Setting up & running Game Night — the Super Admin guide

This guide is for the super admin — the person who sets Game Night up behind the scenes. If you can fill in a form and share a code with a friend, you can do everything here. No technical knowledge needed.

By the end you'll be able to: add people, choose which games can be played, create a game night, put someone in charge of the scores, and put the leaderboard up on a TV.

New to the words we use? There's a plain-English glossary at the bottom. Peek at it any time.

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What the super admin does (and doesn't)

You are the organiser behind the scenes. You sign in with a password — you do not have a player profile, and you don't play or keep score yourself.

You set things up:

• Add people (create their profiles and give out claim codes)
• Decide which games can be played (create game templates)
• Create a game night (an event) and choose who's in it
• Put one trusted person in charge of approving scores (the event admin)
• Tidy up afterwards, and show the scores on a big screen

You don't: play games, keep score, or approve scores. Playing and scoring happen in the normal app and are covered in the Player guide. Approving scores is the event admin's job (also in the Player guide).

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1. Sign in to the control room

Everything you do lives at one web address: your site with /admin on the end.

1. Open a browser and go to https://gamenight.hsu.mobi/admin. (If Game Night lives at a different address, use that address with /admin on the end.)
2. Enter the admin password and sign in.
3. You'll land straight in the control panel, titled "Manage Game Night."

At the top you'll find a light/dark switch and a Sign out button. That's it — this area is completely separate from the app your players use, and there's no link to it from the app. Bookmark the page so you can find it again.

"Page not found" when you open /admin? That means the admin password hasn't been set up yet. Whoever installed Game Night needs to set it once. Until then, the door stays locked on purpose.

Asked to sign in again partway through? That's normal — the sign-in expires after a while. Just reload and enter the password again.

The panel has three sections, top to bottom: Profiles, Game templates, and Events & membership. The rest of this guide walks through each one.

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2. Your first game night in 10 minutes

In a hurry? Do these six things in order and you'll have a game night ready to play. Each step links to the fuller instructions below.

1. Add at least one game → Game templates. (Nobody can start playing until there's a game to pick.)
2. Create the event → Events & membership. Give it a name like "Friday Game Night."
3. Add profiles for everyone coming → Profiles & claim codes. Give each person a name and a 4-digit code.
4. Put your players in the event → Add members. Only people in the event can play in it.
5. Pick your score-keeper → Event admins. Make one member the event admin.
6. Share the codes. Tell each person the web address, ask them to open it, tap their name, and type their 4-digit code. Put the leaderboard on the TV with the public board.

Done — the group can play. From here on, players run the games themselves; you only step back in to add someone new or tidy up.

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3. Profiles & claim codes

A profile is a person in Game Night — their name and a little avatar picture. People don't sign themselves up; you create a profile for each person, then hand them a short code so they can take it over on their phone.

Find the Profiles section (the first one).

Add a profile

1. Type the person's Name (required).
2. Pick an avatar picture (optional — it just helps people spot their name).
3. Type a 4-digit code (required) — any four numbers, e.g. 1234. This is the claim code you'll give them.
4. Tap Add profile.

The new profile appears in the list below, marked unclaimed until that person takes it over on their phone.

What's a claim code for? It's a one-time key. You give it to the person; they open the app, tap their name, and type the code to prove it's them. After that first time, they set their own personal 4-digit PIN and the claim code isn't needed again. Codes are shown in plain text here on purpose, so you can read them out or text them. It's fine if two people happen to have the same code — each person still taps their own name.

Manage an existing profile

Each profile in the list has these controls:

What you want to do	How
Change their picture	Tap their avatar, pick a new one, tap Save avatar.
Rename them	Tap their name, type the new name, press Enter.
See or change their code	The code is shown next to each name. Tap Reset code to set a new 4-digit code (use this if someone forgets theirs before claiming).
Sign them out of a lost/old phone	Tap Revoke device (only shows once they've claimed). They'll need to claim again on their phone. Their code stays the same.

One phone at a time. Each profile can be active on only one device. If someone claims on a new phone, the old one is automatically signed out — you don't have to do anything. Revoke device is only for when you want to force that yourself (e.g. a lost phone).

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4. Game templates: what can be played

A game template is a reusable description of one game and how it's scored — like "Trivia," "Darts," or "Closest guess." Players pick one of your templates when they start playing; they can't invent their own. Set these up once and reuse them every game night.

You must create at least one template, or players will have nothing to start.

Find the Game templates section.

Add a template

1. Template name — what players will see, e.g. "Trivia" or "Score sheet."
2. Description (optional) — a short note.
3. Mechanic — how scores are captured:
   • Manual (host records scores) — the person running the game types in each player's score. This fits almost everything.
   • Closest time (players guess) — each player guesses a time on their own phone; closest guess without going over wins. A fun party format.
4. Winner (manual games only) — does a higher score win (most points) or a lower score win (fewest strokes, fastest time, etc.)?
5. Session — Multiple games (series) lets the group play round after round; Single game (ends after one) wraps up after one game.
6. Default format — Individual or Team. This is just the starting choice; the person running a game can flip between Singles and Teams each round.
7. Tap Add template.

Your templates appear in a list. Each row lets you:

• Edit — change its settings. (Edits only affect future games; games already played keep the settings they had.)
• Disable / Enable — hide a template from players without deleting it (handy for seasonal games). Disabled ones show "· disabled."
• Delete — remove it for good. You can only delete a template that's never been used; if it's in use, the button is greyed out — Disable it instead.

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5. Events & members

An event is a single game night — for example "Friday Game Night" or "Company Offsite." It holds the group of people who are playing and keeps their running scores.

Find the Events & membership section.

Create an event

1. Type an Event name.
2. Tap Add event.

It appears in the list. Tap the event to open it — that reveals its rename box, tags, members, and cleanup tools. (Tap it again to close.)

To rename an open event, edit the Event name box and tap Rename. The new name reaches everyone in the event automatically.

Add and remove members

Only people who are members of an event can play in it — so add everyone who's coming.

• Add someone: open the Add member… dropdown, pick a person, tap Add.(They must already have a profile.)
• Remove someone: tap Remove next to their name.

Once added, players see this event under "Your events" in the app.

Tags (optional)

Tags are labels like "Round 1," "Quiz," or "Finals" that let the leaderboard show scores in groups. You create the tags here; the person running a game ticks which ones apply, and the leaderboard gets a page per tag.

• Add a tag: type it in New tag and tap Add.
• Remove a tag: tap the ✕ on it.

Skip this if you just want one overall leaderboard.

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6. Event admins: who approves scores

When a game finishes, its scores are provisional until someone signs off on them. That someone is the event admin — a trusted player you put in charge of the scoreboard for this event.

An event admin is just a normal player with an extra power: they still play like everyone else, but they also get a "Review scores" screen where they approve, adjust, or reject each game's results. (Full details are in the Player guide.)

To appoint one:

1. Open the event and find the person in the Members list.
2. Tap Make admin. An "admin" badge appears next to their name.

To remove the power, tap Unset admin.

Pick at least one per event, or nobody can turn provisional scores into official ones. You can appoint more than one. Event admins are per-event — being an admin of one game night gives no powers over another.

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7. Show the scores on a TV

Two ways to put the leaderboard on a big screen — no sign-in needed on the TV:

• Public board: open https://gamenight.hsu.mobi/board/ followed by the event, or go to /boards to see a list of events and pick one. This is a clean, login-free scoreboard made for casting to a TV.
• From a player's phone: any player can open the Board tab, and there's a kiosk/full-screen mode for a dedicated display.

The board updates on its own as games are approved. You can flip it between Score and Wins, and page through your tags if you made any.

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8. Cleaning up after a game night

Open an event and scroll to Sessions to tidy up. Everything here is scoped to the one event, and deletions can't be undone, so you'll be asked to confirm.

• See what happened: tap a session to expand its games.
• Delete one session (and its games): tap Delete next to it.
• Delete a single game: expand the session and tap Delete next to that game.
• Start fresh: tap Clear all to remove every session and game for the event. The event itself, its members, and your templates are kept — so you can reuse the same event for next time.

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The words we use

Word	Plain meaning
Super admin	You — the behind-the-scenes organiser. Signs in with a password; doesn't play.
Profile	A person in Game Night (a name + avatar). You create these.
Claim code	The 4-digit code you give someone so they can take over their profile the first time.
PIN	The personal 4-digit code a player sets for themselves after claiming; how they sign in later.
Game template	A reusable "which game + how it's scored." Players pick one to play.
Event	One game night. Holds its members and their scores.
Member	A person added to an event. Only members can play in it.
Event admin	A player you put in charge of approving that event's scores. Still plays normally.
Host	Whoever started a particular game and keeps its score. (Players sort this out themselves.)
Session	One sitting of a game, played a few rounds.
Game	A single round inside a session.
Tag	A label (e.g. "Round 1") that groups scores on the leaderboard.
Provisional / Official scores	Provisional = submitted but not yet approved. Official = approved by the event admin.
Leaderboard / board	The standings — who's winning. Can be shown on a TV with no sign-in.

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Quick troubleshooting

Problem	Fix
/admin shows "Page not found"	The admin password isn't set up yet. Whoever installed Game Night sets it once.
Asked to sign in again mid-task	Normal — the session expired. Reload and re-enter the password.
A player says "there's nothing to play"	Add a game template, and make sure it isn't disabled.
A player can't find the game night	Add them as a member of the event.
Nobody can make scores official	Appoint an event admin for that event.
A player got a new phone	Ask them to open the app and claim again with their PIN, or tap Revoke device on their profile first.
Can't delete a template	It's been used in a game. Tap Disable instead of Delete.

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See also: the Player guide — hand it to everyone who's playing (it also covers the event admin's score-approval screen).

🤖 Authored by Claude