Squockey
As the name suggests (...or not), this is a combination of squash and hockey. Now, I've never played either, so I would have no idea, but we'll say it's a combination of what squash and hockey look like on TV. It involves a light, bouncy ball (I found a tennis-ball-sized sponge-like ball was most effective) being violently hit against a wall (the more walls you can use the better) with a racket (badminton rackets are good, or anything with a large surface area and long handle). The ball must be kept low to the ground in order to allow "ockey" partial rights to the game's name. It can be played with any number of players, with specific rules optional.
Mosquito Tag
My sister helped invent this one. The principles are exactly like normal tag, except the person who is "it" needs to buzz loudly while holding two fingers up behind their head, representing antennae. Their tagging arm should be held straight out with fingers fashioned into a point. As with real mosquitoes, it is of course only possible to tag on exposed skin.
note: Please spare a thought of sympathy for the sister's then-boyfriend, who lay in hospital with malaria at the time of this game's conception. But don't worry; to my knowledge, he's alright now, and I'm pretty sure he didn't have the kind that keeps recurring.
Trampoline Basketball
This basically involves two or more players (as many as you can fit on a trampoline, if you like) bouncing wildly on a trampoline, tossing a basket back and forth. Filling the basket with confetti adds a fun edge to it; or use leaves if you don't want a pool of little bits of paper encircling your trampoline afterward.
Ice Cream
Similar to word-association, but more fun. The best place to play would be somewhere of a high altitude, such as a tree house, a roof, or an easily-climbable tree. The first player screams out a word as loud as humanly possible, then the second screams out the first word that comes to mind. For example, to "MILK", one could respond, "SHAKE". Beware of annoyed neighbors. Or pretty much anyone within hearing distance.
Games Invented by Other People
Monster
For this you need at least 5 players, but the more the better! One person is the "monster", he/she has one end of a skipping rope tied around their waist, and the other end tied to a lampost. Leaves are scattered around their feet. They throw a ball at the "players", who are competing against each other to collect the most leaves without being caught by the Monster, who can only catch them by hitting them with the ball. If they are hit, they must stand frozen for 30 seconds. Another person is the "timer" who times them with a stopwatch - this can get hard when more than one person is frozen at a time. Another person is the "ball-retriever", they have to (as you might have guessed) retrieve the ball, because the Monster obviously can't get it if it goes out of reach. There can be any number of Players, as long as there are more than 2, so they can compete. They need to get one leaf at a time, and put it on their pile, across the street. The first to get 10 wins. After each game, the positions are rotated, so the Monster becomes the Timer, who becomes the first Player, etc.
Fox And Rabbit
This is best played with an odd number of people over 5, although it depends on the variation being played.
This is the original version - 3 people are the "Rabbits", who have a safe "Burrow" down an alley, where the "Foxes" can't get them. There are 2 "Foxes" who must work together to capture the "Rabbits" when they emerge from their "Burrow". The "Rabbit" must be held for 5 seconds (while they can struggle and try to break free), before being taken to the "Larder", across the street. The other "Rabbits" must then try to rescue him/her by tagging them, and not being captured themselves.
There are many variations to this game, including ones where the rabbits have a certain task to complete (get the carrots, or rescue the baby rabbit), ones with more than one burrow, and others with different specific rules.
Trackie/Bike Trackie
I didn't entirely make these up myself, but adapted them from another game.
There are 2 groups of people, and an area with specific boundaries. One group are the "Runners", the other are the "Trackers". The "Runners" are given a 1 minute head-start to escape from the "Trackers", who are trying to catch them. All people must stay within the boundaries, and the people in each group must stay within 3 metres of each other. If a "Runner" is caught, they become a "Tracker", until there is only one "Runner" left. If the "Runners" are not caught within 15 minutes, all must return to "Base" and the "Runners" win. The "Runners" have to keep moving, but the "Trackers" can stop and hide, in order to ambush the "Runners".
Normal "Trackie" is on foot only, but "Bike Trackie" uses a much larger area (we used the entire village) and a longer time limit.
Food
This is the first of a series of food-related games I invented for when it was too cold/wet to play outside.
One person is sat on a chair in a kitchen, while others feed different foods to them, they then have to guess what these foods are. That's basically it, but it gets interesting when the foods are things like curry powder or garlic.
You can also play it with different people competing to recognize the most foods in a certain time limit.
Chickenball
Players: 2 and a chicken.
Each player is given a racket of some sort, ours were toy plastic rackets.
The chicken is best if it's a really loud and annoying rooster, the kind
that crows outside your bedroom window at the butt-crack of dawn
incessantly, nonstop, until your ears want to bleed, and even then he won't
stop.
So the object of the game is for you and your opponent to chase the chicken
around a specific area (in my case, our farmyard) and hit it with the
racket. Most times the racket must be hurled at the chicken to have a
prayer of coming close to it.
That's it. Beat the bejeezus out of the running chicken. Chickenball.
