Gaming Center: Photo Battles, Challenges and Quizzes for Your Guests

The Gaming Center turns the photos your guests are already sharing into live entertainment. Guests vote for their favorite photos, compete in photo challenges, write captions and guess who's who in old pictures — while the live carousel shows standings, winner reveals and a leaderboard on the big screen.

Games share their link with Social Media Mode: guests open the same guest page they use for posts and stories. The two are independent — with both on, guests see a Feed and a Games tab; with the feed off, the same link opens straight into the games. No app and no account needed — anyone with the link can play.

Availability: the Gaming Center is included only in plans that have it. If your plan doesn't include it, the Gaming Center tile shows a Premium badge and a lock — upgrade the event to unlock it (see pricing).

The Games at a Glance

Game	What guests do	Good to know
Photo Battle	Two event photos appear side by side; guests tap their favorite, then get the next pair	Uses the event's approved photos automatically (or one album you pick); needs at least 2
Photo Challenge	Guests enter photos they uploaded themselves and vote for the best entry	You set a mission in the description; 1–10 entries per guest (default 3)
Caption This	Guests write a caption for one photo you pick and vote for the funniest	One caption per guest, editable while the game is open; max 280 characters
Guess Who	Guests answer photo quiz questions you build (e.g. baby photos)	Answers lock in — no retries; guests see right/wrong instantly

There is also an event-wide leaderboard shown at the top of the Games tab. Points: 2 per approved photo uploaded, 3 per vote received on a game entry, 2 per photo-battle win on the guest's own photos, 5 per correct quiz answer.

Step 1: Enable the Gaming Center

Sign in at dashboard.fotify.app and open Events.
Select your event, scroll to the Quick Actions grid and click the Gaming Center tile (gamepad icon).
On the Gaming Center page, switch the toggle in the top-right corner on. This creates the guest link automatically if your event doesn't have one yet — the social feed does NOT need to be enabled.
The Guest link card shows the exact URL (and QR target) your guests use — copy it, open it, or share it. A note tells you what guests will see there: games plus the feed when the feed is on, or only the games when it's off.

Step 2: Create a Game

On the Gaming Center page, click New game.
Pick a type: Photo Battle, Photo Challenge, Caption This or Guess Who.
Fill in the title (guests see it, e.g. "Best dance move") and an optional description — for challenges, write the mission here (e.g. "Take a selfie with the couple").
Type-specific settings:
- Photo Challenge: set Photos per guest (1–10; default 3).
- Caption This: pick the photo guests will caption from the grid of your event's approved photos (use Load more to page through large galleries), or click Upload image to use your own photo (JPEG, PNG or WebP, up to 15 MB) — great for a photo of the couple that isn't in the gallery yet.
- Photo Battle: optionally choose Photos from a specific album — the battle then only draws pairs from that album. The default is all approved photos (private albums like stories are excluded automatically).
- Guess Who: nothing else needed at creation.
Click Create game.

The new game appears in the list with a Draft chip — guests can't see drafts, so you can prepare everything days before the event. An event can hold up to 30 games.

Step 3: Build a Guess Who Quiz

Guess Who games need questions before they can open:

In the games list, click the arrow on the Guess Who game to expand its details.
Under Add a question:
- Click Choose image and pick a photo from your device (JPEG, PNG or WebP, up to 15 MB — childhood photos work great).
- Type the correct answer (usually the person's name).
- Type the other options guests can choose from, separated by commas or new lines (2–6 options total including the correct one).
Click Add question. Repeat for every question — up to 30 per game.
To remove a question, click the trash icon next to it.

Step 4: Run the Games During the Event

Each game in the list has lifecycle buttons:

Open — makes the game visible and playable in every guest's Games tab, instantly. Use it when the moment is right (e.g. the DJ announces the photo battle).
Close — stops new votes and entries. Guests can still see the game, but not the results yet.
Publish results — appears after closing; reveals the winner to all guests and to the big screen. Publishing is a separate step on purpose, so you (or the MC) control the reveal moment.
Open again on a closed game reopens it if the party demands a rematch. Reopening also retracts published results, so the correct answers and winners are hidden again while the game runs.

You can keep several games open at once. A Caption This game can't open without a target photo, and a Guess Who game can't open without at least one question — the dashboard will tell you what's missing.

Moderating entries: expand a game's details to see all entries sorted by votes. Click the trash icon next to any entry to remove it (this also removes its votes). Challenge photos additionally follow your event's photo moderation: a photo pending approval stays hidden from the game until approved.

Deleting a game: expand its details and click Delete at the bottom, then confirm. This permanently removes the game with all its entries and votes.

Step 5: Show Game Slides on the Big Screen

The live carousel can mix game slides between photos, and every game type has its own big-screen format — each slide carries a QR code so guests can jump straight in:

Photo Battle — the current standings: top photos with rank badges and win counts.
Guess Who — the question photo with its answer options projected (never the correct answer), and a "Scan to answer" QR. Questions rotate about once a minute.
Caption This — the target photo with the funniest captions so far and a "Scan to add your caption" QR.
Photo Challenge — the mission with the freshest entries, and a "Scan to join the challenge" QR (with no entries yet, it invites guests to be first).
Plus winner reveals the moment you publish results, and the guest leaderboard.

To turn it on:

Open the carousel (Quick Actions → Live Carousel, or your public /live screen link).
Click the gear icon to open Carousel Settings.
Turn on Game Slides.
Adjust Game Slide Frequency (how often a slide appears, from every 15 seconds to every 2 minutes) and click Save.

The screen rotates through one slide per open game (winner reveals jump the queue), so several games can share the big screen. If there is nothing to show yet, no slide appears — the carousel just keeps rotating photos.

What Guests See

Guests open the event's social page (via the social link or QR code) and pick a display name the first time — that name is what appears on leaderboards.
A bottom bar shows two tabs: Feed and Games.
The Games tab lists every open or closed game with a Play badge, plus the leaderboard at the top.
Per game:
- Photo Battle: two photos, tap one to vote, the next pair loads automatically. Standings appear below.
- Photo Challenge: "Enter a photo" lets the guest take or upload a new photo on the spot (it also posts to the feed and the big screen, like any upload) or pick one of the photos they already posted. Voting is a heart button on each entry; guests can change their vote but never vote for their own entry.
- Caption This: the photo on top and a text box to write a caption. Once sent, the box becomes a "Your caption" card with an Edit button — guests can rewrite it while the game is open. Everyone's captions appear below with heart voting.
- Guess Who: one question at a time with answer buttons; instant right/wrong feedback, a running score, and a top-scores list at the end.
When the event ends, games close for playing but stay visible for browsing.

Troubleshooting

The Gaming Center tile shows a lock / "Premium" badge The event's plan doesn't include the Gaming Center. Upgrade the event to a plan that includes it.

Guests can't reach the games Check three things, in order: (1) the Gaming Center toggle is on, (2) guests are using the guest link from the Gaming Center page — games are not on the album or upload page, (3) at least one game is Open — drafts are invisible to guests. The social feed does NOT need to be on: with the feed off, the same link shows only the games; with both on, guests switch tabs at the bottom.

A game won't open Caption This needs a target photo — create the game with a photo picked or uploaded. Guess Who needs at least one question added.

Photo Battle says there aren't enough photos Battles pull from the event's approved, non-deleted photos. There must be at least 2 — have guests upload, or approve pending photos.

A guest's challenge photo doesn't appear in the game The photo is probably pending moderation — approve it and it appears. Also confirm the guest entered the photo from the same device they uploaded it with (entries are tied to the uploading device).

The guest's existing photos don't show in the challenge picker The "pick an existing photo" grid only shows photos that guest posted from the social page on that device. They can always use "Take or upload a new photo" instead — it enters the challenge and posts to the feed in one step.

No game slides on the carousel Confirm Game Slides is on in the carousel settings, the Gaming Center is enabled, and there's something to show — an open game with votes, a published result, or a leaderboard with at least two named guests.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Do guests need an account to play? A: No. Games use the same guest identity as the social page — each device counts as one player, and guests pick a display name for the leaderboard.

Q: Can guests vote more than once? A: Each guest gets one vote per photo pair in battles, one changeable vote per challenge or caption game, and one locked-in answer per quiz question. Guests can never vote for their own entries.

Q: When do guests see the winner? A: Whenever you decide. Closing a game stops the voting; the winner is revealed only when you press Publish results.

Q: Can I prepare games before the event? A: Yes. Create as many games as you like in advance — they stay hidden as drafts until you open them during the event.

Q: How are leaderboard points calculated? A: 2 points per approved uploaded photo, 3 per vote received on a game entry, 2 per photo-battle win on the guest's own photos, and 5 per correct Guess Who answer.

Q: Can my AI assistant manage games for me? A: Yes — a connected assistant can enable the Gaming Center, create games, open and close them, publish results and read the standings.