it's free.

Opening a game

1. Press New game, pick a nickname, and choose the game's settings (below).
2. Send the game's link to your friends. Whoever opens it picks a nickname and joins; nobody signs up.
3. Once everyone is in, the host starts the game. Anyone with the link can still join until the last round is over, while the room has a free seat, and the room has a chat for the jokes between rounds.
4. At the end, Clone opens a new game with the same settings, for the rematch.

The choices

• Mode: peaceful, with hearts and a badge for everyone, or competitive, with the STOP, rejections and points.
• Categories: three to eight. Pick from the list, from its silly ones under "Just for fun" or the ones players sent in under "From our players", or write your own, up to 64 characters each. Category ideas
• Letters: switch off the ones you don't want drawn. Q, X and Z start switched off, since they leave most categories empty; switch them on for a challenge.
• Rounds and time: 3, 5, 6, 8 or 10 rounds, from one to three minutes each.
• In the competitive mode, whether players can say STOP, and how long the others have after one: 3, 5 or 10 seconds, never more than the round has left. With the STOP off, everyone says Done, and the round ends once everyone is done or the time is up.
• Players: how many the room takes, from two up to twelve. It is optional, an extra layer of privacy: once the room is full, nobody else who opens the link can join it or see the game, the final included.
• Spectators: none, or up to twelve friends who watch the rounds, the answers and the final, and chat, without playing. They have seats of their own, so no player ever loses a seat to them.
• How long the answers are kept after the game: 10 minutes, an hour or a day. After that they are gone.
• For adults only: the host can mark a game so, and every player then declares being 18 or older. It is a note among the players and changes nothing in the game.

Where to play

• Around a table, each on a phone: nobody has to keep the time or add up the points.
• On a video call with friends or family far away: share the link in the chat and read the answers out together.
• In a classroom, as a warm-up: categories from the lesson and a short round, and the class reads the answers together.

A few tips

• For a first game, keep the five classic categories and a minute and a half per round.
• Agree before the game on what counts: does a town count as a place, a cartoon character as a name? The game leaves that to the table.
• Playing with children? Choose the peaceful mode and longer rounds: everyone leaves with a badge.