One in a Million: Gamely Games founder Hazel Reynolds discusses selling her millionth game

Hazel, let me start by saying congratulations… You’ve just sold your millionth game! I love that we’re able to talk about that. How do you feel?!
Just amazing! One million games… I feel like Dr. Evil every time I say it!

Ha! Can you believe it? Does that feel real?
No, not at all. When I set up this company, I never dreamed this is where it would get to. The long-term goal was just to be able to earn a full-time salary while working part-time hours. The fact that it’s grown to where it is now is unbelievable. To think we’ve got a million games out there that bring people together… We’ve recently had some people saying that they’re going to be playing this game or that game on Christmas Day – they just mentioned it in passing… And I felt that was the ultimate compliment.

That’s lovely. I often recommend Six Second Scribbles… It’s so good; such a crowd pleaser.
You can’t really go wrong with it! We just launched a Christmas edition of that. I resisted doing it for a while because I didn’t know if we’d be able to come up with 550 Christmas-related things that you could draw. But we got pretty creative with the categories… One of my favourites is TV shows with Christmas specials – because, as you know, you don’t need to be good at drawing to play it. You need to be good at understanding the world; seeing a concept in just a few lines.

Yes, it’s a drawing game for people that don’t like drawing games! Now, just for context, how long have you been selling games?
We celebrated our ninth birthday in September so – yes: we have our ten-year anniversary next year. And sometimes it feels like we’ve been doing it for that long… But at other times it feels like we’re just beginning. And actually, my husband and I were having a conversation like this the other day. We look at it a little differently. The analogy is that he’s James Blunt – and I’m Ed Sheeran.

Ha! How so?
Chris always wonders if we’ll ever make another game that’s as good as the last one! So when we first did Randomise, he wondered if we’d ever make another game at all… Are we a one-hit wonder? Then we did Soundiculous. When that became our best seller, he thought we’d never make another game as good as that. Then there was Six Second Scribbles – same thing: “We’ll never make anything this good again.” And apparently that’s how James Blunt feels about his music.

Ah! I see! But you’re Ed Sheeran?
Yes! Ha! I feel very differently… I always think our best games are ahead of us. And apparently that’s what Ed Sheeran feels about his music! So I always look at our games and I feel that they’re good, but that – somehow – our best ideas are ahead of us… They’re in the future.

What a fascinating dichotomy! I like that those attitudes complement each other, though…
It works for us! My husband also calls me a relentless optimist – which isn’t to say we’ll never make a bad game. I love the stuff we make, but not everything we make will be quite right for everyone, obviously. I’m happy with that. If we put out four games, we might have a couple that end up just being quite neat – and maybe only one of them really flies. That’s fine. But yes, my feeling is that our biggest hits are yet to come.

I love that! And what a terrific thing to be called: an endless optimist. You know what? I’m going to steal one of Billy’s questions here… What do you think is your most underrated game?
Oh! Good question…

Yes – you can tell it’s one of Billy’s…
Ha! It’s a really good question… Most underrated game. Hmmm.

The question quality really shot up there.

Gosh, this is a long pause! This is like a lorry driver’s tea break…
Yes, sorry! I’m just going through them in my head. Underrated game… I suppose I find that question difficult because we put each game out and hope it finds its people. Some find bigger audiences; some find smaller audiences. But I don’t think we have any really underrated games. Certainly in literal terms, they’ve all ended up really well rated on amazon. I guess you’re now going to ask which one I think should get a bigger audience?!

Not if it prolongs your suffering, Hazel!
Ha! We do have one that’s not so gamified called A Little More Conversation. That’s a box full of different layers of questions. There’re five categories and you can go deeper and deeper with the questions – as deep as you want… You can share as much or as little as you like…

From the reviews we get, I think the adults, teenagers and children that play A Little More Conversation really end up feeling closer. We love intergenerational games, and a lot of our games try and have that. But the way A Little More Conversation connects people is different from any of our other games. And to your question: that’s not one of our best-selling games, but it’s one that can have a big impact on people’s lives when they play it.

I like that you gave that so much thought – thank you. Tell me this: how has selling games changed in the last nine years?
That’s another good question!

It’s another one of Billy’s…
Ha! In some ways it’s changed a lot – in some ways not at all. At the end of the day, what we’re doing is making fun games, printing them and putting them up for sale and hoping people buy them…

Well, you’re making – ha! – you’re making it sound a tad easier than it is!
Ha! Well… I think of it as creating something really cool, then putting it where people are looking for games and just hoping they buy it. So in that respect, it hasn’t really changed. We started off just on amazon, so going through retail was a big change for us. Selling internationally was big for us… And our playtesting tribe has grown, as you know – that’s always been a huge part of our game making.

And you did a piece on playtesting for us a while ago… I’ll link to that here. And I know you have lots more to say on the subject, so we’ll soon publish a new conversation on that too because I think everyone can learn something from your playtesting experiences…
One area in which the landscape has changed is in the run up to Christmas over the last nine years. People waiting for Black Friday has dramatically changed the graphs… It used to be that you had around eight weeks of Christmas shopping – from the 1st of November until late in December to do all your big sales. But now it feels like that selling period is very much squeezed…

People wait for Black Friday to start Christmas shopping, then – all of a sudden – you get this huge peak – And now Black Friday is ten days long! So after that, we normally see sales drop a bit before they pick up again. The run up to Christmas is still huge but it’s much shorter than it used to be. And – to be clear – I’m not against it! It’s just a change to which we had to adapt.

Interesting. Something I’m curious to ask is where your ideas come from, Hazel… What keeps you creative?
Hmmm! That’s another great question!

Let me just check something… Yeah, that’s one of Billy’s. He’s unstoppable!
I think the joy of making cool stuff! And specifically, I really do love making stuff that makes other people happy – I’ve come to realise it does need to have that second component… If I’m making stuff just for me, it don’t feel as exciting. I like knowing something will go into the world and make other people happy. I find that very motivating. I also enjoy the different types of creativity that need to work together to create a game…

What do you see as being the different types?
The way I see it, one is the mechanical side of things – the logic. I love working out how things are going to work. How many cards are we going to need? How many questions? How many categories? I really do enjoy the bits of logic and the algorithms behind everything. Another aspect of creativity I like – and these things do overlap – is working out the dynamics of the interactions between people. How do you create great moments between different people? And then there’s the classic creativity of the theme and the storytelling.

Interesting… I’m just going to summarise those three areas of creativity: I heard the words mechanics, dynamics and theming – or storytelling…
Yes – and that’s not to say that list is exhaustive. They’re the things I know I enjoy. Also, we haven’t done loads of games that lean into storytelling, but I feel there’s a lot of opportunity there. In any case, that combination really appeals to me. I also love how open it all feels. You could make a game about any topic that uses any mechanics, and any dynamics – there’re so many different things you can do; your brain can really play…

I was thinking about this when I was in Essen this year. You could look at Essen and think it’s overwhelming, or you could look at it and just think how cool it all is, and appreciate that many of these ideas didn’t exist last year… People’s brains are amazing! In terms of how else I stay creative, I did write – as you know – an article on that for Mojo…

Yes, and we can link to that here. But you’re a great fan of input and output…
Oh, yes – I have to make sure I have the headspace for it. I like to spend lots of time with interesting stuff; I like to put loads of cool stuff in my brain – but then give it time and space and long walks to let it all join together. You need both those things. You’ve got to squeeze all the good stuff in, let it stew – and then all that stuff coming together is the creative part.

Great answer!
Thank you. It’s one of Billy’s…

Ha! Well… Ha! I was about to say: you always seem so joyful – I think that’s an important part of your tapestry too. Great stuff. Tell me: what’s new for 2025?
Well, we we’ve got four brand-new games in the pipeline for 2025 – including something totally different from anything we’ve done before. We’re launching with a couple of Big new retail partners, and we are finalising some new international licensing deals. But also, part of the excitement of next year will be seeing some of this years launch is really fly!

Yes – you have what I might call – for want of a better name – a bit of a sleeper strategy… Tell me about that.
We don’t usually do a lot to launch products in the first year so it’s all a bit low key… We just put them on amazon, offer them to retailers and send out some copies to people that we think would enjoy them! But we get a really good idea in the run up to Christmas on a game’s initial popularity. It’s really in year two that we see them thrive. For example, with Six Second Scribble, we launched in August or September and did 6,000 copies on amazon UK in that first year.

6,000… From around August or September through to December?
Yes, roughly. And it was easy to sell – easy to advertise; good conversion rate, all that… But in the second year, it jumped to 40,000 copies for the year. So we see the launch of our games as part of a test-and-learn phase. Another example: we put out four games this year: we’re doing the test-and-learn phase right now. They’re all being well received, but Clues in Twos is getting the most exciting feedback; it’s proving really popular and is very easy to sell!

And Clues in Twos is like Six Second Scribbles – but with words?
Yes – we say it’s the most fun you can have with two words! Everyone has 90 seconds to write up to ten two-word clues that describe ten different things on their card. Then you swap clues with another person and see if you can guess what they’re describing… So the ideal clue is one that has two very useful words! It came about after a friend of ours, Paul, was playing Articulate with us about ten years ago. He described a lobster as a “posh crab”…

Ha! That’s brilliant!
Isn’t it?! It was just the most perfect clue. Paul set the bar high with that! It’s taken ten years for us to work out the best way to encapsulate that idea. Anyway, Clues in Twos is going really well – we just put in an order for 20,000 of those to arrive in February – we think that’s going to be really big for us next year. You’ve played it, haven’t you? You took a look at the rules for us?

I did! And I loved it. In fact, now that you’ve called it to mind, that’s a great shout for the Christmas table this year! Alright, one final thought – just because you’re too modest to bring this up yourself… You’re very generous when you have a hit, are you not? You’re very charitable; you give a lot back?
Well… Yes. We’ve been giving away 10% of our profit to charities since we began – this year, the running total hit £145,000. As well as having some charities that we’ve supported over many years – like Play Action International, who build playgrounds in Africa – we also let our team choose the charities to support. The way it works is that – if you worked for us, Deej – you’d get to choose, on your birthday, a charity to receive £1,000.

Any charity I liked?
Yes – it depends on what charities are closest to you, but it just means there’s a personal connection for you. For instance, our Edinburgh-based marketing manager has been donating his to Trees for Life in an effort to reforest Scotland. I like to support Give directly. And my husband often chooses a charity in Brighton, The Carers Centre… That supports young people that are responsible for poorly siblings or unwell parents. That’s an amazing charity. I do little art classes for them as well! We also love giving our games away to good causes – we’ve donated more than 20,000 Games to date.

Amazing! And what a lovely way to do that; I love that your team gets to pick. Brilliant. Well, Hazel, let me wrap up by saying: every time we have a conversation, it’s a joy: interview or no interview – it’s just a joy to chat…
Awww, thank you Deej!

Not at all. You’re a hugely positive, upbeat and fascinating person. Thank you so much for your time – and congratulations again on one million games. You can say it in the voice of Dr. Evil now…
One milllllion games!

Course, that won’t mean a thing if people haven’t seen the movie! Ha! Thanks, Hazel.

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