A game for your business: how to create a simple one people actually want to play

What a game can do for a business

I am not talking about a game to kill an afternoon with friends. I mean a game with a specific job inside your business: getting someone to walk over, helping them get to know what you sell, or teaching your team something they need to do their work better.

A game works because it changes how people pay attention. A sign listing your products gets a quick glance. A question about those same products makes people think, and what people think about, they remember.

• At an event or a trade show: a short trivia about your products gets people to stop at your booth and start a conversation with you.
• In the waiting room: a quiz about your field makes the wait easier and quietly explains what you offer.
• With your team: a quiz about the menu, your procedures or the questions customers ask most turns review time into a friendly challenge between shifts.

What makes a business game work

The games that work in a business look a lot alike. They are short, they have one rule that is easy to explain, and they are about your business, not general knowledge.

1. Short rounds A round should fit inside the wait or the break. If someone has to leave halfway through, the round was too long.
2. Questions about your business What goes into your signature dish, which product fits which need, when you are open. That way every answer teaches something useful.
3. One clear goal Score points, beat the clock, reach the top of the board. One goal, explained in a single line on the first screen.
4. Knowledge wins Reward knowing the answer and answering fast, not luck. The game leaves something learned, and nobody feels they lost by chance.
5. Something to look at the end A board with the best scores makes people want another try. Ask for it to show a nickname, not a full name.

Look at what that screen shows: the question is about the business, there are only a few options, the timer adds a little pressure and the score is always visible. That is all it takes to make someone want to reach the last question.

Playing together, with real sounds

A game for an event or for your team gets much better when several people play together. You can get a game where each person joins from their own phone with a code or a link and everyone plays at the same time. Ask for it in those words. Not every request ends up as a multiplayer game, so if that is what you want, say so from the start.

Sound matters too. You can ask for a specific sound, like applause for a right answer, and Miniceo looks for a real one. You can also paste a link to an audio file you have permission to use. In a waiting room, think about volume: ask for a button to mute the game.

I learned this with my own game. I test Miniceo every day with my own apps, and one of them is a golf game you play against other people. The first version sounded like beeps made with code. I asked for real sounds. After that, real sounds became the default in the apps people create. A game with good sound feels finished; a game full of beeps feels like a test.

A game with good sound feels finished; a game full of beeps feels like a test.

How to ask for your game

Write your request in your own words, the way you would explain it to someone helping you. The best requests describe one concrete task and say who will use the app. Start small, then improve it by chatting.

1. Say where it is played and who plays For example: “A quiz for the clients waiting at my vet clinic, played on their phones.”
2. Describe one round Roughly how many questions, whether each question has a timer and how points add up. Add your own questions, or ask for a first set and then fix the ones that do not fit.
3. Try it and adjust by chatting Play the first version and ask for changes in plain words: “make the questions shorter,” “add an applause sound for right answers,” “show the scoreboard at the end.” If a change does not work out, you can go back to an earlier version.
4. Share it When you like it, share it with a link. People open it from that link in their browser or in the app.

What it does not do yet

• Your game is not published under your name in the stores where people download apps: people open it from your link.
• It does not take payments: there is no card checkout and nothing to buy inside the app.
• It does not connect to the systems you already use, like your register or your booking software.
• The first version is simple. A more elaborate game takes several rounds of changes, and sometimes you need to rephrase a request.
• Everyone who uses the app sees the same saved data: there is one scoreboard for everyone and no private accounts.

Before you launch it

Play it yourself first, start to finish, then ask someone on your team to play it without any explanation. If they have to ask you how it works, the first screen is not clear yet. Check that every right answer is really right: a mistake in your own trivia stands out.

Then think about how people reach the game. At an event, keep the link in plain sight at your booth. In the waiting room, invite people to play as they arrive. With your team, swap the questions now and then so the challenge does not turn into routine.