Ideas for a Video Game Party
Looking for some ideas for a video game party that is incredibly epic? This was my son’s seventh birthday party and it was a smashing hit – and easy too. If you want another option, check out this dog man birthday party too. This post contains affiliate links.
Y’s seventh birthday happened when I was in my third trimester with our precious Baby Jay and frankly, I wasn’t having it. The idea of cooking, planning, crafting was overwhelming as I prepped for baby’s arrival. The idea of entertaining a class of first graders was even more horrific.
My friend had a brilliant idea: Make a video game party! Just set up a projector and play video games!
We decided that the best approach was to keep the group small. We left it more at “play date” volume and invited a handful of closest friends. This might just be our new approach. I am careful to warn kids not to discuss it in school, and we don’t hand out physical invitations – I just send one to the parents via WhatsApp.
Ready for the deets? I hope you enjoy these ideas for a video game party – including decor, some fun activities, and the easiest party favors ever.
Ideas for Video Game Party Decorations
While I did do one DIY session, we kept the decorations simple, as you’ll see.
Color Scheme
One of the best ways to make a party feel truly festive is to choose a dramatic color scheme. It’s so easy – there isn’t much to do, you just choose colors.
I went with a neon green, black, white, and silver.
You can also choose colors that work with a specific game or console: blue, red, and black for Nintendo, blue, red, black, green, and yellow for Mario Bros, green, brown, and gray for Minecraft… you get my drift.
Room Decorations
The easiest way to create a huge impact is by filling the space with balloons. I highly recommend getting balloon connectors and a hand pump, so that you can do this in the simplest way.
Use it to make a balloon garland or chains to hang wherever seems right.
I started by repurposing the balloons that I had (the green and black ones) and added silver and white to the mix.
A huge number balloon always makes the birthday kid feel special and is another easy way to fill lots of space, and make the room feel festive. It makes for great photoshoots too. Just stick to the same size, buy one for every birthday, and photograph the child next to it. Watch them grow!
Table Scape
I didn’t do much as far as the table was concerned. Typically we load up the table with snacks and paper goods, but this time we stuck to a small amount of snacks on the counter and kept the table for the crafts.
A neon green tablecloth was set up with iridescent silver plates and the first activity (coming soon).
I also did one Cricut craft – some signs to stick in vases that I already had. I did make it a bit too small by mistake – I recommend making it a more workable size. You can use and customize my Design Space project here.
I used a mix of black, green, and white cardstock with some black glitter mixed in. Don’t make your text too small! IF you need to, write those words using your Cricut instead of cutting them. I went back and wrote in manually the ones I needed to because they were too small to work with.
One also doubled as a cake topper on a bakery cake.
Paper goods simply went with the color scheme – they weren’t themed in their own right.
Ideas for Video Game Party Activities
Activities are the bread and butter, the bones of your party. If the activities are fun, the party is fun.
Everything else just sets the mood.
Activities are also what I find the most tiring – and the most creative. For this party, I needed to be able to take a break. In the past (including the LEGO themed party that I still need to update since we did it again…) the activities had me acting like a day camp counselor. This time it couldn’t.
When planning ideas for a video game party, I knew I needed a solid mix. We started with a craft, continued on to a game, and then went low key (for me) and epic (for the kids) with some actual video games.
Craft Making – Fuse Bead Keychains
I like to do crafts in the beginning, because it means kids can start as soon as they come, it’s a lower key for me, and it often provides something for them to take home.
This time, I messed up. We made these fuse bead keychains, providing templates, and telling the kids they can also DIY a design – no need to follow the rules. The kids ended up in tears, spending a while carefully crafting and having their designs fall apart before we completed it.
Some didn’t want to do it at all.
So what went wrong? First of all, seven is a borderline age for fuse beads. It’s really an 8+ craft. The older kids handled it much better than the younger. Second, we used silicone mats with shorter pegs that I got cheap.
So here’s how it CAN work and be a super cool craft and take-home:
- Do it at 8+ parties, not 7+. It makes a difference.
- Purchase individual packets of colored beads (it was too much for the kids to start picking colors from huge multipacks).
- And use PROPER STIFF fuse bead trays.
You can print my template at the end of this post.
Remind kids to leave an opening for the beads. An adult will need to stand with an iron and finish it off (we did this while the kids snacked) so it’s best for smaller parties.
I kept a mini iron handy, and we finished it off with easy ball chain style key rings.
Game: Pick a Door
I shared this game from our spy birthday party ideas – and yes, I kept it and repurposed it. Y loved it so much, it was a smashing hit then, I figured it’ll be a smashing hit now.
The game play is simple: Take turns picking a door. Each one has a bomb, a “gift”, or a candy. Bomb gets a penalty card with a challenge (such as sing the birthday kid a song, jump ten times…I have a free printable for that here.) Candy is a candy (you can theme it to the party or not – I just used what I had) and gift is a prize blindly chosen by me from my prize box.
Switch it around between players. I shared the full assembly in the spy birthday post linked above. I just painted over the red question marks with green paint to repurpose it for this party.
Each of the kids played a few rounds.
Video Game Projector
And the highlight of the party was obviously playing video games! This inspired the whole party, and allowed me to fill 1.5 hours – but still have a much needed break. We had five kids. It’s best done with 4-8 kids but can be done with 12 too.
We set up a projector on a tripod, connected it to the Nintendo Switch and played some Mario Kart. If you already have the supplies, it’s free, but if you don’t, it practically pays for itself if you just use it at one or two parties (compared to hiring a game truck or something similar) – and it’s an amazing hit!
Up to four players can play at once with extra controllers, so you can take turns. I think that waiting more than two rounds to play can be tough, which is why I recommend doing it with up to twelve kids (unless you want to set up two play areas.
You also do need a good wall to project on – we did our living room wall. The projector allows you to go BIG but of course, you can do this on the TV too.
I had planned for the kids who were waiting their turn to get to continue playing the “pick a door” game but they just wanted to watch…
And guess what? When the parents came to pick up, they didn’t want to go home! Win!
Party Favor Ideas for a Video Game Party
I kept things super simple and got mini Tetris game keychains. Yep, that’s it. No fancy packages, nothing labeled. The kids loved them
A thought she was playing the projected Mario Kart using hers…
And finally a pro tip: at the beginning of the party, I wrote the name of each kid on a gallon size Ziploc bag and handed it to them. It was a collecting point for all their crafts, prizes, candies, and of course the party favor.
Download the Free Video Game Fuse Bead Template
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Got any ideas for a video game party to add to the list? Comment below!
