One of the reasons we started out making PMPY (and pretty much the reason we became a close group of friends) was a summer we spent playing the then-alpha versions of the incredible Sportsfriends collection.
Sportsfriends hits on something fundamental - local multiplayer games work well together. Once you’ve got your friends together to have a match, having a roster of games to switch between keeps things interesting. Different people are better at certain games, so rivalries can form over a bunch of different play styles.
Beyond Sportsfriends, here are a few of our other favourites that go well alongside PMPY, for you to play at your next gathering:
From the makers of Crawl (also a great party game in its own right), RHB captures the feeling of frantic teamwork we tried to put into all aspects of PMPY.
I’ve never played a ten-player game, so I can only imagine how coordinating a big team must feel, but even with 2-4 people orchestrating a play is just the right amount of frustrating before it’s perfectly satisfying. It’s also free!
Jan Willem Nijman’s (one half of Vlambeer) super minimal, super ‘feel’ focused take on tennis. Plenty of depth and nuance, and a solid risk vs. reward approach to cheating that I really appreciate.
Samurai Gunn
Samurai Gunn is a little different to the others on this list as it doesn’t really fit into the ‘appropriating sports’ category, but deserves a mention as easily our most played game during development. Possibly the game that makes me feel most in tune with it when I’m on a good streak. It’s hard to tell just from a video just how finely tuned everything is, so if you haven’t played it yet, it’s absolutely worth a shot.
-Stuart