The Ultimate Gaming Party – Easy & Inexpensive Ideas

Level Up! Do you have a little gamer in your life with a birthday or celebration coming up? Want to throw a gaming party but also not break the piggy bank? If so, this budget-friendly party is for you! Most of the decorations and activities here in this party are low prep, or dollar store and DIY ideas! They’re perfect for celebrating your gamer on a budget! Read on to check out our ideas!

DECORATIONS

Most of our decorations came from Dollar Tree – we picked a traditional green and black gaming color scheme (We’ve seen blue and black used for gaming as well, so you could definitely add more blues in there too). We picked up a Game Theme Birthday Banner and a Game On Backdrop. As an added tip, check the packaging of these items- some of those come with cardboard that have some pictures of gaming controls or other gaming themed images. Before they make it to the recycle bin, cut the out and use them as extra decorations throughout the party area 😉

We did also purchase a Game Party Favor Kit because it had some favors, badges, and some other decorations in there. There’s also a QR code that you can scan to get access to some free printables for food labels, favors, and more decorations (bonus)!!!

Note: if you purchase from the Dollar Tree online, you have to buy a minimal quantity, so make sure you pay attention to how much you’re getting and how much you need to spend! Otherwise, all of these were $1.25 in the store.

THE TABLE

With just a few Gamer themed items, you can create an awesome table perfect for your Gaming fans! We kept things pretty simple in the themed-items area, purchasing a Gaming Party Plastic Table Cover, a few Gaming Paper Plates, Gaming Themed Napkins and paired those with some basic black plate plates, cups, and plasticware (which you can also get at the Dollar Tree).

We also used the Gaming Theme Party Centerpiece for the center, along with a few homemade video game trivia cards (We used green construction paper as a background with the game controllers glued onto the non-trivia side.

Since the Gaming Party Plastic Table Cover had decorations all over, we didn’t even have to add table scatter 🙂

THE PHOTO BOOTH

Photo backdrops are a great way of setting a theme and double as a nice and easy activity! Pick a backdrop that functions as decorative, add a few props to the scene and you’ve got a great place to hang out!

We found this Game On Backdrop in the same area as the banner, but it looks like they don’t have a link to it. If you can’t find the Game On Backdrop, another Gaming Party Plastic Table Cover would do. Another option would be to create a simple backdrop with a Black Table Cover, green balloons, and some ‘GAME ON’ letters.

Note, you don’t have to go all out with a photo backdrop stand either. Grab a few pieces of tape and an empty wall & you’re all set!

PARTY FOOD

No party is complete without some party food! You can always serve some typical (or fancier) party food, but you can also keep in theme with a few clever labels 🙂

Serve up some typical gamer food – pizza, pizza rolls, chicken nuggets, fries, chips, cheese puffs, pretzels..

OR healthier options – trail mix, nuts, carrots..

AND Any Green Food to go with the color scheme – Green Jello, Green Grapes, Green Apples, Kiwi, Honey Dew, Green Peppers, Broccoli, etc…

ACTIVITY TABLE(S)

We typically set up an activity table for kids to keep entertained while everyone arrives AND after all the games are done. These activities are simple and easy and typically don’t require too much supervision.

Check In VIP Table – This was a simple but very effective first table. We used the VIP badges from the Game Party Favor Kit and had some markers for kids to write their own ‘Gamer Names’ on them. We did think about writing their names beforehand so it would feel more “VIP”, but we opted last minute to let them write their own. It was a good decision – Some of the ‘serious gamers’ wanted to use their code names :):):) Alternatively, you could purchase a Badge Holders Set – it won’t come with the VIP Gaming Pass or the sheet of paper, but a bit of card stock would do too! Or You could create a badge using some green string or yarn, a hole puncher, and some card stock or index cards!

GAMES

What’s a party without some fun and memorable games??? Kids will definitely have fun just running around and coming up with their own games, BUT adding in a few themed games will definitely be a hit with your guests! Here were a few of ours:

Now, if you’re throwing a gaming party, chances are you have a video game console already in the house. You could simply let them pick some multiplayer games and they would probably be entranced for hours! (A more costly option would be to rent a Gaming Truck, but we’re focused on budget-friendly for this one :))

These are just a few non-screen ideas if you need a few easy, larger group games.

Find the Game Controllers: In addition to the game trivia cards, we also create a number of blank ones and hide them around the party area. The goal was to find as many as they could! Alternatively, you could place some Gaming Stickers as decoration then have the kids run around and grab as many as they can!
Guess the Game Controllers: If your family has been gaming for quite a while, you might have a decent stash of game controllers or consoles. Play ‘Guess the Game Controller’ and see who can guess the correct answer the fastest! If you don’t have enough of a variety, you could also print some images of controllers or consoles.
Heads Up Game: this is a variation of the game where you put a word or phrase on your head and you have to guess what it is – in some versions, you can only ask yes/no questions to everyone else in order to guess. Rather than picking ahead of time, have kids write down one and then randomly pass them around. Some categories might be: favorite game, favorite character in a game, hardest game, game that you could play for hours without getting bored 🙂 They will LOVE writing and talking about their favorites 🙂
Piñata: AND last but not least, a Piñata! If you’re pressed for time, you can find a few online (Game Controller Piñata). But, if you have a few minutes and want to create a very simple game-themed piñata, try a pull string one! (We’ve created a few for other parties – DIY Beehive Pull-String Piñata, DIY Lego Pull-String Piñata – and they work great! Wrap the box in black, glue on an image of a favorite game OR our game controller, and voila – you’ve got a perfect piñata for your gaming party!)

GOODIE BAGS & GIVEAWAYS

For the goodie bags and giveaways, we went with an arcade-like, prize cabinet theme. At the start of the party, when they got their VIP badge, we also gave them a small envelope which we told them NOT to lose. We did write their ‘gamer name’ on each for sanity 🙂 Each envelope had a few small cards that they could trade in later for a few items at the prize area. (Note: they were colored cards so that they could only pick one of each favor – keychain and bracelet from the Game Party Favor Kit – but any type of candy they wanted. This was just to make sure everyone got one of each)

We let them pick out a few items on their own (1 game controller key change, 1 bracelet, and tons of different types of candy) 🙂

THANK YOU!!!

Thank you so much for checking out our party planning article. Hopefully it gave you some great ideas for your next celebration!

If you did enjoy this, please let us know below or follow us on Pinterest. Also, If you haven’t already and are still looking for that perfect party theme, feel free to check out some of our other Gaming Parties or Party Ideas!

Happy Party Planning 🙂