You've now edited and added Bingo squares, opened a Participant View, and launched the Presentation View. We're now ready to run and test your game.
Do my Experiences run out once I start them? No, you can test or "dry run" your Experiences as many times as you like! Our Premium Plans come with 30 days of access to configure and practice your Experience ahead of time. So feel free to start, pause, stop, restart, and reset as many times as you like. Your Experience Limit simply refers to how many unique Experiences you can have created on your account at one time.
Running Your Bingo Game
You're now going to run through your game as a "dry run" test. Before we begin, here is an overview of the process of running a Bingo Game manually in Host Controlled Mode.
In this mode, you (the host) must initiate every action in the game in order to progress it along including:
Calling Squares (B)
Showing Game Notes (N)
Showing the Rankings Leaderboard (R)
Use keyboard shortcuts! There are many useful keyboard shortcuts designed to help you navigate through your Bingo Game with a click of a button. Be sure to review all of the available shortcuts and descriptions before going live with your event! For a full list of the available shortcuts, check out this page from our Help Center - Crowdpurr Keyboard Shortcuts Reference
Calling Squares
Your Bingo Game progresses from square to square by updating the called square. The game advances by updating the called square until participants attain a bingo(s). Both the Presentation View and every single crowd Participant View will also update automatically as all views are designed to update automatically when you make an update on the Experience Dashboard. When you call a new square, your crowd's mobile devices will automatically update to reflect the called square and they will have the ability to determine whether their card contains the square or not to mark it off their card.
Scoring Points
All Crowdpurr Bingo Games run using our Points Mode. This awards players points for marking a square down on their card. By default, all newly-created Bingo Games have the Decreasing Points Per Bingo and Award Points Per Square settings enabled. When the Decreasing Points Per Bingo feature is enabled, players will receive fewer points as more players obtain bingos. The Award Points Per Square option allows participants to earn points for every square they mark off their card. You can configure the Points Mode Options and other Bingo Game Settings under the green Settings tab.
For more information on the various scoring formats offered for Bingo Games, please visit the following article: Bingo Game Settings - Bingo Format
Step-By-Step Process For Each Square
Your Bingo Game's flow will proceed according to the following steps. Each of these steps is covered in the next few articles of this tutorial so you don't need to do these now.
Start your Bingo Game. Starting your Bingo Game will begin the game on the crowd's mobile devices where they'll be able to see their Bingo Card.
Call the First Square. Allow time for your crowd to analyze the called square and determine whether they have it on their card. When you move on to call the next square, your crowd can still mark off any previously called squares even after you begin calling future squares.
Show the Rankings Leaderboard (R). This will display on the Presentation View and Participant Views. This is the last step for each question of your Trivia Game.
Show the Game Notes (N). This will display the current Game Note on both the Presentation View and Participant View.
You're now ready to call the next square. Click on the Call Square (B) viewer display toggle or press "B" on your keyboard. This will automatically reset any Views enabled in steps 3 - 4.
Repeat steps 2 - 6 until the end of your last called square or when enough players have obtained bingos.
Show the final Player Rankings (R) for the Bingo Game on the Presentation View and Participant Views.
Finalize your Bingo Game.
Testing Your Game
Using the above game flow, you (and as many friends and colleagues as you'd like) can actually enter and play your Bingo Game from their own mobile devices or the Participant View you opened from the Experience Dashboard. So go ahead and invite friends or coworkers once you've tested your Bingo Game a few times and are familiar enough to run a live game! Or you can test your game by yourself. In the next few steps, we'll learn about each of the above steps in order to test your Bingo Game. The last step will be learning how to reset your Bingo Game and clear out any crowd responses from your dry runs.