Some games on HoyHop can be played with friends who are somewhere else, at their own home or across the table on their own phone. You do not need an account or an app. One player opens a room and sends its code to the others.
Which games support it
Games that can be played online have a Play with friends using a code button above the game. At the moment these include Crazy Eights and Ludo. Both are for two to four players.
Opening a room
- Open the game and tap Play with friends using a code.
- Choose the room mode, standard or kids mode. The difference is explained below.
- Tap Create room.
You are then taken to the waiting room. It shows the five-character room code, a QR code and the list of players, which at first contains only you, marked as host.
Inviting others
There are three ways to share the room, and they all lead to the same place.
- The code. Five characters, for example B7KQ3. Friends type it into the Got a code from a friend? box on the hoyhop.net home page.
- A link. The Copy link button puts it on your clipboard so you can paste it into a message. On a phone, the Send invite button opens the share menu, for example to send it to a family group chat.
- The QR code. When you are sitting together, the others just point their phone camera at your screen.
The code is designed to be easy to read out. It uses only the digits 2 to 9 and consonants. It has no vowels, so it never spells a word by accident, and none of the characters that are easily confused, meaning zero and O, one, I and L. Upper or lower case does not matter.
Name and animal
Everyone who joins chooses a name for the game. Names are put together by a generator from an adjective and an animal, for example Happy Cat, Quick Dog or Curious Rabbit. The Another name button gives you a new suggestion. The animal is also the player’s picture.
There is no free text in the game, only ready-made messages. Friends can tell each other who is who, for example that Brave Horse is grandad.
Standard mode and kids mode
In standard mode, anyone with the code can join until the host starts the game. This suits adults and games with people you know.
In kids mode, the host has to let in every new player. In the waiting room there is a Let in button next to each one. The room locks once the game starts. The waiting room also reminds you to send the code only to people you know.
The waiting room
In the waiting room, the host controls the room:
- Let in and Remove players,
- Add computer if there are too few players, and Remove computer when another person arrives,
- Lock room, so that nobody else can join,
- Start game, when everyone is ready.
A game needs at least two players, and the computer counts. The other players can see in the waiting room who is connected and wait for the host to start.
If the host leaves with the Leave room button, the next connected player becomes the host.
During the game
Only the player whose turn it is rolls the die or plays a card. Everyone else sees the roll or the move on their own screen. In Ludo, who goes first is drawn at random.
There is no free text. Instead of chat, the game has quick messages. There are sixteen of them, such as Hi!, Good game!, Nice move!, Wait a moment, My mistake and One more?. Alongside them are twelve reactions shown as icons, such as a thumbs up, a heart or a trophy. You can send at most one message every two seconds.
Every player sees messages in their own language. If you play in English with a friend in Slovakia and send Nice move!, they see Pekný ťah!, and a Czech friend sees Pěkný tah!.
When the connection drops
Mobile connections sometimes drop. The game then tries to reconnect by itself, and the player sees the message Connection lost, reconnecting. Once the connection is back, they return to their seat with the same cards or pieces. The same happens after a page reload.
If the disconnected player is the one whose turn it is, the game waits 45 seconds for them. After that the computer plays for them until they come back. That way nobody is left waiting forever.
When a room closes
A room closes two minutes after all players have left, or after an hour in which nothing happens. Its code is then not used for any other room for 24 hours. Anyone who tries an old code on the same day will not end up among strangers.
Protection from bad behaviour
If someone behaves badly, the host can remove them from the room. Any player can report another player. If two different players report the same person, or the room collects three reports in total, the room closes. Each network can try to join at most ten times a minute, so nobody can get into other people’s rooms by trying random codes.
Common problems
- There is no room with this code. Check the code. The room may also have closed in the meantime.
- The room is full or The room is locked. The host needs to unlock the room or free up a seat.
- A game is already running in this room. New players cannot join a game in progress. Wait for the next one.
- Too many attempts. Each network can enter a wrong code at most ten times a minute; successful joins don’t count. When lots of people join over one Wi-Fi, take turns and wait a moment.
Ideas for playing with the whole family at once are in Family party games on your phones.