How Shabooya works

Joining a game

The stage shows a four-character room code and a QR code. Scan the QR with your phone's camera, or open this site on your phone and type the code.

You do not need an app and you do not need an account. Pick a nickname and you are in. The game remembers your seat on this phone, so a refresh does not cost you your place or your points.

Answering a question

Every question gives you four options. Tap the one you think is right, then lock it in. The first answer you lock in is the one that counts — a second tap cannot improve it.

The timer runs on the server, so a slow phone does not cost you time you had. When it ends, the stage shows the answer and the story behind it, and everyone sees that at the same moment.

Questions come four to a round. Between rounds the stage shows the standings.

How the points work

A correct answer is worth 1,000 points, plus up to 500 more for answering quickly — so a right answer pays between 1,000 and 1,500. A wrong answer, or no answer at all, scores nothing.

Your streak is shown next to your name once you get two or more right in a row. It is there to be enjoyed; it does not multiply your score.

Hosting a game

Open the host console and choose your categories — at least one. Then set the rules: 6, 12 or 20 questions, 15, 20 or 30 seconds each, and a difficulty. Spicy is the hard filter; Mixed takes whatever the categories hold.

If your categories hold fewer questions than that, the round is as long as the questions you have — the game never asks the same one twice.

Open the room, read the code out, and start once people are seated. You decide when a question is revealed and when to move on. The last screen is the results board, and resetting the room starts a fresh game with the same rules.

Playing while you host

When you start a room you can take a seat yourself. The phone that opened the room answers the same questions and sits on the same board as everyone else, so playing does not need a second device.

Your seat is an ordinary seat: the same points, the same speed bonus and the same standings. A reload brings you back to it, and guests still join with the four-character code — nobody makes an account.

Text size, contrast and motion

Text size, high contrast and reduced motion are set on the device in front of you, not for the room. Text size changes the console and your phone; the stage is left alone, because it already fits itself to the screen from across the room.

Reduced motion works whether you choose it here or in your operating system — the app follows the system setting if you have never chosen one.

If something goes wrong

If your phone drops off, reopen the page. Your seat is still yours and your points last as long as the room does; after 10 minutes of silence the room shows you as away, and the game picks up where it left off.

If a code is rejected, check the stage — a code is four characters, and a room closes after 6 hours without activity.

If the name on your phone is not yours, tell the host: a seat belongs to the phone that joined with it.