Hi there
Most who read this article will have attended a retrospective before, perhaps even moderated one.
A good overview on retrospectives can be found here: Team Playbook Retrospective
As a Scrum Master, I have facilitated several hundred retrospectives. I try each time to make a game as a starter. Quite a list comes together which I would like to share with you.
Black or White
Quick answer interview where all participants answer collectively a question which is formed like "A or B?"
E.g.:
- Mineral water: sparkling or still?
- Justin Bieber or Robbie Williams
- ...
Say Hello
All should close their eyes. Someone is saying "Hello", the others has to guess who said "Hello"
Visual Phone
3 post-its for everyone. On the last post-it write a sentance. Give to post-it to the person on your right. This person reads the sentance and draw it on the 2nd post-it. Give to post-it to the person on your right. This person just looks at the drawing and write a sentance about it. That's pretty funny 
Punctual Pete
Basically an exercise to remember names.
Combine the name of a participant with an adjective. The adjective should start with the same letter as the name does.
e.g.
- Punctual Pete
- Crazy Chris
- Bossy Boris
Count to 10
All should close their eyes. The target is to count to 10 with the group, but when 2 people say the same number at the same time, it starts with 1 again.
Other games
- Guess songs
- Guess film music
- Guess country flags
- Guess country outlines
- Guess company logo
- Pictionary
This is a list of my favourites. But there are a lot more, just search the internet and be creative! 
Have fun a your next retrospective!
