How to Create a Game Template for EZ-CATEGORIES, EZ-SCHOLAR, and EZ-TRIVIA

Problem

How do I create a template that works in the EZ-VOTE Connect Interactive Game Suite apps?

Solution

The different game apps that we include with EZ-VOTE Connect all use a different structure and format of the slideshow that is later used to create a game template.

However, there are a few concepts consistent across all three games: 

1. you'll create the content of the game, as well as its design, in PowerPoint, without using any of the EZ-VOTE plugin functions. Plain-vanilla PowerPoint slides will suffice, but you MUST use the newer PPTX file format. The old PPT format will not work. 
2. Another common thread is that all games can be used to ask serious questions, like Safety Quiz (Trivia) and you can save your data so that you can run an individual or group report later.
3. Finally, all games are TEAM games, so the inherent, unavoidable question that you don't have to create is "Which team are you on?" We'll ask this every time after you start the game and tell us how many teams are present and what their names are.

We'll split this tutorial up into three groups, since we have three game apps to cover: EZ-TRIVIA, EZ-CATEGORIES and EZ-SCHOLAR

EZ-TRIVIA

Let's start with the simplest, easiest template, where EVERY SINGLE slide is a question. There's no Game Board screen in the EZ-TRIVIA game. Just create a set of slides in PowerPoint that only include your questions - no 'holding' or 'title' slides needed.

Upon import, the PowerPoint presentation becomes a Template, which means you can run multiple sessions against it and the data will be stored separately for each of them, under the Reports tab on your EZ-VOTE Connect Dashboard.

Feel free to customize all of the slides with custom fonts, colors, backgrounds, images and text, but keep in mind that during the import process, we're only taking a picture of the final frame of the slide, so any animations, slide transitions and bullet builds will be 'lost in translation'.

There are multiple free sample templates available for download on our Downloads page, including one for the EZ-TRIVIA game.

When you import a PowerPoint (PPTX) into any of the trivia games, you'll go through a one-time-per-template process of telling the software how many answers do you see on the slide, and which one of them is correct, so that we can correctly keep track of points and announce winners.

EZ-CATEGORIES

When creating an EZ-CATEGORIES game template, keep in mind that you have to decide ahead of time whether you'll go with the 3x3, 4x4, or 5x5 grid/game board size. EZ-CATEGORIES is a game based on the "Jeopardy" game in that it has the categories row at the top and each category has an automatically increasing point value for each question in the linear order that you'll create inside PowerPoint.

For example, a 3x3 game must contain a total of 12 slides:

• Slide #1 = Category 1 title slide
• Slides #2 – 4 = Category 1 questions (3 slides)
• Slide #5 = Category 2 title slide
• Slides #6 – 8 = Category 2 questions (3 slides)
• Slide #9 = Category 3 title slide
• Slides #10 – 12 = Category 3 questions (3 slides)

Obviously, 4x4 and 5x5 grid would contain even more slides.

Once again, you don't have to use any of the EZ-VOTE plugin interactive slides with charts, vote counters, or countdown clocks, since we are just going to take a picture of each slide and then ask you to manually specify how many answers are on each slide, and which one of them is correct.

Feel free to customize all of the slides with custom fonts, colors, backgrounds, images and text, but keep in mind that during the import process, we're only taking a picture of the final frame of the slide, so any animations, slide transitions and bullet builds will be 'lost in translation'.

There are multiple free sample templates available for download on our Downloads page, including one for the EZ-TRIVIA game.

So what are the steps to create a Game Board like this;

Create a presentation with the appropriate number of slides in PowerPoint, and save it in a PPTX format:

During the game, you can change the results view from letters to numeric format by pressing the "L" key on the keyboard:

You can also press "P" to change the results from percentage to absolute votes:

Once the current round is over, we'll automatically show you the Round Standings. Keep in mind that even though a question might, for example, be worth 100 points, if only 50% of the whole team answered correctly, the team will get 50% of the points (50 points):

Anytime after the Round Standings are shown, press "T" for the cumulative Team Standings to show how are the teams doing so far:

As you progress through the game, the cells of questions that have been used/asked will become unavailable:

EZ-SCHOLAR

When creating an EZ-SCHOLAR game template, keep in mind that it requires a game board with two columns and five rows. The game is based on the "Are You Smarter Than a 5th-Grader" TV show in that it has five (5) categories (Grades) and each category has two questions in it. The categories (Grades) have an automatically increasing point value (100 points per question in Grade 1, 500 points per question in Grade 5).

You'll see that the sample PowerPoint template on our Downloads page, maintains a structure of 20 slides where:

• Slide #1 = Grade 1 title slide
• Slide #2 = Grade 1 Question A
• Slide #3 = Grade 1 Question B
• Slide #4 = Grade 2 title slide
• Slide #5 = Grade 2 Question A
• Slide #6 = Grade 2 Question B
• ...and so on...

There are no variations of the game board/grid as there are in the "Jeopardy" game, which makes making this game simpler.

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