- The 5-9 Formula
- Posts
- From Game Nights to Game Design: A Business Creating Games
From Game Nights to Game Design: A Business Creating Games
William shares his journey of building a business around games that create lasting memories.
In partnership with
Happy Sunday. This week, we're thrilled to chat with William, co-founder of Think Fast Games. William and his business partner, Alan, launched their company in 2024 following the success of their debut game on Kickstarter. Since then, they’ve developed and released a second game aimed at bringing families together and creating lasting memories.
In this interview, William will share insights on:
Embracing the Journey: Why enjoying the process is key to building a successful business.
Maximising Kickstarter: Tips for making the most out of a crowdfunding campaign.
Crafting a Compelling Product: The importance of giving people a reason to buy.
Now, over to William!
William from Think Fast Games
Can you tell me a little bit about yourself and your business?
My name is William Kelly, and I’m the Co-Founder & CEO of Think Fast Games. I am a lifelong entrepreneur, currently serving as the Chief Operating Officer for a post-Series A education technology company. I founded Think Fast Games with Alan Wessel, who is a chemical engineer at a Fortune 500 company. The company was formed in early 2024 after we successfully funded a Kickstarter campaign for our first game, Dot Duel, in November of 2023. We’re now onto our second game, Word Whiz. All of our games are focused on combining speed and strategy to ensure maximum engagement, while requiring mental agility. We make games that are somewhat educational for kids, while being all-out fun for the whole family.
You can read about my personal story here and you can learn more about TFG here.
What was your main inspiration for getting into this niche?
Growing up, games were more than just a pastime in my family; they were a way of life. I spent hours playing all kinds of games with family and friends. These game nights were not only a source of fun, but also an opportunity for me to develop a number of skills that have served me well in adulthood. Playing games helped me build skills in critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, mental agility, decision-making, and more.
Alan and I created Think Fast Games to add our contribution to the world of family-focused tabletop games. We set out to make games that would allow other families to share the experiences and memories that we had with ours. You can read more about my personal connection to games here.
How do you define success in your business?
For us, success stems from creating games that people enjoy and seeing our customers experience the fun of game nights with their friends and families. We make games so that our customers can make memories.
If you were to start again from scratch, what would you do differently?
As it relates to launching our first project on Kickstarter, we had no idea what we were doing. If we were to start again, we would’ve spent a lot more time researching best practices for launching on Kickstarter. In specific, we would have spent more time promoting our project before setting it live, so that we could maximise our ability to start strong and gain placement on the site. We employed this tactic for our second Kickstarter and it helped bring in more supporters in the first few hours of launch.
What advice would you give to someone just starting out with a similar gig?
Have fun! All of our best game ideas came from hanging out and having fun trying out different concepts. Before you can worry about marketing and sales, you have to make sure the product is well-developed. The only way to do that is to make sure it’s fun. On average, we spend about six months creating a new game before we finalise it and shift focus towards releasing it to the market. There’s a lot of hard work that goes into those six months of game development, but the most important part (i.e., the core idea) comes from freeform, relaxed, and fun brainstorming sessions.
Where can people find you?
Want to learn how you can use this business model to start your own business? Consider joining our paid community below.
Unlock full access to the 5-9 Premium Membership and elevate your side hustle game! Get The Debrief, our exclusive weekly email packed with insights, tips, and strategies, and connect with like-minded go-getters in our private Discord community. Dive deeper, learn more, and take your side hustle to the next level with insider discussions and expert advice. Join now and start turning your 5-9 into something successful!
📣 Something from our sponsor:
Make Extra Cash Reselling Tickets with Lysted
Looking for a new side hustle to boost your income? Don't let unused concert tickets go to waste—turn them into cash with Lysted!
Lysted's advanced pricing tools ensure you get top dollar for your tickets, making it easy to maximize your profits. With just one listing, your tickets are available on major platforms like StubHub, Ticketmaster, and Seat Geek, saving you the hassle of managing multiple listings.
Plus, Lysted offers fast payouts, getting your earnings directly into your bank account within weeks. It’s a smart and simple way to make extra cash on the side.
Stay up to date
Follow me on X/Twitter to keep up to date with the latest updates
Ever played a video game and wished you could earn money from it? That's what our next interviewee did.
Next weekend we're chatting with a teenager that turned his passion for Minecraft into a lucrative side hustle by offering a server creation service.
Dropping this Sunday!
— Ciaran (@fivenineformula)
5:42 PM • Nov 5, 2024
📨 Send this to a friend:
Referrals are so important to help this newsletter grow so please share this with your friends using the link below.
If you refer 3 people, I’ll send you this 19 page Side Hustle Starter Guide completely free! This guide is proven to help you get started with a successful business.
Creating quality content that adds value to your day takes time and effort, and I love doing it! If you enjoy my newsletter and find it helpful, consider leaving a tip to support my work. Your contribution, big or small, helps me keep this newsletter free, fresh, and full of insights just for you. Thank you for being a part of this community with me—I appreciate your support!
👇️ Now it’s your turn to answer a question:
How was this week's interview? |
If you’d like to read last week’s newsletter, an interview with Eamonn, an entrepreneur who’s successfully turned his expertise into a side hustle by offering educational content on YouTube. Check it out here.
Thank you all,
See you next week! 👋