Abby Aldridge of Grilling Games: the party game she wanted to play

Building a party game app from a night with friends

Abby Aldridge did not begin with an abstract search for a startup idea. She was playing games with friends and felt the options were boring, awkward or locked behind a paywall. As a software engineer, she decided to make something she would enjoy using herself.

At Corgi Cafe in Shoreditch, Abby describes Grilling as a mobile party game for friends. It began with one concept, then grew into five game modes as she developed it.

One engineer, more than a year of building

In the full interview, Abby identifies being the only engineer as her biggest development challenge. Building the game took over a year. She also says that improvements in AI helped make development quicker, without specifying particular tools or a measured time saving.

That is a useful founder perspective: a familiar problem can provide the starting point, but turning it into a usable product still takes sustained work. The idea and the ability to build it are only part of the story.

What comes after building a founder’s first product?

Abby says marketing is now the difficult part. Engineering is her strength; getting the product in front of people calls for a different set of skills.

The Grilling website currently presents the app as free on iPhone and Android, with all five game modes free. They range from guessing a secret position on a scale to catching a bluffing player and recreating drawings from memory. Those are the company’s descriptions, rather than an independent review of the app.

Read how the Rootsy founders turned a café favourite into a drinks business, another product shaped by direct experience.