You're now ready to start your first Bingo Game. When you first create a Bingo Game, it is in the Ready to Start state. While in the Ready to Start state, your crowd will be allowed to sign in to your Bingo Game, but they will not be able to see their Bingo card or mark squares off until you start the game. Once they have signed in, your participants will see a message indicating the Bingo Game will begin shortly.
Starting a Bingo Game with Countdown Timer Enabled
By default, the Countdown Timer is enabled and set to 10 seconds in duration by default, which can always be edited from the green Settings tab then Playback & Timing tab on the Experience Dashboard. If your Bingo Game has the Countdown Timer enabled, then your Bingo Game will count down for the duration you have set it to before going live. The Bingo Game will be ready to begin calling squares once the Countdown Timer finishes counting down.
To initiate the Countdown Timer for your Bingo Game, click on the blue Countdown Timer with a clock icon under the Playback Controls heading. Once you click this button, a prompt will pop up confirming the initiation to Start the Bingo Game's Countdown Timer. Once you hit the blue Start Countdown button, the countdown will begin.
There are a couple of options you can choose from on the Start Countdown module.
To learn how to enable, disable, or edit the duration of the Countdown Timer, please visit the following Help Center Article: Bingo Game Settings - Playback and Timing.
Start Countdown module with various countdown options
Start Countdown Options
- Auto-Start When Countdown Ends
- Start Countdown
- Skip Countdown
By default, this setting is enabled and will automatically start the Bingo Game once the Countdown Timer ends. Disabling this setting is useful if you have a long Countdown Timer for an upcoming event (e.g. several hours or more) but you would like to display or present content before actually starting the Experience once the Countdown Timer ends.
Choosing this option will begin the Countdown Timer as normal. If you have the Auto-Start When Countdown Ends feature enabled, this will begin the Bingo Game. Alternatively, if the previous setting is disabled, the Bingo Game will not begin at the end of the timer until the host manually activates the game.
Selecting this option will skip the Countdown Timer completely and will begin your Experience immediately instead. If you previously disabled the Auto-Start When Countdown Ends feature, you can select Skip Countdown once you're ready to begin the Experience after the Countdown Timer has ended.
Starting a Bingo Game with Countdown Timer Disabled
If you have disabled the Countdown Timer, then your Bingo Game will be live as soon as you press the green Start button.
To make your Bingo Game Live in order to begin calling squares, you'll first need to start it. To start the game, simply click on the green circular Play button under the Playback Controls heading in the upper-left corner of the Experience Dashboard. After clicking the Play button, your Bingo Game is now in the Live state.
The Playback Control displays a green Play button with the Countdown Timer disabled
Your Bingo Game will now display a Bingo card with random squares on the Participant View that you opened earlier in this tutorial and also on the mobile device of any player who is signed in to your Bingo Game. Once live, the Play button now turns into a yellow Pause button if you need to pause your Bingo Game at any point.
Calling and Marking Off the First Square
If you're playing along in the Participant View, then you should be signed in already. Once you start your Bingo Game, you should see your Bingo card on the Participant View. Go ahead and call the first square by clicking on the Call Square (B) toggle on the Experience Dashboard or the Presentation View. Alternatively, you can also press "B" on your keyboard to quickly call a square.
Now that you've called the first square of the game, check your opened Participant View to see if you have the square on your card. If so, click on it to mark it off!
|
Participant View with Highlighted Called Square enabled |
Participant View after the player marks the called square |
Pausing a Bingo Game
During your live event and Bingo Game, there may be times when you may want to pause the game. Pausing your Bingo Game will temporarily stop your crowd from answering questions and will show the crowd a Bingo Game Paused message on their mobile devices, as displayed below.
Bingo Game Paused message on the Participant View
To pause a Bingo Game, click the yellow circular Pause button under the Playback Controls. To resume the game and continue playing, simply click the same button again, which has now turned into a green Play button to indicate that this will resume your Bingo Game.
Click on the yellow Pause button to pause an Experience.
Alternatively, you can press "P" on your keyboard to quickly pause and resume the game.
Next Steps
Now that we've learned how to start our Bingo Game, called the first square as the host, and marked off the called square on our opened Participant View, we'll learn how to enable various Views like Show Game Notes (N) and Show Rankings (R). Go to the next step Showing Game Notes & Rankings Leaderboard
Comments
0 comments
Article is closed for comments.