Interactive TV games for bars and restaurants: what actually works

Most bars and a lot of restaurants have a TV showing a game nobody at the table cares about with the sound off. The screen is already paid for. The question is whether it can do something for the table instead of just above it.

“Interactive TV game” covers a lot of ground, from buzzer trivia boxes to console games to web pages. Before the options, the constraints, because the constraints decide.

The four constraints of a public screen

Input

Anything that needs a controller, a buzzer or a tablet you hand out fails on cleaning, batteries and theft. The only input that scales in a public room is the phone people already brought. That means a QR code on the screen and a web page on the phone, no app store in between.

Sound

Some games need it, some don't. If your TVs are muted (most are), you want something that works silently on the screen and optionally routes audio through your system when you choose. A game whose whole payoff is audio will die on a muted TV.

Pace

A restaurant table has a natural clock: the gap between ordering and food, the gap between plates and the check. That's ten to fifteen minutes, twice. Games with two-minute rounds fit; games with a twenty-minute match don't.

Network

Guest wifi in a busy room is contested. A game that streams video to phones will stutter; a game that sends a few words each way won't. Ask what a round actually transfers.

The options

Buzzer trivia systems

The Buzztime model: a network of screens, handheld controllers, a monthly fee. Proven, but it's hardware you maintain and a contract you sign, and the handhelds are the input problem in physical form.

Console party games

Jackbox and its cousins run on a console or PC plugged into one TV; players join on phones. Great in a living room and fine in a bar that has a staff member who owns the setup. Limits: one screen, one room of eight, a physical device behind the bar, and a game library someone has to buy and curate.

Browser games

The screen opens a web page; phones open a web page. Nothing is installed anywhere and any TV with a browser, streaming stick or cast-capable phone works. AngryLips is this kind: the TV shows angrylips.com/tv, guests scan and type words without seeing the story, the story reveals on the screen, and a narrator reads it aloud if the sound is on. It works muted (the reveal is text; someone at the table reads it) and it works with sound (the narrator does). A round is two minutes and transfers a few kilobytes.

The honest limits: it's one table's worth of players per room today, up to 12, so a full bar means several rooms rather than one. Whole-venue rooms are in progress.

A setup that survives a Friday

• Dedicate one screen and leave the join page on it. Guests should never need staff to find the code.
• Print the code once. A tent card with “Scan to play” and the TV's URL does more than any announcement.
• Decide on sound in advance. Either the TV is on your system or it isn't. Don't make the bartender find the remote mid-rush.
• Give it a shift. Anything new is ignored for the first forty minutes. Judge it at the end of the night, not the start.

If you want the shorter version of all this for a bar specifically, the game night guide has a first-night plan.