GUIDED GAME NIGHTS IN HOUSTON.
the easiest way to meet people in houston is to sit down and play something.
put strangers at a table with nothing to do and you get weather, jobs, and someone checking their phone. give them something to build together and they forget to keep score of the conversation.
an hour in, people are talking about their divorce, or the thing they nearly did instead of their current career.
as good as the
games themselves
game nights
what's coming up
come once, or make it your season.
one night
spend a night feeling a little more human.
pick a date, turn up curious, meet a table. we handle the seating, the host and the game. you tell some stories and go home knowing people.
having trouble loading? open the calendar.
a season
spend a season finding your people.
the same room, every wednesday at spaghetti western. by week three you have stopped being the new person. commit to showing up and being real, and we will handle all the rest.
works out under $13 a night, less per gathering than an early bird ticket.
get the season pass
if you just read “game night” and reached for the back button, stay with me.
the game is merely how you get in the door.
there's proper research under this. arthur aron found that people who do novel things together report feeling closer afterwards.
sabine sonnentag found that small, contained experiences of getting good at something are genuinely restorative. you already knew both of those.
it's why you'd rather be handed a task at a party than told to mingle.
nothing about it is left to you.
HOW THE NIGHT RUNS
FIRST 10 MINUTES
a host meets you at the door with a name tag. the tags do most of the heavy lifting, because they show you who you can talk to and what you can talk about. the first half hour is a mingle hour with a few social games running, so nobody stands at the edge of a room working out who looks approachable.
you're greeted by name
MINUTE 15
your seat comes from your connection profile, so nothing about your table is random. you light a candle, and a spark card opens the table with a question actually worth answering.
we set the tables
MINUTE 30
about five minutes, and then you start meeting people sideways, through how they play, think and strategize. it gets you somewhere real faster than another round of icebreakers.
the game gets taught
AROUND 2 HOURS
the candles come down and most people are still talking. you leave knowing actual things about actual people.
you leave knowing people
the part we can’t write ourselves.
WHAT OUR GUESTS SAY
“honestly, one of the best organized events I have been to”
@THESPICYVENTURES
“the intimacy, intentionality and care that went into the experience made it more than just a game night”
@MYTRIBEACADEMY
“made it so worth leaving the house on a Monday”
@THEJOYCEOFLIFE
80%
return for connection over games
96%
felt comfortable opening up
9.4/10
average guest score
about ten minutes, once. it decides who you sit with, and after that your seat is worked out for every gathering you come to. there's a three minute version at the door if you turn up without one.
TAKE THE CONNECTION QUIZ
you don't have to book anything to take it. plenty of people do it first, to see who they'd be sat with, and pick a night from there.
MORE THAN A THOUSAND PEOPLE ALREADY HAVE
HOW WE’RE DIFFERENT
what you're really choosing between.
free game nights
a room with a game in it. everyone self-sorts by which game they already know, the regulars already know each other, and nobody hosts the conversation.
top golf, bowling, pickleball
they want your thursday and they hand you back a score card. connection might turn up on its own, eventually, if you go enough times.
everyone on the same game, chosen by us. seated on purpose. a real person hosting from the moment you walk in. you leave knowing people.
WHY I BUILT THIS
the truest things come from a lifetime of little bits of ourselves.
In the space of two months my relationship ended, the house took serious hurricane damage, and i finally admitted i couldn't do the corporate career for the rest of my life. what i wanted was meaning, beauty, something i built with my hands, and new people in my orbit.
then i sat alone on a mountain in king's canyon and the whole thing arrived at once. a third space. a wine bar. a game. a way to make meeting strangers feel safe enough that people actually talk, and leave a little less alone.
ligare is that, built out. it's been running long enough now that i know it works.
BRENEN, FOUNDER.
BEFORE YOU BOOK
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wednesdays at spaghetti western are $15 early bird, $25 standard. sunday gatherings at drop of the creator are priced separately and the figure is on the booking page. your ticket covers the seat, the matching, a personalised program and the game taught live at your table. food and drink you order from the venue.
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yes. the ligare wednesdays pass is $149 for the full twelve week season at spaghetti western, august through november. that works out under $13 a night, so it costs less per gathering than the early bird ticket does. there's also the builder's circle at $99 a month or $999 a year, which includes admission to everything we run.
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around two hours from the door opening. most people stay a while after.
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either. most people come alone and the seating is built for exactly that, so you won't be left standing anywhere. if you'd rather bring a friend, the app lets you invite them and we'll sit you together.
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no, it's built for making friends. one guest is now dating someone we sat her with, which was a first for us. what we hear far more often is that it's easier to be yourself here than at anything marketed as dating, which is the better outcome anyway.
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no. most guests are learning it for the first time, together, and a host teaches it in about five minutes.
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the whole system exists to seat you with people you'll connect with, and guests consistently tell us it works. we have not yet seen a table where it didn't. come open to people and they'll be open to you.
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tickets are refundable up until the day before the gathering. that's when we start building the tables, so after that we can't refund.
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whatever you'd wear to a wine bar. no dress code.
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yes, day-of registrations are welcome. you'll just miss some of the personalisation, because the matching happens before the night.
everything a first-timer asks.
if you've been meaning to change how
you meet new people: this is the change.