Blog
15 games to play with your partner at home, on the phone or long distance
If you're tired of watching the same show and going to bed at the same time, starting the evening with a game changes more than you'd expect. There's research showing that doing new, slightly exciting things together is good for a relationship; we covered it in our post on routine.
None of the fifteen games below needs expensive gear or much setup. Five are for home, five for your phones, and five for when there are miles between you.
At home
1. Backgammon
In Turkey it's practically the national couples' game. Add one rule: whoever loses makes the tea. Three games in, who's demanding a rematch from whom is a story of its own.
2. Name, place, animal
Pick a letter, then you each have a minute to write a name, a city, an animal, a plant and an object that start with it. Turks know it as İsim Şehir; you may know a cousin of it called Scattergories. With two players, cheating is hard and arguing is easy. "A shrimp is not a plant" can be the best part of the night.
3. Blind tasting
One of you closes their eyes, the other brings five things from the kitchen: a cheese, a spice, a fruit... How many will they get right? Hard mode: telling two brands of chocolate apart.
4. Two truths and a lie
Say three things about yourself, one of them false. Even couples who've been together for years get caught out sometimes, because everyone has small stories they've never found the moment to tell.
5. Jigsaw puzzle
A thousand-piece puzzle is a quiet partnership spread over a few evenings. Watching who starts with the edges and who goes straight for the middle is half the fun.
On your phones
6. Who's More Likely?
Questions like "Which of us is more embarrassed to ask for directions when we get lost?" You both answer, then compare. Tomurcuk has 60 tests of this kind; in the app they're called "Who's More Likely?", with the line "You or them?" underneath.
7. Match Test
First you give your own answer, then you guess what your partner answered. Tomurcuk has 64 tests of this kind, described in the app as "Answer, then guess theirs". How many guesses land is a fairly honest measure of how well you know each other.
8. Emoji movies
Describe a film using only emojis and let the other person guess. 🦁👑 is easy, and so is 🚢🧊💔. The rest is up to your imagination.
9. Twenty questions
One of you thinks of something, and the other tries to find it with at most twenty yes-or-no questions. Good for the road, a queue, or waiting for food.
10. Same puzzle, two phones
Solve the daily word puzzle separately, then compare results. Talking about who got it in how many tries goes nicely with morning coffee.
Long distance
11. Same film, same time
Start the film at the same second and comment by phone or message. Someone typing "wait, what just happened?" during a quiet scene is guaranteed.
12. Photo challenge
Each day one of you sets a task: something red, the most boring moment of today, the view from your window. Put the photos side by side in the evening.
13. A shared playlist
Each day one of you gets to add a song, on one condition: one sentence on why. A few weeks later your relationship has a soundtrack.
14. Online backgammon or chess
Backgammon for long-distance couples. The chat matters as much as the dice, so keep a voice call open while you play.
15. Taking turns with questions
Every evening, take turns asking each other a question. If you don't know where to start, pick from our 40 questions to ask your partner. On Tomurcuk, the same question also lands for you both every evening, and the answers open together once you've both written yours.
Try one each evening for a week. You'll know which one is your game before the week is out.