How to play Laba Party Uganda
Laba Party Uganda is a pass-and-play party game for two teams. One person describes a word; their team shouts guesses; the clock runs. It borrows from charades and from Taboo, and the deck is written around Ugandan life -- Uganda Life, Uganda Entertainment, Uganda Music -- alongside global categories, so a room of friends recognises most of what comes up.
What you need
- One phone. It is passed to whoever is describing. No second device, no accounts, no setup.
- Four people is ideal -- two teams of two. Two works, and so does a dozen.
- Sixty seconds of nerve. That is the default round, and it is shorter than it sounds.
Setting up a game
- Name the teams. They default to Team Rolex and Team Matoke; change them to something your table will argue about.
- Pick a mode. Classic or Free Play -- the difference is explained below.
- Pick a play style. Table Play or Heads Up.
- Tap Start Game, then choose a category for the first team.
Classic or Free Play?
Classic is the Taboo-style game. Under each word are four forbidden words, and the describer must not say any of them. Say one and the card is lost -- the other team is watching, and half the fun is the catching. It rewards lateral thinking: you have to reach the word the long way round.
Free Play hides the forbidden words. Describe however you like. It is faster, louder, and far kinder to mixed groups -- children, grandparents, and anyone playing in their second or third language. If you are unsure which to pick, start here.
Table Play, step by step
- The describer holds the phone so only they can see the word.
- Tap Start Round. A three-second countdown gives everyone a moment to settle.
- Describe the word. Your team shouts guesses.
- They get it, tap Correct. Stuck, tap Skip.
- When time runs out the round ends and the score is shown, card by card.
The word fills the screen deliberately -- it should be readable at arm's length, in a dim room, at a glance, because you are looking up at your friends and not down at a phone.
Heads Up, step by step
The phone goes on your forehead, screen facing out. You are the one guessing; everyone else sees the word and gives clues.
- Choose Heads Up on the home screen, then pick a category and start the round.
- Hold the phone to your forehead, screen out. Turn it sideways for the biggest text.
- Tap the right half of the screen when you guess it. Tap the left half to pass.
- Prefer to move the phone? Tip it down (screen toward the floor) for correct, tip it up for pass. Both work; use whichever your hands find first.
Tilt needs a motion sensor and, on iPhone, permission -- tap Allow when asked. If tilting feels unreliable, use Calibrate while holding the phone the way you normally would, or simply tap the sides, which always works.
Scoring and turns
Each correct card is one point; skipping costs nothing but the clock. At the end of a round you see every card you played, correct and skipped, which is usually where the arguing starts. Tap Next Team to hand over, and the running score for both teams is kept on screen. There is no fixed number of rounds -- play to a target score, or until the food arrives.
Settings worth knowing
- Round length -- one, two, three or four minutes. Two minutes suits larger teams; one keeps the energy up.
- Sound -- the ticking countdown can be switched off for quiet rooms.
- 18+ categories -- off by default, hidden behind an age confirmation, and never shown unless an adult turns them on.
- Install to home screen -- makes the game open like an app and work offline.
House rules worth trying
- No skipping. One card, however long it takes. Brutal, and very funny.
- Silent round. Pure charades -- no words at all from the describer.
- One-word clues. The describer may say a single word at a time, then must pause.
- Steal. If the clock runs out mid-card, the other team gets one guess for a bonus point.
- Category roulette. Nobody picks -- the next team plays whatever category the previous team just used.
- Elders' handicap. Give any team playing in a second language an extra thirty seconds. It keeps everyone in the game.
Playing offline
The whole deck is stored on your device the first time you load the game. Add it to your home screen -- on Android, the browser menu offers Install app; on iPhone, tap Share and then Add to Home Screen -- and it opens straight into the game with no connection. Nothing about a round is uploaded anywhere.
If something is not working
- Tilt does nothing. Tap Enable Tilt, allow motion access if asked, then Calibrate. Tapping the sides of the screen always works as a fallback.
- The same words keep coming back. Cards are drawn without replacement until a category is used up. Switch category, or reset the game data in Settings.
- The screen sleeps mid-round. Increase your phone's screen timeout before a long session.
- Nothing updates. Pull down to refresh once while online; the game updates itself in the background.
Questions people ask
How many players do you need?
Four is the sweet spot -- two teams of two. It works with as few as two people (one describes, one guesses, and you play for a high score instead of against each other), and it scales to a room of a dozen with larger teams.
Do you need one phone or several?
One. The phone is passed to whoever is describing, so a single device runs the whole game. Nothing is transmitted between devices and no account is required to play.
Does it work without internet?
Yes. Once the page has loaded, every card is stored on your device. Add the game to your home screen and it opens and plays with no connection at all -- useful on a road trip, at a campsite, or when data runs out.
What is the difference between Classic and Free Play?
Classic shows four forbidden words under the main word, and saying any of them costs you the card -- this is the Taboo-style game. Free Play hides them, so you can describe however you like. Free Play is faster and much easier for mixed-age groups.
What is Heads Up mode?
You hold the phone to your forehead without looking at it. Your teammates see the word and shout clues, and you guess. Tap the right half of the screen when you get it, the left half to pass -- or tip the phone down and up if you prefer.
Is it suitable for children?
The standard categories are family-safe. There is a separate 18+ category which is switched off by default and is hidden behind an age confirmation, so it never appears unless an adult deliberately turns it on in Settings.