About us & our project

We are Ruth and Andy, two lovers of games, food, drink and other enablers of good, old-fashioned socialising. We decided we wanted to open a board game cafe when we realised how much enjoyment games have brought to our lives and how much fun we've had sharing them with other people. We believe games are amazing tools for creating joyous, unforgettable experiences, and that playing together is something you can't do too much of, however old you are. In this age of ever-present screens, board games provide a reason to focus on the moment in hand and really connect with the people around you.

The board games industry is booming at the moment, with an unprecedented number of innovative new designs appearing all the time. Board game cafes provide the perfect environment for both new and experienced gamers to explore this ever-expanding world, with plenty of space to play, food and drinks served to your table, and expert advisors on hand to help you find the perfect game and remove the hard work of reading the rule book.

Board game cafes have been appearing and thriving around the UK over the past few years, but so far Sheffield has missed out on the fun. With your help, we will change all that! The Treehouse will be one of the largest of the current crop of cafes, housed in an attractive, flexible space comprised of several rooms. This great layout will allow us to offer something for everyone, from specialist nights to help advanced players find new people to play with, to events to support newcomers find their way around the huge range of games now available. We want everyone to feel welcome and have a fantastic time when they visit.

Why we need your help

We’ve been working on The Treehouse for over a year now, and by this stage we have the basic funding we need to open and a great venue near Sheffield city centre. However, with our current budget we can’t fully realise our vision for what The Treehouse could be.

The £5k we hope to raise via this campaign will let us:

• Add 100 games to our existing library of 200 to ensure we have a great selection to suit all ages, group sizes and experience levels.
• Improve our kitchen set-up so we can offer a wider menu of food. Specifically, we would love to add a range cooker to the equipment we’ve already budgeted for, which would allow us to extend our menu beyond sandwiches and salads and bake some of our own cakes.
• Install an additional three craft beer lines, taking the total to six. This would allow us to offer a rotating selection of guest beers alongside our standard house offering of a lager, a cider and a local craft-style beer.

If we don’t quite make it to our goal, all of the funds we receive will still be put to good use in improving the Treehouse - we just might have to scale back our ambitions slightly in the short term.

What’s in it for you

As well as a nice, warm, fuzzy feeling and our eternal gratitude, we’ve created some great rewards to say thank you for supporting our campaign. These include:

• Discounted membership deals, including a lifetime membership deal which is exclusive to this campaign. Membership gives you a whopping 50% off the usual £5 cover charge, which provides four hours of play time with unlimited access to our library.
• Discounted gaming sessions so you can bring your family and friends to the Treehouse without paying a cover charge.
• Tickets to the fabulous party we will be throwing to celebrate our opening (numbers limited!).
• High-quality branded tote bags so you can display your support to the world (and carry your stuff, obviously).
• For the super-keen, we are also offering a very limited number of colour pledges. If you get in there fast enough, you can reserve the right to play as your favourite colour every time you visit the café, with a certificate on the wall to prove it in case anyone challenges your claim!

Other ways you can help

We know that not everyone is able to contribute financially to something like this, however much they might want to. If you want to support us in other ways, you can help massively by telling people about our campaign, either by sharing on social media or by simple word of mouth.

Thank you all so much for your support. With you help we can make the Treehouse amazing from the day it opens. We can’t wait to see you there!

Find out more about us and follow our progress:

Website: www.treehousesheffield.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/treehousesheffield/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TreehouseBGC