Phone controller games you can play on any TV
A phone controller game runs on a big screen while each player holds their own phone as the gamepad. You do not need a console or extra controllers: the screen you already have and the phones in the room are enough. Our Console is a set of 21 such games that runs in the web browser.
How a phone becomes a controller
The big screen opens a web page and shows a QR code. Each player scans it, and their phone shows the buttons for the game being played: a thumb stick for racing, four arrows for snake, answer buttons for a quiz.
On Our Console the phones send every press straight to the screen over your WiFi, so the delay is a few thousandths of a second. That matters for action games, where a slow controller makes the game unplayable.
What you need
- A TV, laptop, tablet or projector with a web browser
- One phone per player, Android or iPhone
- WiFi that the screen and the phones are all connected to
Games you can play with a phone as the controller
- Turbo Circuit: top-down 3D racing, steered with a thumb stick, with drifting and item boxes
- Goal Rush: 3D football in two teams, with Shoot and Pass buttons
- Snake Arena: every snake on one shared board, steered with four arrows
- Penalty Shootout: pick left, middle or right while the keeper picks a side in secret
- Super Over: bat one over of cricket by tapping the side the ball comes to
- Sumo Smash: shove the others off a shrinking 3D ring with a thumb stick and a DASH button
- Blast Grid: walk with a d-pad and drop bombs with one button; knocked out, you throw them back in from a cart
- Paint Wars: steer a paint roller and close loops to claim the floor
- Trivia: vote for a category, then tap the shape that matches your answer
- Math Rush: five sums and a closest-guess final, answered on your own phone
- Memory Code: repeat a growing colour sequence on four pads
- Most Likely To: vote in secret for who fits the prompt, then guess who the room will pick
- Hot Bomb: hold the bomb for points, then cut the right wire to throw it on
- Fake Out: type a fake answer to a strange true fact, then find the real one
- Odd One Out: everyone but one player sees the secret word; type clues and vote
- Mafia Night: a secret role on every phone, with the TV as the narrator
- Sketch It: draw a secret word with your finger while the others type guesses
- Act It Out: dumb charades with films, picked on the phones by the other team
- Carrom: pull back on your phone like a slingshot to flick the striker
- 28: the Kerala card game, with your hand hidden on your own phone
- Housie: mark your own ticket on your phone as the TV calls the numbers
Why use phones instead of gamepads
Everyone already has one, so a game for eight people costs nothing extra. A phone also has its own screen, which makes games possible that a gamepad cannot do: secret answers in a quiz, secret votes, secret roles, a hand of cards nobody else sees, or private controls that change with every game.
The trade-off is that a touch screen has no physical buttons. Games made for phones are designed around that, with large controls you can use without looking down.
Questions
- Do I need to install an app to use my phone as a controller?
- No. On Our Console the controller is a web page. Scan the QR code on the big screen and it opens in the phone browser.
- Can I use my phone as a controller for a smart TV?
- Yes, if the TV has a web browser. A laptop connected to the TV works too and is usually faster, especially for the 3D games.
- How many phones can connect at once?
- Up to eight players can join one room on Our Console.