We love a good trivia game here at Slides with Friends.
Like…LOVE trivia.
And apparently we’re not the only ones! Trivia has all sorts of benefits, like releasing dopamine, cross-training the brain for improved mental agility, and helping us socialize a bit better.
However, and I can’t stress this enough, trivia is most awesome because it lets you rub how much smarter you are in the faces of your friends and complete strangers.
And while we’ve talked about how you can create a Jeopardy game in your classroom, we believe in our heart of hearts that trivia, and specifically Jeopardy, is an any-age, whenever-possible, day-or-night event.
So, in order to keep your trivia nights going even when separated by distance or working remotely, we’re going to show you 5 easy ways you can create your own Jeopardy game to play on Zoom.
The winning part is completely up to you.
Our favorite way of playing Jeopardy on Zoom is (surprise, surprise) Slides with Friends. Our deck building software is extremely intuitive and simple to learn, so putting together a Jeopardy game is quick and easy.
All you need to do is follow these 4 steps to get a game going on Slides with Friends
Create a New Slide Deck
To create our Jeopardy game from scratch, we’re going to start by logging into our account (or creating one!) and creating a new slide deck.
From here, you’ll start building your game!
Add Categories and Questions
To add questions to your new deck, start by adding a Title Slide with the category for the questions. Then, add increasingly difficult questions for that category using the Text Answer Slide.
Now, here’s the most important part: Make sure to add slide scoring options with increasing points for the difficulty of the question and double the points for Double Jeopardy. With this, Slides with Friends will automatically award points to the right answers, making it easier to crown the winner at the end of the night.
I also like throwing up a timer on these types of games just to keep things moving and to up the competition ante.
Here’s the big question: Where to find the best Jeopardy questions?
While you can find trivia questions almost anywhere, my favorite place to get Jeopardy style categories and questions is Jeopardy Questions. Not only do the questions come in categories already (to keep things on theme), they’re actually questions from actual games.
Another great option is Ponly, which has a limited number of questions (triple stumpers!), but does include the fun clues said after the correct answer is given.
Show the Scores at the End of Each Round
If you can’t tell, I love a good competition. So one of my favorite ways to remind Jeopardy players the game is competitive is to throw in a Score Summary page at the end of each round or category.
Invite your Friends or Team to Play
Once you’ve built your Jeopardy game, you can send out your invitations and event link! Once everyone logs in, you’re good to go!
Disclaimer: While we think Slides with Friends platform is ideal for a quick, fun way of playing Jeopardy, you can also use other platforms, like Kahoot or TriviaMaker, if you already have an account with them.
Want to cut your build time in half?
Another fantastic way to play Jeopardy on Zoom is to use one of Slides with Friends already created slide decks. We have dozens of made-to-play trivia decks you can tweak for your next team meeting or get-together.
Just create an account, pick the theme that works best for your group, and go!
Check out How to Make Your Own Jeopardy Game for steps on how to build a game using an existing template.
Another awesome online option for a Zoom Jeopardy night is Jeopardy Labs. The free tool (or $20 for lifetime access) lets you fill in your own categories and questions for each point value. The website also keeps score for you, giving you the option to name teams or individuals.
While Jeopardy Labs doesn’t have a template for Daily Doubles or final questions, there are ways to edit a regular template to make it work. Even better, with a Jeopardy Labs lifetime account, you can add videos, sound effects, and images to the questions or answers.
Something to keep in mind, Jeopardy Labs is website, so to play on Zoom, you’ll have to show your screen. Just be careful with your mouse, because rolling over the questions reveals the answer.
Our favorite part of Jeopardy Labs? The web based buzzer app that works with the tool! Just add your room code to Buzzonk to use it for your next game!
Want to take all the guesswork out of planning your next Jeopardy game?
Then leave it to the professionals! The actual professionals.
Head on over to Pluto.tv to watch past episodes of Jeopardy! with your crew. We love this option because it takes the least amount of planning and it’s delightful to see Alex Trebek hosting the show we’ve all come to love.
Pluto has seasons 17 through 34 on its platform at the time this article was written, so you’ll have plenty of options.
The key to streaming an old episode together is to assign tasks to multiple people. You’ll want someone to keep score, someone to hit the pause button when the question is answered, and someone to judge who buzzed in first.
Playing Jeopardy on Zoom using old episodes is a bit more involved, but is so filled with nostalgia, it’s worth the extra bit of work.
Another simplified way of playing Jeopardy on Zoom is by using the PlayShow Jeopardy! App. Like streaming old episodes, this method of playing leaves all the work to the professionals. Bonus? You once again get to be lead through the game by Alex Trebek.
You can play with your crew by getting everyone to download the app and logging in to the same game as you. Once you’re all in, and visible on your Zoom screen, start the game! You’ll get to yell questions into the app just like real contestants, making this one of the most nerve-wracking options on our list.
The only small hiccup with this method of playing Jeopardy is sometimes people’s phones will lag, preventing them from answering as quickly. You might want to run through a practice round just to make sure the game is working for everyone before the points start counting.
Surprise!
We have a bonus way you can play Jeopardy on Zoom!
Let’s say you’re ahead of the game and have already created a Jeopardy competition on PowerPoint. Have we got news for you!
Slides with Friends just released a new premium feature to upload your existing PowerPoint presentations to Slides. With one quick click and a few adjustments, you can upload your PowerPoint to Slides with Friends and launch a Zoom game in minutes.
Even better, you can add additional trivia, word clouds, polls, and nuggets of information to your existing presentation once it’s on our platform.
Grab your team or group of friends and get playing!
