She built the party game she wanted to play

A product idea 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.

Speaking to HIKOMORE 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.

The next challenge is finding an audience

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.