Managed Event
Managed events are offered on private bookings.
By default, you're welcome to use gaming time as you wish and organise games amongst your group by yourself.
If you would like, our staff can organise your event (either a party or tournament) which can either be a competitive event on a couple of games, or a fun day of different game challenges that are a little different to what might already be played at home
In terms of parties (either for kids birthday, corporate events, stag / hen nights or just a meetup of friends), we're happy to look at your preferences, and would typically suggest that you pick a couple of games that you wanted to include in the session. Amongst that, we would offer a mixture of good social games, which includes a quick intro / tutorial on each game, help with setting up teams and running game servers.
An example 3 hour event may consist like (typical running time will be 4 hours, allowing for lunch break and a few minutes to set up and explain each game) -
15 Minutes - Quick challenge / warmup game, such as Tricky Truck
25 Minutes - Counterstrike - Dodgeball, Pirate Wars
25 Minutes - Counterstrike Source - Arms Race or Defusal
25 Minutes - Golf with Your Friends
(Break for 20 minutes, does not count as gaming time)
20 Minutes - Armagetron
20 Minutes - Dirt 3 Cat and Mouse
20 Minutes - Hockey?
30 Minutes - Garrys Mod Prophunt,
This is a serving suggestion but we can incorporate particular games or tournaments as required. Typically for parties, we look to try and balance a few well known games alongside some titles that are perhaps lesser known, but will suit to a wider range of players. Of course, if it's requested to put an amount of time to a particular game that's popular with attendees (say Fortnite or Overwatch for example, or to incorporate a fighting game tournament) we're able to create a schedule to suit.
At the bottom of this page we have detailed some good party games with a description and suggested time which may help you in picking choices for an event.
Info on Private Bookings (copied from the pricing page)
This is possible on selected weekday evenings and on Sundays - check the calendar for availability and use the GamingGrid contact form to request setting up an event.
Pricing structure for out of hours / private events is based on booking the room rather than per person, this is offered at two rates - self-serving or a party event. Both of these provide access to all 10 PC spaces.
Self-serve event is basically for a group to have exclusive use of the room for an evening or Sunday, and suits players that want to play a couple of specific games and are happy to organise joining online servers and looking after their group themselves.
A managed / party event is where our staff organise custom games and provide a structure for the day with introductions and explanations to each game, and are on-hand to provide as on-going support to all participants. This is recommended for birthday parties, and an ideal event would be 3 or 4 hours length. The time charged is based on gaming time, and we allow extra time for arrivals and lunch. Typically to allow for arrivals, setup and lunch, we would expect 3 hours of gaming time to last 4 hours, but the cost would still be 3 x £40 (£120) for this.
| Self-Serve Event | £27.50 per hour |
| Managed Event / Party | £40.00 per hour |
At present we don't offer catering, but you're welcome to bring your own party food + drinks, we'll set out a table for this. Note that as per our terms of use, food and drink cannot be consumed at the PC spaces, but we have separate seating and table areas suited to this. A 20-30 minute break during an event is encouraged anyway for comfort, and this does not deplete your gaming account time.
Party Games
Here are some potential party games with description and suggested time. We have many other popular games installed, you can see the fill list on our 'Games Installed' page, but the below are just some of our top picks for being suited to party events.
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Counterstrike Source (25 minutes) Dodgeball and Pirate Wars Modifications - we begin with a warmup round of everyone within a small pen and the occasional dodgeball hurtling through the air. Don't be complacent though, the firing rate quickly increases and it's difficult to be the last standing. |
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Garrys Mod Prop Hunt (25-40 minutes) Players are split to props on one side of the room and hunters on the other. Props have 30 seconds to clone an object and move to a position that blends with the scenery. Hunters are then released and have to shoot the items they think are hiding props, but they can only shoot so many times before their health runs out. Props can still move which can result in entertaining chase scenes of filing cabinets running away from being shot. |
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Dirt 3 Cat and Mouse (25-40 minutes) Players are in two teams, and will choose their preferred rally car. However, on the loading screen, one player on each time will be given a slower car (1960s Mini). Each team then has the objective to get their mini across the finish line first, either by using their faster cars to protect their Mini, or pushing the other team off the road. Winning team has their Mini cross the line first. 5 stages should take around 25 minutes and that should give everyone a turn at being the Mini. |
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GoldenEye Source (40 Minutes) Remake of an old N64 classic, we would run two game modes in this James Bond shooter game - Arsenal is a weapon ranking scenario (like Gun Game or Arms Race in other games) - it's a deathmatch where players rank up one weapon for every 2 kills. The winner completes the round by killing with the top ranked weapon. Living Daylights is a 'hold the flag' mode - guns are available, and the map has 2 or 3 flags. The goal is to pick up a flag and keep it for as long as possible - however, when carrying a flag, other players can see where you are, and your only defence is hitting them with the flag, so surviving for a while carrying the flag is difficult. |
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Armagetron (20-40 minutes) Battles on a grid of light cycles - there's a few games we can run on this, typically we would offer options of running 'Fortress' (shown in the video, albeit at a LAN Party at our old shop) - a base defence game where you have to trap enemy cycles to crash into your tail to stop them taking over your base circle. We can also a run a capture the flag game mode where players have to work together to protect the home team flag and steal / return the enemy flag back to base. Lastly we can also introduce a shooting mode where the cycles fire bullets - so you have to avoid the tails of other cycles and bullets flying everywhere, last cycle standing wins! |
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Golf with your Friends (25-30 Minutes) 18 holes of crazy golf - there's a variety of courses to suit all skill levels, typically at a party we'll use Forest as it's a good introduction to those not familiar with the game. All 10 players are on at the same time with a 2 minute time limit per hole so it's important to be quick but not waste strokes. |
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Hockey? (20 minutes) Ice hockey game with players split to two teams and aiming to get the puck into the opposing goal. Easier than it sounds, the control system is fairly intuitive but challenging to master - control the stick with your mouse and skate with the WASD keys. Logically, a game of hockey should have a structure of defence and attack, but inevitably in this game it's just 10 people all chasing the puck and shouting a lot, but it's a good bit of variety from shooting games. |
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The Hidden Source (30-40 minutes) The 'Hidden' is an escaped experiment - a creature near to invisible, and armed with a knife and fast movement. One player will be selected as 'Hidden' and the other players are all tasked with finding (!) and shooting the Hidden. Hidden is able to be seen slightly when moving, creating a shimmering effect, and must attack by stealth to eliminate all his persuers. If a player kills the Hidden, they will become the Hidden character in the next round. |
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Sourceforts (35-40 minutes) The two teams are separated by a shield in the map for the first phase, and they use this time to place walls to protect their base. You need a way back out your base (such as building a ramp over a wall) and also a way back in (ideally restrictive through one point to stop the enemy getting in). Players must work together to drag blockades into place. At the end of the build phase, the central shield drops and this becomes a game of capture the flag, so you have to find weaknesses in the enemy base design to steal their flag and get back to your base without being shot. Following 10 minutes of play, the game returns to a rebuild phase for 5 minutes where you can make improvements and repairs to your base, and then one more remaining attack round. |