From Humongous to NPC Guild: My Journey with Backyard Sports

About 26 years ago, I walked through the doors of Humongous Entertainment and started my career in video games. At the time, I was one of the first few marketers working on a small-but-mighty series called Backyard Sports. It was 1999, and Humongous had already found early success with Backyard Soccer and Backyard Baseball. Right as I joined, they had just launched Backyard Football — complete with real NFL pros reimagined as kids on the playground.

It was an incredible time to be part of something special. I got to work across all three of the titles and dove into new projects like Backyard Baseball 2001 — which brought MLB teams and players into the mix — and Backyard Soccer MLS Edition, featuring Olympic stars like Tiffeny Milbrett and Cobi Jones. It was a different world back then. We sold shiny discs through brick-and-mortar retailers like CompUSA, Future Shop, Electronics Boutique. Marketing largely meant trying to find ways to break through to kids and parents wherever they were discovering new games.

But even with all the changes in technology and distribution over the years, the fundamental job hasn’t changed all that much: get the word out about great games to kids and families in ways that feel fun, authentic, and inclusive.

What always made Backyard Sports stand out was its heart. These were games where kids of every shape, size, and background came together to play just for the joy of it. There were crazy pitches, special playground rules, snarky on-field banter — but at the center of it all, it was fun and a shared community. It didn’t matter if you were the star athlete or not. On the Backyard field, everyone got a chance to play.

Back in the 90s and early 2000s — especially with kids’ products — the holy grail of marketing was playground word-of-mouth. I used to say (only half-jokingly) that if I could find the cool kids at every school — the ones other kids looked to for what was new and exciting — I’d parachute boxes of Backyard Sports into their hands. Of course, our legal team quickly pointed out that raining video games from the sky was probably a bad idea. But the concept holds up even today.

Now, we have YouTube, Twitch, and Instagram — and instead of schoolyard trendsetters, we have influencers and content creators with huge reach. The methods have changed, but the core principle remains. Find passionate players who love the game and empower them to spread the word naturally. Any game with a strong fan community is well-served by leaning into that network — and Backyard Sports is fortunate to have a loyal fan base that has stayed connected to the brand for over 20 years, even when there weren’t always new games coming out.

That’s what made the recent revival of Backyard Baseball such a full-circle moment for me. One of The NPC Guild’s first clients, Playground Productions brought the franchise back, and it was a thrill to reconnect with the brand that launched my career. Of course, there’s also the surreal moment of realizing that many of the players discovering Backyard Baseball, now on Steam, mobile, Nintendo Switch and PlayStation, are Millennials who I originally marketed to 25 years ago. Nothing ages you quite like that — but it also speaks to the lasting power of these games.

Nostalgia is a powerful entry point, but the real magic happens when you combine it with great gameplay that stands up for new players. The best outcome is when longtime fans introduce the game to a new generation — parents sharing Backyard Sports with their kids and building new memories together. At its core, that’s what these games have always been about: simple, joyful fun that brings people together.

I feel incredibly lucky to have played a small part in Backyard Sports’ history — both then and now. Seeing the brand continue to bring smiles to new players (and old ones) reminds me why I got into this industry in the first place. Some things really are timeless.