Ideas for a Simon Says Game: Commands for Every Age

The best ideas for Simon Says game time are short physical commands a player can finish in two or three seconds, mixed with a few trick commands that catch anyone who isn’t listening. Below you’ll find ready-to-read lists sorted by age, funny commands, adult party versions and variations that keep the game fresh. Because this is a game-dev blog, the final sections also show how to turn Simon Says into a small browser game you can play on any screen.

How Do You Play Simon Says?

One person is Simon, the caller. Everyone else stands facing them. Simon gives commands out loud. If a command starts with “Simon says,” players do it. If Simon gives a command without those words (“Touch your toes!”), players must stay still. Anyone who moves on a command without “Simon says” is out, or loses a life in gentler versions. The last player standing becomes the next Simon.

The game trains listening and impulse control, which is why teachers, PE coaches and parents rely on it so often. The fun comes from rhythm: Simon builds a quick run of genuine commands, then slips in a fake one, ideally while doing the action themselves so players copy the movement before they hear the missing words.

Hosting mistakes that kill the fun

• Eliminating very young kids. A toddler who is out after one round stops playing. Use lives, or have them sit out a single command and rejoin.
• Commands that are too long. If players need ten seconds to understand the instruction, the tension disappears. Keep each command to a short phrase.
• A predictable pattern. If every third command is a trick, kids learn the beat. Vary the timing.
• Simon not demonstrating. Simon should perform the actions too. That is where most of the trick catches come from.
• Arguing about who moved first. Agree up front that Simon’s call is final, or the round turns into a debate.
• Rounds that drag. Rotate the Simon role often so more people get to be in charge.

Simon Says Ideas for Toddlers and Preschoolers

For two- to four-year-olds, the best ideas for a Simon Says game double as vocabulary practice: body parts, colours and simple movements. Skip elimination, slow the pace and celebrate every correct freeze. Most toddlers will follow every command at first, and that is fine. The listening skill grows over repeated play.

• Simon says touch your nose.
• Simon says clap your hands.
• Simon says stomp your feet, really loud.
• Simon says wave hello.
• Simon says touch your tummy.
• Simon says pat your head.
• Simon says wiggle your fingers.
• Simon says sit down on the floor.
• Simon says stand up tall.
• Simon says blink your eyes.
• Simon says touch something red.
• Simon says give yourself a hug.
• Simon says hop like a bunny.
• Simon says roar like a lion.
• Simon says point to your ears.
• Simon says march in place.

Tip: name the body part and touch it yourself as you speak. Young children learn the word and the action together, and you can switch to trick commands once they recognise most of the words.

Ideas for Big Kids, Classrooms and PE

From around age six, kids want a challenge. Good ideas for a Simon Says game at this age add left and right, multi-step actions and tiny brain teasers. Speed is your main difficulty dial: the faster the calls, the more players get caught.

• Simon says touch your left ear with your right hand.
• Simon says hop on your left foot three times.
• Simon says do five jumping jacks.
• Simon says spin around, then touch the floor.
• Simon says hold up the answer to 3 + 4 on your fingers.
• Simon says spell your name in the air with your elbow.
• Simon says balance on one foot with your eyes closed.
• Simon says touch your toes, then reach for the sky.
• Simon says point north (or to the door, for younger players).
• Simon says do a wall sit for a count of ten.
• Simon says make the shape of the letter T.
• Simon says high-five the person next to you.
• Simon says crab walk two steps backwards.
• Simon says name an animal that lives in the ocean.
• Simon says freeze like a statue.

The classroom management version

Teachers often use quiet Simon Says to reset a noisy room. Commands are calm and seated: “Simon says put your hands on your desk,” “Simon says look at the board,” “Simon says take a slow breath.” The trick commands still apply, so the class has to focus to stay in. Some teachers keep a folder of printed action cards and draw one at random, which also lets a student play Simon without needing to invent commands on the spot.

Funny Simon Says Ideas and Silly Commands

Silly commands are the fastest way to get giggles and keep reluctant players involved. Mix a few into any age group, especially when energy dips.

• Simon says talk like a robot.
• Simon says waddle like a penguin.
• Simon says do your silliest dance.
• Simon says pretend you’re ice skating.
• Simon says make a fish face.
• Simon says sing the first line of your favourite song.
• Simon says act like you just smelled something terrible.
• Simon says pretend the floor is lava.
• Simon says flap like a chicken and cluck.
• Simon says walk like you’re on the moon.
• Simon says laugh like an evil villain.
• Simon says pretend to be a melting snowman.
• Simon says do slow-motion running.
• Simon says sneeze the biggest fake sneeze ever.
• Simon says pretend you’re a statue in a museum, then come to life.

The funniest trick is a silly command without “Simon says” right after a run of serious ones. “Simon says touch your head. Simon says touch your shoulders. Quack like a duck!” Someone always quacks.

Simon Says Ideas for Adults

Adults play Simon Says at icebreakers, team-building sessions, birthday parties and wedding events. The basic rules don’t change, but toddler commands won’t land. Adult ideas for a Simon Says game work best when they have a social or comic edge without embarrassing anyone.

• Simon says compliment the person on your left.
• Simon says do your best news anchor voice.
• Simon says strike a superhero pose.
• Simon says swap places with someone wearing blue.
• Simon says do the move you’d do if you won the lottery.
• Simon says pretend you’re on a cooking show.
• Simon says find someone with the same birth month.
• Simon says do an air guitar solo.
• Simon says act out your morning routine in five seconds.
• Simon says give a two-word wedding toast.
• Simon says hold the yoga tree pose.
• Simon says sell this pen to the room.

Two adjustments help with grown-up crowds. First, let eliminated players become co-Simons who watch for cheaters, so nobody stands around bored. Second, read the room: a team offsite and a bachelorette party need very different commands. For more crowd-matched party games, see our lists of bachelorette party games and truth or dare prompts.

Ideas for Simon Says Game Variations

Once a group has played a few rounds, the standard format gets predictable. These variations keep the same core skill (listen before you act) while changing the challenge.

• Swap the name. “Mom says,” “Teacher says” or the birthday child’s name. Kids love it when their own name becomes the trigger phrase.
• Opposite Simon. Players do the reverse: “Simon says stand up” means sit down. Brutal and very funny.
• Memory chain. Each command adds to the last: touch your nose, then touch your nose and clap, then touch your nose, clap and spin. Miss a step and you’re out.
• Theme rounds. All animal commands, all superhero commands, or holiday commands for a seasonal party. Our Christmas family games list has more seasonal ideas.
• Silent Simon. Simon only gestures, and holds up a card reading “Simon says” for genuine commands.
• Team Simon. Two teams, one caller each. The team with the most players standing after a set number of commands wins.
• Lives instead of outs. Everyone starts with three lives, which keeps young players in the game longer.

Games like Simon Says

If the group is tired of Simon, these relatives train the same listening skill.

Game	How it differs	Best for
Do This, Do That	The leader demonstrates; copy only on “do this,” stay still on “do that”	Preschool and early primary
In the River, On the Bank	Players jump between two zones on command, with fake calls mixed in	PE and outdoor play
Follow the Leader	Pure copying, no trick commands	Toddlers and warm-ups
Red Light, Green Light	Move on green, freeze on red, caught if still moving	Big groups in open space
Simon the electronic memory game	Repeat a growing sequence of lights and tones	Solo play and memory practice

How to Turn Simon Says Into a Browser Game With WizardGenie

Simon Says translates neatly into a small video game, because the rules are already about reacting to input under time pressure. The digital version works like this: the game announces a command, the player has a short window to press the matching button, and pressing anything on a command without “Simon says” ends the run. It makes a good first project for a classroom, a kids’ party screen or a game jam.

The quickest way to build it without setting up a toolchain is WizardGenie, the AI game engine inside Sorceress. A game engine is the software layer that handles rendering, input and the game loop so you can focus on rules. With WizardGenie you describe the game you want, and it writes, runs and iterates on the code. It runs on the web with nothing to install, and as a Windows desktop app with an auto-updater that gives native file access and longer agent sessions. It works with the leading AI coding models, and you can switch models using your own API key. This style of building, where you guide an AI with plain language rather than typing every line, is often called vibe coding.

A prompt that works

Give WizardGenie the rules as clearly as you would explain them to a new player:

Build a Simon Says reaction game. Show and speak a command every few seconds, chosen from jump, clap, spin and wave. About 70% of commands start with “Simon says.” The player clicks the matching button. Score a point for a correct press, and a point for ignoring a trick command. Wrong button, pressing on a trick command, or missing a real command ends the game. Speed up slightly every five points.

Then iterate in plain language: “make the buttons bigger for kids,” “add a three-lives mode,” “show a funny animation when someone falls for a trick.”

The core logic in plain JavaScript

To see what the AI is building, here is the heart of a working version. It uses the browser’s built-in speech synthesis to read commands aloud, and creates its own buttons, so it runs on a blank HTML page.

const actions = ["jump", "clap", "spin", "wave"];
let score = 0;
let current = null;
let timer = null;

const caller = document.createElement("h1");
const scoreEl = document.createElement("p");
document.body.append(caller, scoreEl);

function say(text) {
  caller.textContent = text;
  if ("speechSynthesis" in window) {
    speechSynthesis.cancel();
    speechSynthesis.speak(new SpeechSynthesisUtterance(text));
  }
}

function nextCommand() {
  const action = actions[Math.floor(Math.random() * actions.length)];
  const simonSays = Math.random() < 0.7;
  current = { action, simonSays, answered: false };
  say((simonSays ? "Simon says " : "") + action + "!");
  timer = setTimeout(endTurn, 2500);
}

function press(action) {
  if (!current || current.answered) return;
  current.answered = true;
  if (!current.simonSays) return gameOver("Simon didn't say!");
  if (action !== current.action) return gameOver("Wrong move!");
  score++;
}

function endTurn() {
  if (!current) return;
  if (current.simonSays && !current.answered) return gameOver("Too slow!");
  if (!current.simonSays) score++; // resisted the trick
  scoreEl.textContent = "Score: " + score;
  nextCommand();
}

function gameOver(reason) {
  clearTimeout(timer);
  current = null;
  say(reason + " Final score: " + score);
}

actions.forEach((a) => {
  const b = document.createElement("button");
  b.textContent = a;
  b.onclick = () => press(a);
  document.body.appendChild(b);
});

const start = document.createElement("button");
start.textContent = "Start";
start.onclick = () => { score = 0; scoreEl.textContent = "Score: 0"; nextCommand(); };
document.body.appendChild(start);

Notice the two ways to score: pressing the right button on a real command, and doing nothing on a trick. That mirrors the playground game exactly, and it is the detail most first versions get wrong.

Giving Simon a face and a voice

A text caller works, but a character makes the game feel finished. Auto-Sprite v2 (Pro) creates game-ready 2D sprites, characters included, in any art style, so you can generate a Simon character and animate the poses players are asked to copy. For the voice, Sound Studio combines AI music, sound effects and text-to-speech with lifelike AI voices, plus a built-in audio editor for trimming. Record “Simon says” and each command in a character voice, add a buzzer for mistakes, and drop the files into the WizardGenie project. When the game is ready, export the build and host it wherever you like. The Sorceress tools guide lists every other tool if you want to go further.

Even a tiny game like this touches most parts of video game development: design, programming, art and audio. That makes it a useful first project before you attempt something bigger.

The Game Plan at a Glance

1. Explain the rules once and have Simon demonstrate a real command and a trick command.
2. Match commands to the age group: body parts for toddlers, left, right and sums for big kids, social and comic commands for adults.
3. Mix in silly commands whenever energy drops, and hide trick commands right after a fast run of real ones.
4. Use lives instead of outs for young players, and rotate the Simon role often.
5. Switch variations (Opposite Simon, memory chain, theme rounds) before the group gets bored.
6. Go digital when you want a screen version: describe the rules to WizardGenie, add a Simon character and voiced commands, then host the build.

Keep a handful of these ideas for a Simon Says game on a phone note or printed card, and you’ll never run dry halfway through a round.