Hold your phone to your forehead. Everyone else can see the word and has sixty seconds to describe it to you.
2–8 players15 min
Game night without the box.
Everyone plays on the phone already in their pocket. One person starts a room, everyone else scans the code, and the board goes on whatever screen you've got. Nothing to buy. Nothing to install. No account to play.
For the whole room
- Players
- 2 to 20
- Ages
- 8 to adult
- Box required
- None
On the table19 games,
19 games,
already out of the box
Pick one and you're the host. Everyone else just scans the code you get next.
Party Gamesfor the whole room
Submit clues to a shared bowl, then take turns getting teammates to guess them across 3 rounds with increasing difficulty.
4–20 players25 min
One player sees where the target sits on a spectrum and gets one clue to say. Their team argues the dial into place.
4–12 players20 min
Card Gameswhen nobody has a deck on them
Partner up in this fast trick-taking classic: call trump, play smart, and reach 10 points first.
4 players25 min
Draw, meld, and knock. Outsmart your opponent in this classic two-player showdown.
2 players20 min
Race to play cards faster than your opponent. No turns, no waiting, pure reflexes!
2 players5 min
Board Gamesthe box is $40 and isn't on the shelf
The classic game of strategy — full rules, castling and all, on your own screens.
2 players30 min
Solitairefor one, or a race between two
Competitive two-player solitaire! Race to play cards on shared foundations.
2 players15 min
Nothing is face down and almost every deal can be won. Four free cells hold cards aside while you unstack eight columns.
1 player15 min
Clear seven columns by chaining cards one rank up or down. Kings are dead ends unless you turn wrapping on.
1 player10 min
Classic Klondike Solitaire - host plays while others watch in real-time!
1 player10 min
Pair up cards that add to 13 to demolish a seven-row pyramid. The order you pair in is the whole game.
1 player10 min
Tame eight legs of cards by building complete suit sequences from King to Ace.
1 player20 min
Conquer three peaks by chaining cards one rank at a time in this addictive cascade.
1 player10 min
Three steps,
about forty seconds
Start
- 1
One person picks a game
Whoever has a browser open. Hosting is a link, not an account. There is nothing to install on any device in the room.
- 2
Everyone else scans the code
A six-character room code and a QR appear. Point a camera at it, type a name, you're in. Players never sign up.
- 3
Put the board on the big screen
Optional. Open the same room on a TV or laptop and it becomes the shared board, while every hand stays private on its own phone.
Eight minutes, or all evening
Boxless is for people who are already in the same place. Not a lobby of strangers.
Standing in line
No table, no deck, no screen, and eight minutes before the doors open. Phones are the whole apparatus.
The living room
The TV is already on and there are more people than seats at the table. Put the board on the big screen; every hand stays private on its own phone.
The long table game
The evening a real box would have been perfect for, if anyone owned it, had brought it, or could find all the pieces.
Questions
Do we need to download an app?
No. Boxless runs in the browser on any phone. Scan the QR code and you're playing.
What do we need to play?
A phone per player. That's it. Some games can use a TV or tablet as a shared board, but most don't need one.
How do I get the game on our TV?
The easiest way: mirror a spare phone or tablet to the TV (AirPlay or screen cast) and make that device the shared display. Its screen becomes the game board while everyone plays from their own phones. Casting a laptop browser tab or opening Boxless in the TV's own browser works too. And if there's no TV around, most games don't need one.
How many people can play?
Depends on the game. Each game card shows its player count. Party games handle a crowd; classics like hearts and spades seat the usual table.
Is it free?
Yes. The catalog is free to play. Down the road some premium games may cost a little, but the classics stay free.
Is this like Jackbox or Heads Up?
Same spirit: everyone plays from their own phone. But with no console and nothing to buy before you can play: classic card, board, and party games that run in the browser, with or without a shared screen.
Somebody here
already has
a phone.
That's the whole box.