How to Play Name City Animal

Name City Animal is the online, multiplayer version of the classic paper game also known as "Name, Place, Animal, Thing" or Scattergories. You can play it in real time with friends straight from your browser. This guide walks you through the rules, the scoring system and the strategies that will help you climb the leaderboard.

The Goal

The objective is to find words that start with the round's chosen letter and fit each given category, faster and more uniquely than your opponents. Every valid word earns points, but you score the most with unique answers that no one else thought of. The player with the most points wins.

Step by Step

1. Create or join a room: Start a new game room or join an existing one with an invite link. You can also play as a guest without signing up.
2. Set the rules: The host picks the number of rounds, the timer and which categories to play. Standard categories are Name, City, Animal, Plant, Country and Thing; you can add your own too.
3. A letter is drawn: At the start of each round a random letter is selected for everyone.
4. Write your words: Before time runs out, write one word for each category that starts with the chosen letter.
5. Time ends: When the timer runs out or everyone hits "Done", the round ends and all answers are revealed.
6. Voting: Suspicious or invalid answers are voted on, so players decide together what counts.
7. Scoring: Valid answers are scored, the leaderboard updates and the next round begins.

Game Modes

Name City Animal has two modes:

• Classic: Everyone plays individually; the highest total score at the end wins.
• Word Wars: Players split into 2-5 teams, each with a health bar (HP). THERE IS NO ROUND LIMIT — the game runs until one team is left. Each round, teams earn points from voting; teams that fall behind lose HP proportionally to their score, a team at 0 HP is eliminated, and the last team standing wins. Just pick the mode when creating a room.

Scoring Rules

Scoring rewards both speed and creativity:

• Unique valid answer: A correct word only you wrote earns the highest score.
• Shared valid answer: If several players write the same word, the points are split and lower.
• Invalid or empty answer: Off-topic, wrong-letter or blank answers score nothing.
• Voted out: An answer marked invalid by other players earns no points.

Winning Strategies

• Pick uncommon words: Everyone writes the obvious answer; a rarer valid word gets you unique points.
• Tackle hard categories first: Fill the categories with fewer options (like Animal or Plant) before the easy ones.
• Don't panic on hard letters: On J, Z or X even one valid word can decide the round.
• Manage your time: If you can't fill everything, prioritize high-value unique answers.
• Mind your spelling: Misspelled words can be voted out.

Where Can You Play?

Name City Animal is fully browser-based — no download or install required. It runs smoothly on desktops, tablets and phones with a modern browser, and you can add it to your home screen as an app (PWA).

Now that you know the rules, create a room, invite your friends and play your first round. The more you practice, the better you'll get at finding those unique words.