What’s up everyone? This isn’t a backyard game review but, we wanted to do a post to introduce ourselves a little more. This here is Merek, and I’m mostly in charge of writing the posts, and my wife Cassidy is the talented photographer in charge of taking all the awesome photos. Cassidy grew up playing soccer, track and swimming, and I grew up playing volleyball, basketball, baseball, and soccer. She is the tallest of 4 siblings and I’m the tallest of 3 siblings, so you could say that our family motto is “breed to succeed.” (Literally our wifi password.) We don’t have any kids yet, so we can’t confirm nor deny the validity of that statement. Although, if our kids aren’t competitive then they probably aren’t our children. Growing up we both were extremely active. Specifically, I played lots of “Knockout”, Lightning, or whatever you call it, in my front yard. Another neighborhood favorite was “Pickle”. Like the phenomenon that occurs in baseball when a runner gets caught between 2 bases. It’s the same concept but there are multiple base runners running back and forth trying not to get caught by the basemen. The last game we used to play was capture the flag. Nothing is more exhilarating than running through neighbor’s yards and hiding in bushes trying to find the other team’s flag and safely run back to your side. By far the most exhilarating game of my childhood. Either that or roller dodgeball at basketball camp. (stay tuned and maybe we’ll post more about it one day.)
Why did we choose to start Backyard Buffs?
Great question. Sports and outdoor games are a huge part of our relationship and was a big precursor to us sparking interest in each other when we first met. (Note from Cassidy: I think he really noticed me when I caught his fly kickball TWICE in a row leading my team to victory 🙂 ) Let’s get one thing straight from the get-go. We are both extremely competitive. Whether it’s playing the Nintendo Switch or a game out in the yard, we both usually need a couple minutes to become lovingly acquainted again after we play. We both just like to win. I think we would both agree that I get a little more uptight and competitive.
Ok, now to actually answer the question. We knew that we wanted to start a business together, but we didn’t have much of a budget to make a product or run an establishment. As we thought about potential ideas, we knew it had to be something that we could both get behind. Games and sports were already such a big part of our lives so doing something along those lines was a no brainer. And thus, Backyard Buffs was born. Starting with the games we owned, we decided that we could rank games based off the criteria. (Read more about that here.) By ranking these games people who read our reviews could learn more about games before they bought them, and answer all the questions that Amazon and other websites fail to answer or inform about. We hope that as you read our articles, you can get a good idea about the basic game play, longevity of the game, durability, etc. before you buy it. Some of these games aren’t cheap and we want you to have access to as much information as possible before you buy a game that may potentially sit in your garage or closet if it’s not a great fit for you. And who knows, maybe we’ll release our own backyard game one day.
Do you only review outdoor games?
There are only so many backyard games in the world, so eventually we are bound to run out of games to review. With that in mind, we plan to also make and review DIY games and outline the process of DIY-ing all sorts of games. Also, we live in an area with snowy, cold winters for the foreseeable future, so we will have a couple months a year where we might have to get creative with games that can be played indoors.
Our hope is that one day we will be the go-to source for games and outdoor activities for all occasions and times of the year. In a world where we have the capacity to pass hours looking at screens and scroll through feeds, we want to be the source that helps people find activities that draw them outside and interacting with each other. One day we’ll have lists of games and activities for every occasion; night time, winter time, summer time. All the time.
Thanks for reading. We’re excited to continue reviewing games, making games, and hopefully one day becoming your number one source for fun games and activities.
P.S. We’re both pretty big Harry Potter nerds, so you can bet your bottom dollar that one day we’re going to be reviewing an intense game of Quidditch. We sure are looking forward to that. Stay tuned!
Backyard Buffs 