A Live Session is where the action happens — set up your game, play through rounds, log scores, and capture the moment with photos and comments. Everything syncs in real-time across all players' devices.

A live session and a quick-logged play are the same underlying play object. A live session is simply the interactive, multi-player way of filling it in while the game is happening — everything you log here ends up in your play history as a regular play.

The Play Lifecycle

Play lifecycle stages: Preparing → Playing → Scoring → Finished

Every session moves through four stages:

Preparing

Get your game ready. Select a game from the catalog, add players (Ludoya users or guests), set player order, optionally create teams, and choose a Game Kit for structured scoring. Once you hit play, you're in the action.

Playing

Advance through turns and rounds using the timer and turn navigation. The app shows whose turn it is and how much time they have. Use the calculator for quick math, snap photos of the board, and jot down comments as memorable moments happen.

Scoring

Fill in the score sheet — either with a Game Kit (auto-totaled categories) or manually. Mark winners by highest/lowest score or manually select the winner. Teams aggregate automatically.

Finished

Session is complete and locked. You can still view everything, but gameplay data won't change. The session saves automatically to your play history.

Resume Saved Sessions

Accidentally closed the app mid-game? No problem. Your in-progress session is saved. Open it from your recent sessions or search for it — you'll pick up exactly where you left off.

Setting Up Your Session

Choose Your Game

Start by picking a game from the catalog. All your collection games are here, plus you can search for anything.

Add Players

Invite Ludoya users by searching their names, or add guests (just need a name). Guests don't need accounts.

Set Player Order

Player order selection with shuffle, rotate, and touch-based random options

Choose how to organize turns:

  • Manual: Drag players into your preferred order
  • Shuffle: Randomize the order
  • Rotate: Reuse the same order from your last session with this game
  • Touch-based Random: Pass the device and tap to randomly select the next player

Create Teams (Optional)

Group players into named teams with colors. Team scores aggregate automatically during scoring.

Select a Game Kit

Pick a helper (or skip this step). Game Kits provide setup checklists, round steps, and structured score sheets tailored to your game. See Game Kits for details.

Timers

Timers keep the game flowing without slowing it down.

Global Session Timer

A clock that runs for the entire session — useful for tracking total play time or applying a hard stop.

Per-Player Timers

Per-player timer panels with turn and total times

Each player gets their own panel showing their current turn time and — in parentheses — their cumulative total across all of their turns so far. Tap a player's panel to hand the turn to them: their turn timer starts counting up, their total increments, and the previously-active player's timer pauses. The active player's panel is highlighted so everyone can see whose turn it is at a glance.

Player Timers vs Concurrent Timers

A toggle above the player list controls how timers behave:

  • Player Timers (default) — only one player's timer runs at a time, perfect for strictly turn-based games
  • Concurrent Timers — multiple players' timers can run simultaneously, useful for games with simultaneous action selection, real-time phases, or any situation where more than one player is "on the clock" at once

Switching Turns

  • Tap any player's panel to hand them the turn directly — no need to cycle through the order
  • Use the Previous and Next buttons at the bottom to step the active player back or forward in the current player order
  • This also lets you back up if someone needs a redo, or skip ahead if a player finishes instantly

Scoring

Select a Game Kit for Structured Scoring

Score sheet with per-player breakdowns and auto-totals

If you chose a Game Kit during setup, the score sheet appears with all its categories — just fill in the values. The app auto-totals each player's score.

Enter Per-Player Breakdowns

Type scores into each category for each player. Instant totals show at the bottom.

Mark Winners

Let the app pick the winner (highest or lowest score, depending on the game), or manually select who won if scores don't tell the whole story.

Team Scoring

Team scores aggregate from member scores automatically. If you're using teams, the final results show both per-player and per-team tallies.

In-App Calculator

Do quick math without leaving the session. The calculator appears in the action menu — handy for final scores, point conversions, or settlement calculations.

Capturing the Moment

Post Photos

Snap photos of the board state, the winning moment, your friends' reactions — anything worth remembering. Photos attach to the session and appear in a timeline.

Write Comments

Add context to the session. "Epic comeback by Jordan!" or "Best rules debate ever." Comments sync across all active players.

Like & Reply

React to other players' comments and photos. Engagement happens in real-time on shared devices.

Share the Session

Generate a shareable link, save the session as an image, or create a QR code. Anyone with the link can view the session details.

Permissions & Edit History

Real-Time Concurrent Editing — Everyone at the Table

A live session is fundamentally multiplayer and real-time: every participant has full edit rights by default and all edits are broadcast live to everyone else's device. Two players can fill in their own columns of the score sheet at the same time, a third can tweak the turn timer, and a fourth can snap a photo — and everyone sees each change the instant it happens.

This is what makes live sessions shine for collaborative score sheet filling: instead of one person hunching over a tablet asking everyone for numbers, each player types in their own results on their own phone while the session stays in sync for the whole table. No refreshing, no "who's got the device?" bottleneck.

If you need tighter control, the session creator can restrict editing (e.g., creator-only) during setup or mid-session.

Editing After the Session Ends

Plays remain editable even after the session is marked as finished and saved to play history. If you spot a wrong score or forget to mark a winner, you can go back and correct it later.

Edit History & Notifications

Every change to a session — live or post-finish — is tracked:

  • A full edit history is kept on the play, so you can see who changed what and when
  • All participants are notified when a play is edited, so nothing changes behind anyone's back
  • This keeps scores trustworthy for statistics, player profiles, and group leaderboards while still allowing honest fixes

Related Pages