How to Play Mimic Party: Rounds, Rules & Your First Game
Mimic Party is simple to explain and hard to play with a straight face. Everything below comes from FoliesApp’s own description of the game, the official Steam screenshots, and what hosts do on screen in launch-week gameplay videos (named where we use them).
The four phases of every round
The official screenshots label each phase in the top-left corner (ROUND 1/4 · ANNOUNCE, RECORDING, PLAYBACK, WHEEL). One round runs through all four:
| Phase | What happens | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| Announce | The round opens and a reference sound is revealed to the whole table at the same moment. | Listen closely — FoliesApp says “you only get it once”. |
| Recording | One countdown for everyone. A waveform bar fills while you record; the prompt says GO! | Make the sound. No retries, no undo. |
| Playback | Each take plays for the whole room while everyone else is muted. Your score out of 100 lands right after your take. | Try not to laugh into the mic of the next person’s turn. |
| Wheel | The wheel spins for everyone at once and hands out points, multipliers and sabotages. | If you land a sabotage, pick a victim. See the wheel guide. |
Then a new sound drops and it starts again. Scores add up across rounds and the leaderboard cards at the top of the screen update after each take.
The rules in one list
- 1 to 5 players, online. There is no local or split-screen mode listed on Steam.
- One shot per sound. Everyone records at once; there is no second attempt and no rehearsal.
- Scored out of 100 on melody, rhythm and “attacks” (how many separate sounds you make). Your voice type does not count. Full breakdown: how scoring works.
- The wheel can change the next take. Bonuses add points to your next imitation; sabotages ruin someone else’s next take and cost them points.
- About 10 minutes per game. FoliesApp’s FAQ says a game is “roughly four rounds”, and the official screenshots show
ROUND 1/4. - A microphone is required. Headphones are strongly recommended so the game audio doesn’t bleed into your take.
Room settings hosts change
These options are not documented by FoliesApp; we list what hosts do and say on screen in launch-week videos:
- Number of rounds. Several groups switch to seven rounds (“We’re going to seven rounds” — Jack Morrison Games; “Seven is the highest” — Danny Garcia Gaming).
- Playback order. One host sets “playback order shuffled” so takes don’t always play in the same order (Danny Garcia Gaming).
- Private room. The same group reminds the host to “make it private” before sharing the code.
- Wheel on or off. A UK group turns the wheel off for a clean scoring game (“I got rid of the wheel as well” — Phunix).
- Which packs are in play. Sounds are drawn at random from the packs selected for the room; see sound packs.
At the end of a game the players in these videos are asked “What do you think of these packs?” — a quick rating of the packs you just played.
Your first game, step by step
- Launch through Steam and check your microphone picks up your voice (Windows picks the input device; see troubleshooting if nobody can hear you).
- Create a room and copy the room code, or join a friend’s code. How rooms work: playing with friends.
- Agree on packs before you start. Everyone needs the same packs installed; the lobby shows who is still downloading.
- Play the default four rounds first. It’s the fastest way to learn what the scorer rewards.
- Then raise the round count and bring out the Workshop packs your group actually knows — meme and game sounds are where it gets loud.
What it looks like in practice
The official announcement trailer on FoliesApp’s YouTube channel is 38 seconds long and shows the full loop. For longer looks, launch-week sessions from Envmai (“Friend Slop” session), breezyfgames and Jack Morrison Games cover a whole game each — including plenty of zero scores that the players felt were unfair, which is what the scoring page is for.
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