Somebody suggests a King's Game, and the room stalls - because half the table has
only just met, or the boss is sitting right there. Nearly every app in this genre
assumes a drinking session, and everyone knows it.
King's Game Anywhere fixes exactly that. All 104 orders in this app are ones you
can read out loud in front of anyone.
■ WHAT IS NOT IN THIS APP
- Drinking, or making somebody drink
- Taking clothes off, anyone's
- Kissing, hugging, confessions, questions about who you like
- Confessing secrets or digging up the past
- Showing what's on your phone
- Jokes at someone's looks or personality
- Anything painful or dangerous
Not one. Every single one of the 104 orders was written against that rule.
The only orders involving contact at all are a high five, an arm wrestle, a
handshake, and holding hands to spin around once. That is the complete list.
■ WHAT IS IN IT INSTEAD
- Do an impression of your favourite animal
- Tell everyone something good that happened lately
- Dance on the spot for ten seconds
- Guess number 3's favourite food
- Numbers 2 and 4: find one thing you have in common
- Tell number 5 one thing you like about them
- Name the one thing you'd take to a desert island
Nothing that stings if you flop, and nothing you have to refuse.
■ HOW IT WORKS
You pass a single phone around. Pick how many are playing and the app deals one
King and the numbers. Each person taps a lot, sees their own result full screen,
and passes the phone on - nobody else sees it. Once everyone has drawn, the app
picks an order that works for that many players. The King owns up and reads it
out. Don't like it? Draw another.
■ FIVE MODES
- Party Mode
Classics for a table of friends: tell a joke, do an impression, dance for ten
seconds, arm wrestle. Lively, but nobody ends up on the receiving end of a forfeit.
- Easy Mode
Short orders written in plain, easy words. Nothing needs explaining, so it keeps
moving even at a table where people barely know each other, or at a gathering of
relatives you see once a year.
- Icebreaker
For the office and for training days. Nothing that pries. "Talk for 30 seconds
about something you're into", "find one thing the two of you have in common".
No question anyone would rather not answer.
- Compliment Mode
Nothing but compliments and thank-yous, so nobody has to sit out because they
dislike forfeits or hate performing.
- Draw Only
No orders at all: it deals the King and the numbers and lets you invent the rest.
Handles up to 16 people, so it also works for picking turn order.
■ BUILT FOR PASSING ONE PHONE AROUND
- Your result is shown full screen so it cannot be read over your shoulder.
- A drawn lot shows only "done" - nobody can work out who has which number.
- The app never announces who the King is. That is the King's job.
- With few players, only orders that fit that many are offered.
- Progress saves itself. Take a call, close the app, carry on later.
- No network needed. Works in a car, a campsite, anywhere with no signal.
- No account, no sign-up.
- Japanese and English, switchable in the app with one button.
■ GOOD FOR
Welcome and farewell parties, office socials and away-days, a new team's first
meet-up, year-end parties, reunions, gatherings of relatives, or as the turn at
the table that follows dinner.
■ FROM THE DEVELOPER
The King's Game itself is a genuinely good game. The tension as the draw comes
round, the comedy of not knowing who the King is - it needs no equipment and it
still works. It is a shame that it gets waved away as "one of those apps" and
never comes out. So here is the version you can open with your boss at the table.
Tell us what orders you'd like added.
No drinking, no stripping. 104 orders you can read out in front of anyone.