Categories of offline #VoiceFirst games
With the recent release of the Gadgets Skill API for Amazon Alexa, there’s growing interest on voice games in which Alexa moderates how one or more players interact with their real-world environment, including other players. Let’s investigate how the various voice games of this type can be grouped and characterised!
Offline #VoiceFirst games, like interactive story voice games, have a very special place in my heart! One reason is that both categories are particularly well suited for this medium, more so than for mobile, for example. The other is that offline voice games bring people together and make them enjoy their environment more, which is precious — Especially in contrast to how mobile games tend to alienate people from their environments (Admittedly, some mobile games like Pokemon Go or Ingress are wonderful exceptions).
Nice! Let’s start by getting an overview of what offline games there are!
No, there are too many! What I give you instead is an overview of the different categories I would put all those games in.
- Drinking games
This is not glamorous, but it’s the biggest, most diverse, and probably oldest category of offline games for voice assistants. In drinking games, Alexa offers entertaining ways for players to consume alcohol, typically by selecting a subset of the players. In it’s most simple form, the game works like a fact Skill and responds with a single instruction (‘All the ladies have to drink!’). More elaborated drinking games ask for the players to ‘check in’ with their names and use them in their instructions (Bonfire Party does so), or direct the players to use requisites for selection (Party Game does this with playing cards).
- Truth or dare-like games
This is something like a ‘sister category’ to drinking games, and one of its two specimens (which are both from the save producer David Karich)is actually a drinking game. What both categories have in common is that they are directed at adults in party situations, and that their involvement is low — Alexa gives instructions at the beginning of a round, ends the conversation, and has to be invoked for the next round.
Truth or dare-like games are different in so far as they make the players choose between two about equally interesting activities, which do not necessarily involve drinking.
- Movement games
This category is quite distinct from the previous two groups, and is mostly directed to kids — As such, this category has seen a huge boost from the Alexa Kids Challenge. In movement games, Alexa tells the players to interact with their environment on a high-energy level (often accompanied by music), and creates events at which the type of the interaction changes. Examples are Musical Chairs, Freeze Dancers, Fire Water Storm, the Finder Game, and Egg Hunt.
A common pattern in movement games is that they have a high degree of involvement: When Alexa has given a task, she plays music, creates the game event after some time, and does not need to be invoked again.
- Tabletop games
In this category, all players typically sit around a table and interact with some requisites according to Alexa’s guidance. This category is relatively new and has been sparsely populated, at least until Amazon released several games that require Echo Buttons, such as Button Monte, Party Foul, Bandit Buttons, Don’t Cut That Wire and Trivial Pursuit Tap. By now there are a few third-party Skill games for Echo Buttons such as Horse Race, Button Button and Alpha Buzz. I will test some voice games with Echo Buttons in a separate article, propably later this week.
In theory, multi-player games with cards, dice, or pens and paper could also be moderated by Alexa, but in practice I’m not aware of any such games yes.
- Board games
There is one unique game that should fall under the tabletop game category, but is so extraordinary that it deserves and gets one of its own: The yet-to-be-released When In Rome! It will come with its own game board, and its game mechanics and content are designed for a deeply engaging gaming experience with Alexa. I’m super hyped about this game, as you might notice — Also because I think this is the first specimen of a new generation of board games that will emerge over the next years.
This list might not be comprehensive, despite my best efforts. Which other offline voice games do you know that do not fit into the groups that I descibed here? Which one is your favorite, or which would you like me analyze deeply in a separate review? I look forward to your feedback! :)
