Want to help me develop a new bar game?
 

Ok, so I was sitting at a dive bar last night with the owner and some regulars and we were trying to come up with a good idea for a bar game. Obviously there is trivia (which they do on Tuesdays) and Karaoke(which is awful) and now a few bars do Rock-Paper-Scissors tournaments... but we wanted something NEW.

The problem is.. we set some limits on the game....

#1 It can't interfere with other customers too much (like karaoke does)
#2 It has to be almost moderatorless... doesn't take away the bartenders time slinging drinks
#3 It has to not suck

The best idea we came up with is to do a version of CLUE... but here is the unique part... it would be done via an app on your smartphone. The app acts as your "mobile crime lab." There would be an hour signup period for players to join then the game starts.

I haven't really nailed down the details yet, so I intend to use this thread to hash it all out. A couple of cool ideas we have so far are...

Placing some QR Codes around the bar that you can scan and possibly get a clue.

Allowing customers to scan the UPC code on beer bottles to also get clues.

So before I dive in further.. does this sound like a decent game that people would play? oh, also there would be "bar cash" for the winners.

Did Tonto start this thread?

Hmm... Would be interesting. Not sure how long it would stick for though.

Keep a deck of cards

Give them out to people tell them to hold on to them out of view

Have them challenge each other and loser drinks.

Switch it up so sometimes it's a golf round where low score wins

After challenge they could turn their card or cards back in to the pile to get new ones

Have a cheap shuffler and multiple decks of shit cards

Give out a card with drink purchase

Call it beer bluff

If it becomes popular or works at all rep this post

Profit

This is something that could catch on for a while I bet. Good idea that could use a little tweaking.

Also you could put the bars info on the back of the cards for advertising hotness

Unfortunately that would be illegal. Violates TABC.

Yeah, I think the key would be to make it challenging but not so hard that drunks can't play. Also it there have to be some good "interactions" that are entertaining. The only one I have so far is when you make your final accusation, you stand up and point dramatically at someone and call them a murderer... I imagine people would get a kick out of that.

Stupid laws.

Yeah just from a customers perspective I like the idea of it. I guess I'd have to see it in action to get a better idea of it.

yep, bar can;t do ANYTHING that "encourages excessive consumption" or anything that even remotely could be seen as gambling.

oh! You just gave me a good idea... once I have the rules in place I could adapt them for a Chiefsplanet version we could play and see how much it does or doesn't suck.

Well that's not much fun :banghead:

If drinking isn't leverage or the end goal what makes people participate in any game?

What is the prize for winning?

nope. I'll occasionally play craps in Vegas but I do it for entertainment not to really gamble.

There's a bar out in Gardner that does song bingo.

Everybody gets a bingo sheet with song titles on it. The DJ plays a song for about 1 or 2 minutes, if you have the song on your sheet you color it in. Amusing game, and people get into it.

Bar cash that can be spent on your tab. Yeah I know that technically that could be a violation but TABC is fine with it. It's not "gambling" because you are playing a game of skill like trivia.

[QUOTE=AustinChief;9707278]Ok, so I was sitting at a dive bar last night with the owner and some regulars and we were trying to come up with a good idea for a bar game. Obviously there is trivia (which they do on Tuesdays) and Karaoke(which is awful) and now a few bars do Rock-Paper-Scissors tournaments... but we wanted something NEW.


Has anyone ever witnessed Wall-IT catching on at a bar? It seemed like it would be soo awesome for that when it first came out.

HAHA I just now got this... thread title has been changed kemosabe

Bah you need to do an updated form of clue....maybe a clue/scavenger hunt combination. Have it be a rap themed game instead. The goal is to use clue to hunt for pieces of music and lyrics about your date. Maybe using QR codes etc. When you find a hidden one you get a net set of lyrics/beats associated with your date. At the end you can customize how it's played. AND then you can perform it to see who's best.

You could call the game Date Rap, you compete to collect the best tunes/lyrics before the other teams in the bar with the goal to rap your date at the end. To prevent it from disturbing other customers you can have a special Date Rap booth for people to perform their rap. You could have other people vote to see who had the best rap and even have a Date Rap wall of fame for those who have the best performance.

Oh god. I'm sorry I missed that.

Literally no one would ever play that.

WTF???? LMAO

you need a game that women would be excited to play. Women are bars. No women = no bar. Appeal to the women, then you find success.

They will if you slip drugs into their drink.

Bar-wide Pictionary.

The role of drawer rotates. The drawing gets projected on screens. Everyone enters guesses to what the clue is on a smart phone ap or tableside device. Points given to the drawer based on how fast the most people get the clue. Points are given to the guessers based on how fast they guess the answer.

Can you develop an app that allows people limited control of the house music collection? Something like a jukebox, except that the patrons can vote the current "dj" up or down. If he/she finishes the song with an overall positive score then he/she picks the next song, negative and they give up control to the following person in queue. Add that in. Other than that make the app perform just like the game (except that the clues are bar themed) with 90 second turns to make your guess and the round ends as soon as somebody gets the answer. Winner gets a free round of whatever they are having, x number of closest guessers get a "bar cash." It's not gambling because it involves deductive skill. Anyone can join in at any time but people who join closest to the beginning of each round have an advantage.

This is a damn god idea and even better... easy to code!

Oh, I love game design.

So your goals are...

Game where people can enter and exit the game without disrupting it.
Game where groups can play or individuals can play (and possibly meet other individuals).
Keep people in the bar buying product, but without pushing alcohol.

Let me think about this,

You being from Texas, I'm sure you know of the game "Texas Horseshoes". Love that game !!!

Have you heard of Buzztime? http://www.buzztime.com/

Sounds a bit like the trivia bar game. Buzztime? So something that didn't work when the bar gave you the hardware to play on will now work on the hardware (phone) that the customer brings into the bar?

Won't take off, sorry, maybe a flash in the pan. Maybe. And I liked the buzztime trivia.

Get out of my head !!!!!!!

Are we really trying to find a way to seclude bar patrons from interacting with each other? Why even go to a bar then.

I get the idea of making bar time more enjoyable, but next great ideas won't be a recent failure.....

I am big player of Buzztime. This makes a big thing on which bars I go to.

I loved it! Trivia+rewards+bar interaction= it had all the criteria not karaoke but still basically flopped.

Billiards of the new millennium. But try finding even a snooker table today.....

That would be awesome

Have you played "draw something" on your iPhone or droid phone?

:hmmm:

Negative

Have you played buzztime trivia in a bar where the TV shows the questions and who answered the questions first?

I have fellow players that get mad when I don't show up to play and that includes the bar staff.

I would still play, just rarely see ot

I am one of the few regulars and they know me.

Most of those idiots are not going to know how to play clue.. need something easier.. wild wings does the poker thing which is cool

Take a picture of your privates, then have people guess who dunit

or mispell your name and they have to unscramble it in 30 seconds or they gotta swallow

Make it like hangman, but only gugnam style

Russian roulette with paintballs. the last one without paint on their shirt wins.

a bar in joplin does vibrator races

I always liked this drinking game.

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Not allowed by Texas anti fun patrol

lol

No no no.. it's absolutely nothing like NTN buzztime. (I also liked it back in the day)

Just the opposite, I am working in ways to INCREASE interaction via gameplay. Absolutely don't want a bar full of people glued to their phones.. that is all too often the case already.

12 beer trivia...

Corn Hole could be a bad ass drinking/bar game. I go to this local biker/farmers/oilfield bar here in town and one night they decided to bust out some Corn Hole. It was a blast, even the old biker guys were playing and enjoying it. You'll need a spacious bar and the one I go to is fairly big.

...

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kAfEhNFKoq...ing_no_gif.gif

I'm telling you man, it was a big hit that night. It can easily be turned into a drinking game. Trivia makes you think and your deep concentration can easily kill a buzz. Every time we tailgate we break out a set in the parking lot, tons of people come to joy in. I would do it on certain days though.


Most bars already have trivia. I was at black angus and they had some lame trivia/Texas hold'em computer game where you can play against others. Really boring if you ask me. There's no excitement. You get a question right then what lol? Next question? Boring.

Uh huh...

Ban bar games

12 beer trivia:

4 players, 12 beers in front of each.

You ask questions any sober and 5th grade educated person could answer.

Players can answer, pass, or bet.

Answer right you're safe.
Answer wrong, drink beer.
Bet = you go with or against that person's answer. You lose, drink beer. You win yer' safe.
Pass = skips you and next person has no choice but to bet or answer.

Play until someone taps out or runs out of beer...

Yeah that sounds boring man. I guess it's the type of drinker you are. I don't like to sit and think at bar. I like to up and moving around. Playing pool or shuffleboard. Trivia games aren't original by any means, most bars already have trivia you're just turning it around to a drinking game.

That's the one place thinking is imperative...

oh and the reason that NTN is dying off is not that it "failed"... it simply costs way way way too damn much. Bars couldn't justify the expense.

Nah, it's one or the other.

People have been studied and are proven to drink less because they can't use their phone/device properly...

Ahhhh, well couldn't you make an app like NTN connected to be bar you're at to play he trivia games on the tv there? The patron would be bringing in their own wireless game remote.

I could do that but I actually have a better idea for trivia that is similar (uses smartphone app to track answers just like buzztime but is much more locally interactive AND would allow the bar to compete directly versus other bars and whole regions to compete versus other regions) but it is far more ambitious than what I am talking about doing right now. Right now I just want something NEW to try (like a murder mystery, clue type game or cdcox's pictionary idea)

So you own a bar that wants to be able to play board games on a cell?

:spock:

Uh, just put one of these on every table?

This

These are ****ing addicting. Nowadays people can easy google how to win.

So while the women and guys that act like women are doing this who's buying drinks?...

Not sure.


The one who text messages the fastest?

No...

#1 I don't own a bar, in this case it is my good friend's bar that is looking for ideas.
#2 The smartphone just facilitates the game play.. think of it as a replacement for pen/paper and a moderator. It shouldn't be the entire FOCUS, that would suck.
#3 It isn't really a board game, but will be BASED on the logic structure of Clue. Think more in terms of an interactive murder mystery but not one of those giant gay productions with people dressed up and shit.

I don't see this being a big hit.


I'm not going to call my buddies and say "hey let's go to the bar and play some clue".

The goal is to have something that is far less intrusive than karaoke or even pub trivia... which means it won't distract from drink buying at all. As a matter of fact it will have built in motivation to buy/drink different bottled beers since the UPC code on the bottle could be scanned to get extra clues.

Trust me, as a heavy drinker who gets annoyed by stupid crap in the bar (karaoke) I am the LAST person to design something that would get in the way of anyone's drinking.

I do like the idea of it INCREASING interaction among randoms at the bar though. I'm just not sure yet how that would be integrated into gameplay.

Tell him to find better ways to engage the patrons.

Tavern Owner: "HEY! HEEEEEEEEEY! Listen up! Me and these two lovely ladies: Orchid and Lilly here will be conducting a contest!"

Patrons: "WOOOOOOT! I'd put it in her butt! Wait, is Lilly the blonde or the brunette?"

Tavern Owner: "Here's the rules...."

Now you have the full attention of most of the bar. You hold the brains in a room full of zombies...