Okay team, time to get those bristling competitive juices a’flowing. It’s Game Night.
But this time around you’re an adult, and you’re so fancy that you’re the person SUPPLYING the Doritos instead of shovelling fistfuls in the hummus and then down your wide open gob like a big snake unhinging its jaw.
Now, no pressure but hosting Game Night is a pretty big deal.
1. Getting the right folks together
You know how every single family or group of friends has that one borderline crazy human who will crack in seconds at the sight of a board game? Maybe that was you, back when you were young and naive.
But at a fancy adult Game Night, you don’t want some rando tipping over the board mid-play in a hissy fit. You want people who can be calm under the pressure, and can throw their heads back in laughter when Davo inevitably makes a silly play that costs him the entire game. Honestly mate.
So choose your guests accordingly – you don’t want to wind up distracting your straight-laced colleagues while your mates are daring each other to do crazy stuff with every turn.
It’s really not a situation you want to have to diffuse at the office on Monday. Trust us.
2. Supplying the snacks
Food, glorious food. Really, this is one of the make or break decisions you’ll have to make on your games night. How much effort are you willing to pitch in for these people? Which snacks are going to have the optimum play-to-snack ratio? How much dough are you willing to fork out?
Look, you’re in a precarious position on this front, pals. Not only are we balancing dietary requirements, but we also need to make sure everyone is well fed despite selecting snacks that won’t leave greasy residue on your gaming supplies, and won’t be too much trouble to shove down your gullet at a million miles an hour in between each turn.
There are a few obvious staples. For main meal, it’s hard to go wrong with pizza (espesh. ‘coz you can now get gluten-free bases and lactose-free cheese). Then for snacks, a healthy serving of popcorn, Doritos and perhaps a cheeky cheese and meats platter could go down a treat.
We recommend a decent assortment of salsa too – you know, to avoid a riot when your mates realise you’ve left them with all chip and no dip.
3. Choosing the right games
It’s the whole reason you’re there – the games have gotta be good. While the classics will always hold a certain appeal, everyone does them differently so it’s a recipe for arguments.
Your best bet is to give a bunch of new games a crack. Not only will you have the bonding experience of trying to figure out how to play them properly, but you also get to try something brand-spankin’ new.
Hasbro has a buncha new games out recently, including Speech Breaker (where you wear a funky headset that jams your words while the others guess what you’ve said) or Don’t Lose Your Cool (pop on a heart rate monitor and stay calm as your mates try to spike it up).
Then there’s Chow Crown (stuffing your gob with a buncha food challenges never tasted so sweet), Twister Blindfold (the OG but with blindfolds? Count us in) and Pie Face Cannon (this time you get a cannon to launch whipped cream at your pals – but they can defend themselves now). Bring it.
4. Setting the tunes
Music really does make all the difference when it comes to setting an atmosphere – let’s be honest, you can light all the mood candles in the world and douse the room in incense for ambiance, but if you’ve got The Thong Song playing on repeat in the background then you’re gonna have a bad time.
The other consideration here is that you don’t wanna overwhelm the party with your own weird musical tastes and you DEFINITELY do not want to run out of tunes halfway through the night and be forced to go through the awkward silence when you’re not quiiiite sure if the playlist has finished or if that one song just has a super long ending.
The easiest way to do this is to create a shared playlist a few days prior to your shindig, and ask everyone to contribute a bunch of songs.
There should be stacks to go around and that way you can just pop it on shuffle in the background so that everyone’s taste is represented (and you don’t somehow wind up listening to the same song forty times).
If all the elements fall into place, you’re looking at a heck of an evening, folks. Honestly all that’s left to do is to fashion yourself a blanket cape and perhaps a tiara so that you can hold court over your mates once you inevitably decimate them at all of the games. After all, being the host has gotta have its benefits.
If you wanna get your competitive little mitts on the games, you can spot them riiiiight HERE. So kick off your big ol’ house party and enjoy all the leftover food – ‘coz you’re absolutely going to go overboard with snacks and you know it. It’s inevitable, and we’re not mad about it.
