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Tidings of comfort and joy, yinz. It’s been a wonderful year-and-a-half of Obscure Games, and as 2010 comes to a close, there’s a big list of all the great stuff we managed to do this year, as well as what’s on tap for 2011.
Obscure Games was born in August 2009, in a one-room log cabin in southeast Kentucky. At the time, few suspected it would go on to become the 16th president of the United States, shepherd the country through a bloody civil war, and bring emancipation to the slaves of the American South, but not before…
October 2009, when Obscure Games was introduced to a new crowd of players at the Third Annual Pittsburgh Weekender, hosted by the local CouchSurfing community, helping to spread Obscure Games beyond the University setting and turn it into a new community organization. These CouchSurfers , their friends, and their friends, would continue to crash Obscure Games events until…
November 2009, when the first season of Obscure Games came to a close with a final Sunday Brunch Game in Mellon Park, the weekend before Thanksgiving. Obscure Games would resume playing at the ungodly hour of 10:30 am on Sunday mornings, with several new Big Game events, including
The first Human Curling Tournament on February 28, 2010, at the West Penn Recreation Center in Polish Hill. The first big event of the new year and the first with funding support from the Sprout Fund, the Human Curling Tournament pitted teams with silly names (like Ruth and the Ruthless) against one another in an office-chair shoving battle royal that got Obscure Games’ its first nod from the press. Surviving players returned to play indoors throughout February and March, until
April 25, when Obscure Games went old-school on the collective asses of the sports establishment with Stickball! A Make Play Project, the first historically-anachronistic-mostly-period-clothing-stickball game since the last one. The game, in a vacant lot in the Strip District, got hit with a powerful rainstorm in the second inning, forcing the players to race to a bar and drink considerable amounts of beer. Celebrations continued on
June 6th, when Silverball, Obscure Game’s original game of human-sized pinball, won the Best New Sport award at the 2010 Come Out and Play Festival in New York City. Obscure Game’s presence at CO&P helped to establish it as a major player–pun intended–in game and play innovation across the world. It also helped attract game makers and players to
The Steel City Games Fest, which ran August 27-29 in the neighborhoods of Bloomfield, Braddock, Shadyside, and East Liberty. Over 150 players from Pittsburgh, New York, and elsewhere came to play 20 different games throughout the weekend, ranging from new versions of existing pervasive games, like DoubleCross and Black Stag, to favorites of past CO&P festivals like Chamball and Circle Rules, to Pittsburgh originals like Crunchball, Vikingball, Diamond Disc, and The Secret City.
The weekend also included a bunch of new exhibition games at HotHouse, the Sprout Fund’s annual fundraiser/debaucherous extravaganza, including Human Wack-a-Mole and Laser Bike Jousting. These games helped to introduce Obscure Games to a even bigger crowd (at least a few of which probably even remembered the evening), and paved the way for professional (-ish) game services throughout the fall and winter, including events at the Pittsburgh Small Press Fest, the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater, the Downtown Residents Block Party, Attack Theatre, the Ellis School, the Carnegie Museum of Art, and Union Project’s Unwrapped. Between these events, regular weekly games continued, battling daylight savings and falling temperatures until
November 3, when the Wednesday evening games were replaced with the first Board Games and Beers night at Hambone’s Pub in Lawrenceville. Every week thereafter, Obscure Games returned to the bar to drink beers, play new and strange games, and invent and test original game ideas (including new games like Lingo (Mad Libs meets Bingo), Hands Down (Twister meets Chess) and others). Outdoors, Sunday afternoon games continued until
November 21, when the end-of-the-season bonanza and barbeque officially brought the outdoor games season to a close, with games including the Field Crumpets, Circle Rules, and the new original Kickit. Obscure Games squeezed in a few more Board Game and Beer nights between then and
December 15, when Obscure Games finished up for the year, for real this time. The Holiday Party included new games, old friends, farewells, eggnog, and prizes, as well as a deep heartfelt thank-you, from me, to everyone who has volunteered their time, energy, money, and general sense of gumption, sticktoitiveness, creativity, and contribution to the whole mess that is Obscure Games. It is because of all of you that I get to spend an ever-growing portion of my free time finding and inventing fun things to do. And while there are other game design groups and sports leagues out there, no one else in the world crowdsources creative play like we do. Lots of you have taken the law into your own hands and created new games, volunteered to work professional events, connected Obscure Games to new opportunities, been a sounding board for various crazy ideas, or given me and a suitcase full of plastic bats and rubber balls a ride somewhere. To all of you, thank you –Obscure Games would not be what it is without your help.
On December 20, Obscure Games got another big piece of news: we’re been accepted as a project of New Sun Rising, a 501(c)3 organization in Pittsburgh that has given us fiscal sponsorship for the new year. This means we get to act like a real non-profit organization, that we can apply for all sorts of grants and other sources of funding that we wouldn’t have been able to otherwise, and that we get help and guidance from some really bright people about how to grow bigger and better and bring even more people together through play. And next year’s Obscure Games is gonna be HUGE. Here’s a brief rundown of what’s in the works:
The Game Lab: A game R&D center with a staff of everyone. Anyone can submit new game ideas and vote on which ones they want to playtest at regular meetings. Best game designs win prizes, everyone gets free beer, and we all work together to create some brand-new fun.
Kids Games Program: A program focused on schools and camps that uses games to teach leadership, group work, conflict resolution, creative thinking skills,and playfulness to the children, and maybe saves them from another summer spent indoors.
Adult Games Program: Get yer mind outta the gutter: this program includes the weekly pick-up sports and games that made Obscure Games famous, as well as a brand-new series of Big Games to give us all an excuse to run through the streets in funny hats…or whatever.
The Pros: Providing new games for local organizations and businesses has become a big part of what Obscure Games does best. In 2011, this program will get even bigger as we reach out to more groups throughout the city, creating new games, running game events, and providing advice on how to make everything a bit more fun.
The Steel City Games Fest II: Return of the Steel City Games Fest: One of the best weekends of 2010 and back again for more in 2011, SCGF2 will celebrate the fun and freedom of summer and showcase all the neat stuff Obscure Games makes. Already know you want to help?
It may seem grandiose, I know, but as they say in this biz, go big or go home. These programs will debut throughout 2011, so keep an eye out for news and updates about all of them (you can–and should–join mailing lists to for the Pros and the Game Lab). As for regular game sessions, Board Games and Beers (which I’m now calling Beer and Pretzel Games, which are actual things) will resume in mid-January, and Sunday pick-up games, indoors in a gym, should start in early February. See yinz then.
-Adam
