Spaceteam
Everyone gets a spaceship console full of mislabeled buttons and instructions meant for someone else's screen. The only way through is to shout.
Over video it holds together until one person runs half a second behind. Then the ship is gone and we all blame the wifi.
How to play Spaceteam
- Goal
- Work together to complete timed orders and keep the ship alive while it outruns an exploding star.
- Set up
- Each player opens the current Spaceteam app on a phone or tablet. Everyone uses the same connection method: one Wi-Fi network, one Internet-mode team password, or Bluetooth with every device on the same platform.
- Play
- Shout the order displayed on your screen. The teammate whose panel contains that control operates it; meanwhile, listen for orders that match controls on your own panel. Keep clearing orders and responding to shared hazards.
- Finish
- The run ends when the ship crashes or explodes. It is a cooperative survival challenge, not a player-versus-player contest.
- Easy to miss
- The order on your screen is usually meant for somebody else's controls. Every device also needs the same current app version and connection method.
Try a round: Not your panel
Incoming order
Set the Manifold Cravat to six.
Your panel
The Manifold Cravat is on somebody else’s phone. Louder, then.
Every instruction you get is for somebody else’s panel. Shouting it across the table is not a side effect of the game, it is the mechanic, and your hands are only there for whatever gets shouted back.
Orders for someone else's phone
In Spaceteam, every phone is a ship console covered in buttons that do not match their labels. The orders on your screen belong to controls on somebody else's console, so you have to shout them across a kitchen table or video call: "SET THE PHASE DAMPENER TO SEVEN." Get the order through before the timer runs out and the ship takes damage.
You cannot complete the order on your own screen because its control is on another phone. Meanwhile, other players are shouting for controls on yours. A round runs five to ten minutes and leaves the room sounding like a submarine losing power. The app is free and needs no setup beyond opening it, and a round is over before anyone gets precious about the rules.
Make setup the quiet part
Open the app on every phone before starting, check that everyone has the same current version, and choose one connection method for the whole group. Do not let three people join over Wi-Fi while two quietly attempt Bluetooth. The first run can be a connection test. Restarting a thirty-second disaster is easier than diagnosing one phone while the rest of the crew waits on a launch screen.
Once the ship is moving, read each order exactly as written. Repeating an order helps. Paraphrasing "engage the hydrostatic thing" does not. Call the order, answer while you touch its control, and confirm it. That small routine gives the shouting just enough structure for the right person to hear the next ridiculous instruction.
Loud is a requirement, not a theme
Everybody has to call out and interrupt. They also have to listen through several other voices. That is the entire game, which makes it a poor choice for anyone who hates noise or does not want to shout across friends. Describe the volume before anyone downloads it. In Spaceteam, "cooperative" means shouting over friends at the volume of a small evacuation.
Spaceteam is best in short bursts. Run another ship while people are still laughing at the last explosion, but stop once shouting nonsense starts to feel ordinary. Over video, give a lagging connection one attempt to recover. If orders keep arriving half a second late, switch games instead of asking the ship to outrun the internet.
Ways to play
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