The Game

The Game is similar to Charades where players try to guess the title of a movie, song, book or television show which is acted out. It developed its name because it was thought to be the game to beat all other games when it was first developed and played. It can be played as a competitive team game (minimum eight players, four per team) or can be played solo, just for fun (minimum three players).

Age: All ages

No. of players: Large groups (minimum 3 players)

Equipment: None, except some imagination and acting skills

Time: 10 minutes+

Aim: To guess a movie/TV show/song/book title which is acted out.

1. If played as a team game, one team chooses a book, movie, TV show or song title which should be known to most people. The other team chooses one member to act out the title. The first team whispers the title to the actor of the second team without anyone else on their team hearing it. The actor then has one minute to use standard gestures and mime to get their team to name the title. Alternatively, if you chose to play The Game solo, one player chooses a TV show, book, song or movie title to act out while all the other players try to guess the title, with no time limit. The actor must remain absolutely silent - only gestures and mime are allowed. They cannot spell out words in any way or give letters for any word.

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2. Once a title has been chosen, the actor uses standard gestures to inform their audience what category the title belongs to.

Standard hand gesture for a Book title.
Open both hands as if you were reading a book.

Standard hand gesture for a Movie title.
Place one hand in front of your eye like a camera lens, while the other hand moves in a circle like a 1930s movie camera.

Standard hand gesture for a Television Show
Draw a box.

Standard hand gesture for a Song.
Place your hands on your lips and then spread them out like an opera singer.

After telling what type of title they are miming, the actor then holds up a number of fingers to show how many words are in the title.

Standard hand gesture for the number of words in the title.
Hold up your hand with the number of words in the title indicated by the number of fingers.

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3. After the preliminary steps in The Game, the actor can then mime the entire title, or they can act it out word by word. The words can be acted in any order. If they choose to act a word, they point to the finger corresponding to the position of the word in the title.

A word can also be broken down into syllables, with the total number of syllables shown by putting your fingers against your forearm. Each syllable can then be mimed by showing which syllable you are acting. For example, if you were trying to mime the word 'Nightingale' in The Game, you could break it into three syllables (night/in/gale) and act each syllable individually; yawning to show 'night', cupping your hand and pointing into it to show 'in', pretending there is a huge storm to show 'gale'.

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4. There are also a number of other standard gestures in The Game to help in acting the words. In particular, "sounds like ...", "a" and "the" are very useful.

Standard hand gesture for a little word.
Hold up two fingers with a small gap between them. This shows a small word such as "a", "an", "of", "by", etc.

Standard hand gesture for the word 'The'.
Form one hand into the shape of a pistol. Use the index finger of other hand to go down and along, drawing an 'L'.

Standard hand gesture when you want to mime a word that sounds like the word you want.
Grab your ear lobe between finger and thumb and wiggle it gently. For example, it may be easier to use this gesture and mime the word 'bull' rather than trying to act the word 'full'.

Standard hand gesture to encourage the audience that their guesses are heading in the right direction.
Use one hand and roll it in a circle a few times.

Standard hand gesture to show the audience that their guesses are heading in the wrong direction.
Cross your hands in front of your body and wave them from side to side.

Standard hand gesture for shortening a word or syllable.
Place your hands apart but facing palm to palm. Move them from side to side. (This gesture is used when someone has guessed a word or syllable that needs to be shortened. For example, they may have said 'walking' which needs to be shortened to 'walk'.)

Standard hand gesture for lengthening a word or syllable.
Place your hands apart with your thumbs pointing outwards. Move your hands from side to side. (This gesture is used when someone has guessed a word or syllable that needs to be longer. For example, they may have said 'run' which needs to be lengthened to 'running'.)

Standard hand gesture for cutting a word in two.
Chop one hand with the other hand. (This gesture is useful when it is easier to mime a larger word and cut it in half. For example it may be easier to act 'basketball' and cut it down to 'basket' rather than trying to mime 'basket'.)

Standard hand gesture to show the audience they have guessed the word or syllable.
Tap your finger on the side of your nose.

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5. The Game can continue as along as players want to play. They should take it in turns to be the actor. You may need to choose a fairly simple title for younger children, and you may choose to ignore the time limit. If you played as teams, the winning team is the one that guessed the most correct titles.