We're passionate about gaming as a family and encouraging others to play board games and video games together too. Brian and I have been gaming since we were kids. In fact, we spent a lot of our time gaming together pre-kids.
There was a period of time when we didn't game as much because we were busy in the trenches of parenthood, but gaming and geeky fun remained part of our life.
Naturally, we're raising our own little gamers. As they've gotten older, we've been able to increase our family gaming. So, last year we decided to rebrand (and revive) our gaming blog to focus on positive family gaming and dive into creating gaming videos.
Celebrating One Year of Stay-At-Home Gamers
It's fun to see the types of games the kids gravitate towards as they grow and how their gaming evolves. For example, MrX used to wonder around aimlessly in Minecraft breaking stuff or building simple towers. Now, he's creating more complex buildings and using his imagination to create stories about the places he builds.
Even with board gaming, we've watched our children move beyond beginner games and into games with more complex strategies. It's incredible seeing how their math and reading skills have improved as well.
There's a lot of overlap in the games we all enjoy, but we each have our own favorites. Our content is definitely a team effort!
Highlights From the Past Year
It's been amazing building community with other gamers on YouTube, Twitch, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. It's so important to find others who share your passions. Not only do we get to talk with you about video games and board games, but we get inspired by you too. We've learned about so many excellent games that weren't on our radar. Plus, it's great to see other families bonding over our favorite hobby too.
Over the past year we've learned a lot about creating great video content, including livestreaming, and continue to improve our skills. We've become more comfortable with being ourselves on camera, which is also a great skill for our kids to learn.
Along with building connections, we've also been able to give back through our gaming by raising funds for Extra Life, a children's charity. We joined Extra Life in the fall of 2017 and raised $100 in donations. This year we hope to raise even more!
What's Next for Stay-At-Home Gamers?
We can't wait to see what this next year brings. We will continue to create a variety of content including game play videos, game reviews, tips for gaming as a family, and more.
We're also looking forward to taking Stay-At-Home Gamers on the road… to several gaming conventions! In June, we're headed to Origins Game Fair and have a few others we're considering throughout the year. It'll be a fantastic way to make connections with other gamers as well as learn about new games. If you are planning to attend any game conventions in the Midwest this year – let us know! We'd love to meet you!
Working on Stay-At-Home Gamers as a family is truly incredible. We have a few other projects we are working on bringing to life this year and we can't wait to share those with you too.
