Last year during UPickVG IV, we introduced a really fun game mechanic to our game-a-thon: Mystery Games. We had no idea how well it would go over. Would people hate it? After all, the name of our fundraiser is “U-Pick…” as in, YOU pick the games we play on air. What fun is picking if you, well, don’t know what you’re picking?
LOTS. The answer is “Lots of fun. Loads. Tons. AMAZEBALLS of fun.” (Whatever an amazeball of fun is, anyway.) You guys loved them, we the players and volunteers loved them – it was like opening a fun surprise every time a Mystery Game came up. Like a mini surprise birthday party every time, complete with presents to unwrap!
So, we’re bringing them back for UPickVG 5. The Mystery Games, that is. The volunteers, too, in case you thought we meant those. But this is about Mystery Games! So in case you missed it last year, or forgot, or just aren’t clear on the deal with these things, here it is:
- You donate for the Mystery Game just like you would any other game. Just fill out the donation form and select “MYSTERY GAME!” from the “Pick a game for us to play!” drop-down menu. (It’s right at the top, you can’t miss it!)
- If the Mystery Game has enough points to end up in the Top 5 games on the Rankings, it goes onto the Wheel of Destiny.
- We spin the Wheel of Destiny once an hour, for 48 hours.
- If the Wheel lands on the Mystery Game, the Player for that hour picks a Mystery Game from the pile. They’re all wrapped up, so the Player will not know what they’re getting.*
- The Player will unwrap their selected Mystery Game, and then play it for the next hour, no matter what it is!
*Gamesmuns Chip and Grant selected the Mystery Games, and they both have Player shifts. That’s okay – they will not be allowed to pick their own Mystery Games. Another volunteer who doesn’t know the games will pick for them.
You can probably see from the picture above that some of the Mystery Games have some hints as to what game is inside. You can also probably see that those hints are insane and not actually helpful at all. Does that one on the far right just have a “2” on it? WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN, GRANT?
One last clue as to what the Mystery Games might be… here’s the video of us opening all of the un-opened Mystery Games at the end of UPickVG IV:
While that video might give you some insight into Grant and Chip’s thought process for picking Mystery Games, don’t think that any of those games will be Mystery Games again in UPickVG 5 – that was the 1 rule we gave them: “No repeats of last year’s Mystery Games.”
So go ahead and donate now for the Mystery Game, and tune in to UPickVG 5 starting Friday June 3rd at 7pm ET to see the Mystery Games unwrapped and played!