Rainy day, people over, nobody wants to just stare at a screen separately. The games below are split into three groups: ones that need absolutely nothing but the people in the room, ones you can run entirely off a phone already in your pocket, and classic board/card staples worth keeping around. Pick whichever matches how much energy the room has left.
Games That Need Literally Nothing
- Charades. Act out a movie, book, or phrase with no talking — always works, any group size.
- 20 Questions. One person thinks of something, everyone else asks yes/no questions to guess it.
- Categories. Pick a category (countries, movies, foods), go around the circle naming one thing each until someone’s stuck.
- Two Truths and a Lie. Everyone says three “facts” about themselves, one false — the group votes on which one’s the lie.
- Indoor color scavenger hunt. Call out a color, everyone races to touch something that matches it first. See our full list of color scavenger hunt ideas if you want more than a quick round.
Games You Can Run Off Just a Phone
No board, no cards, no setup — just hand the phone around.
Color Hunt: Camera AR Game turns the color-hunt idea above into a timed arcade round: point your camera at something matching the target color before the clock runs out. Good for a quick one-person turn while everyone else watches, or passed around for a group high-score chase.
Mind Reader: 21 Card Trick is a self-working mentalist trick — someone thinks of a card, taps the pile it’s in three times, and the app reveals it. Works offline, no setup, and it’s a genuinely good way to put on a quick “magic show” for the room.
Paper Soccer: Dots & Lines is the classic pen-and-paper dots-and-lines game, just without the pen or paper. Local 2-player pass-and-play on one phone, five board sizes, fully offline.
Guess The Word: Custom Length works well as a group guessing game — pick a word length and category, then take turns guessing before you run out of tries. Supports 13 languages if your group isn’t all speaking the same one.
Classic Board and Card Games Worth Keeping Around
- A standard deck of cards. Covers dozens of games on its own — from simple ones like Go Fish to longer ones like Rummy.
- Jenga or a stacking game. Quiet enough for a smaller space, tense enough to hold attention.
- A trivia box. Low-effort to run, works for mixed-age groups if you pick general-knowledge questions.
- Dominoes. Easy to learn on the spot, scales from 2 players to a full table.
If Everyone Needs to Move Around
- Balloon tennis. Fly swatters or paper plates, keep a balloon off the ground.
- Indoor bowling. Empty water bottles as pins, any soft ball.
- Freeze dance. Music stops, everyone freezes — last one moving is out.
Nothing to set up — just open your camera and start hunting colors.
Get Color Hunt AR by MaslonLabs →Frequently Asked Questions
What’s a good indoor game with no equipment at all?
Charades, 20 Questions, and Categories all need nothing but the people in the room, and work for pretty much any group size.
What indoor games can I play with just my phone?
Camera and party-trick games work well without any extra gear — Color Hunt AR (camera-based color matching), Mind Reader (a card trick the app performs for you), Paper Soccer (local 2-player), and Guess The Word (group word guessing) can all be played by passing a single phone around.
How do I keep an indoor game going for a large group?
Rotate turns on a single-player game (like Color Hunt AR or Mind Reader) so everyone gets a turn while the rest of the group watches and reacts, or split into teams for anything round-based like Categories or trivia.
What’s a quiet indoor game for a small space?
Card games, dominoes, and trivia are all low-noise and don’t need room to move, unlike balloon tennis or freeze dance.
The best rainy-day lineup is usually a mix: something that needs zero setup to start immediately, something active for when the room has extra energy, and one or two phone-based games in reserve for whenever the first two run out of steam.
