Introducing Clues in Twos… our brand new word game inspired by a posh crab!
Clues in Twos | Gamely
Clues in Twos is the speedy party game of quirky clues where you can really let your imagination run wild… two words at a time!
In the game everybody has 90 seconds to write up to 10 TWO-WORD clues to describe 10 things. Then swap your clues with another player and guess what they are trying to describe. You both win points for correct guesses.
If you like word games and/or Six Second Scribbles the chances are you’re going to love this one!
Inspired by a posh crab?!
Our inspiration for this game came when our friend Elliot perfectly described a lobster as a posh crab. Amazingly that happened about 10 years ago! And ever since then, every time I’ve seen a lobster I’ve seen a posh crab!
We’ve been trying to figure out how to make a game using his two word genius and Clues in Twos is it! Elliott set an epic benchmark for the perfect clue and showed us that less is always more!
Tuxedo waddler!? Delorean joyride!? Festive banger!?
Easy to learn & quick to play, Clues in Twos will have you pondering what Sky Fluff, Screamy Loopys & Angelic Strings are in no time!
We really hope you love it!
You can buy a copy of Clues in Twos on our website here or on Amazon UK right here!
15,000 games to good causes… and counting!
We hit an epic milestone worthy of a blog post!
Since I founded Gamely back in 2015 I knew I wanted it to be a force for good.
From the very beginning we’ve been giving away 10% of profits to charity.
And very early on, we realised giving our games away to charity is another way we can help people.
In the beginning, this was often done in person in and around Brighton, but as we have grown so have the logistics around our giving!
We’re committed to giving away over 2000 games a year to charities and good causes across the UK, and to date have given away over 15,000 games!
This year we’ve gifted games to some fabulous charities including Age UK, KidsOut, Centrepoint, Pelican Parcels & The Rainbow Trust.
Know somewhere that could benefit from our games?
We tend to donate our games in large batches, but we still hold back some games back for smaller donations. If you happen to know of somewhere you think would benefit from receiving our games please send them to this page on our website, where they can fill out a form to apply for some.
Introducing Bang! Out Of Order… a quiz game where you don’t need to know the answers!
Our first new game of 2024 has landed, whoop whoop!
Bang! Out Of Order is a quiz game with a twist - in the game you don’t need to know the answers… your team just needs to put them in the right order!
It’s easy to begin with but as the number chain starts to build so does the tension and the chances of something being in the wrong place.
We developed the game with the help of our son Charlie (8) who loves the drama as the number chain builds and builds. All the content in the game is family friendly and we’ve designed it to be a challenge for both kids and adults.
Are there more taxis in New York City or poplar bears in the Arctic?
In Bang! Out of Order Teams take turns placing cards on a scale from zero to infinity.
You don’t need to know the answers - just figure out where each one should go.
Each turn, your team can choose to either add a new card to the chain, or call it out if you think the number chain has all gone wrong!
When you think the order doesn’t quite stack up, slam your fist down on the table and shout Bang! Out Of Order! Reveal the answers… but if you're wrong the other team win all the points!
Crammed full of weird and wonderful facts!
Bang! Out of Order is full of fun & fascinating facts that you never knew you needed to know. It’s easy at the start, but as the facts stack up so does the tension!
It is the perfect family party game for anyone aged 8+ and it works both in large groups and also as a two player party game… a rare and beautiful thing!
Available now!
We hope you enjoy Bang! Out of Order just as much as we do.
You can buy it on our website here or on Amazon UK right here!
Lockdown diaries: Our favourite party games to play on Zoom
By Chris Reynolds
One of the small joys to come out of the coronavirus pandemic has been using Zoom to connect with our friends and family dotted across the UK and wider world. Over the last few weeks we’ve tried out quite a few games to see if they work well on Zoom and thought we’d spend a moment to share the games we’ve been loving. In each instance, just one ‘zoomer’ has to own the game in question. I imagine the games would also work on any other video chat - including Skype, Facetime and Houseparty.
1. Wavelength
Age: 14+ | Players: 2-8 | Time: 30 mins
Wavelength is our favourite party game at the moment - we love it. It is played in two teams and has worked really well over Zoom (so far we’ve played it with groups of six and four). In the game two teams compete to read each other’s minds - but as you soon find out it’s not about telepathy at all - it’s about empathy, understanding and knowing your teammates. You don’t need to tweak the rules to play over Zoom but whoever has the game in their possession will have to lead the way.
2. Soundiculous
Age: 8+ | Players: 3-10 | Time: 15 mins
Despite creating Soundiculous several years ago we still love playing it, and have found it works really well on video chat. The game is super simple - the aim is to get the most points by making and guessing ridiculous sounds. Sounds range from nice and easy (monkey, train, eating) through medium (didgeridoo, roller coaster, electric shock) to the truly challenging hard (wrestling, scuba diving, woodpecker!). When playing over video chat you don’t have to change the rules, but just need players to close their eyes for a moment whilst the noise card is revealed via the webcam to the noise maker. Whoever has the game has to take the lead and keep score but they can still play.
3. Just One
Age: 8+ | Players: 3-10 | Time: 20 mins
Just One is a brilliant word game and works really well over Zoom. It is a collaborative word guessing game. In the game all players except the guesser know a word. Players have to communicate the mystery word to the guesser using a one word clue. The challenge is that the one word clues have to be unique - all duplicates are taken out of the game without the guesser seeing them. This one doesn’t require any rule changes - you all just need some pen and paper handy. Our highest score to date is eight - I dream of a perfect 13!
4. Shot in the Dark
Age: 12+ | Players: 2+ | Time: 20 mins
Shot in the Dark is a brilliant trivia game. The questions are what makes it so good - they are all questions where it is unlikely anyone will know the actual answer, but everyone can have an educated guess and the closest answer wins. There are a few hundred questions in the game so it will last a good while and it plays really well in groups from 2 to 8 players. The player with the game can still play along.
5. Frozen Unicorns
Age: 6+ | Players: 3+ | Time: 20 mins
Frozen Unicorns is one of the games we launched last year and it plays really well over Zoom - especially with younger players. In the game players have to make human statues, with everyone except the guesser freezing to mimic things like frozen pirates, a frozen octopus or a frozen ballerina. The guesser then has to work out what everyone is. Like all of our games it is simple to pick up and will get you laughing every time.
If you try out any of these games over Zoom, we’d love to know how you get on! Let us know - or share your own top tips - in the comments below.
More Spreading Happiness News: Gamely Donates to Justlife
Fresh from our donation to The Carer’s Centre for Brighton and Hove, we’re delighted to tell you that last we donated £1000 to Justlife, a wonderful charity working with the ‘hidden homeless’ in Brighton and Manchester. We also sent the team a box of brownies as a little encouragement and small way of saying thank you for all the hard work they do.
If you’ve been following us for much time, you’ll already know that we give away 10% of our profits to charity, which this donation comes out of. But what you might not know is that as part of our desire to be the best employers out there, we give each member of the team the chance to pick where a portion of that money goes. Justlife was Dave’s pick, and here’s what he had to say:
“Justlife are an amazing charity. They are helping really vulnerable people who are often ignored by the system. There are literally hundreds of thousands of people in the UK living in inadequate ‘temporary’ accommodation, who are desperately in need of support. Brighton is a great place to live, but this sort of homelessness is a real issue here, and as I’ve got to know the work of Justlife in the last few years I’ve seen that they are doing their work in an amazingly kind, loving and empowering way. Huge thanks to them, and huge thanks to Gamely for letting me choose where to donate this money!.”
We also asked Simon Gale, Operations Manager for Justlife in Brighton, to tell us a bit more about Justlife, where the donation will be used, and why their work is important:
“We are so grateful for Gamely’s donation. We work with hidden homeless people in Brighton and Manchester - people who often have no support and are placed in temporary accommodation that is unsuitable and leads to poor physical and mental health. Our work provides people a voice and helps them move away from homelessness, into stable accommodation and all round good health. The donation will enable us to support people over this Christmas period, which can often be isolating and hard time for people experiencing homelessness.”
We’re so glad to have been able to donate to the amazing charities that we have, but the only reason we can do that is because of everyone who buys our games - that’s you! A small portion of every sale goes to these good causes, so as much as we hope you’ve had loads of fun playing the game, we hope that this little bit of extra good helps you feel even better about buying Gamely. Thank you to all of you, and happy Christmas!
What happens when you turn down investment on Dragon's Den?
I can’t quite believe that almost a whole year has passed since I appeared on Dragon’s Den! It feels like just yesterday that I was sat nervously on the sofa with Chris, laughing again at Deborah Meaden’s amazing Randomise acting skills and watching through my fingers as the version of me on screen tried to negotiate a business deal with Jenny...
As you may remember, I turned down Jenny’s offer in the end (it just didn’t suit the way we want to do business) and as I left the den, Peter Jones exclaimed ‘She’ll live to regret that!’. One year on, I’m delighted to say that this prediction has proved to be totally inaccurate! 2019 has proved to be a year of doing good, having fun and selling plenty of games! With our Christmas Special due for a re-run this Sunday (BBC2 8pm) I thought I’d give a little update on what happened next and share some lessons from my experience.
Now, firstly I will say that expanding internationally has been a challenge, and we are now looking at collaborating with other games companies who may be able to help us reach worldwide audiences. But, our success in the UK has been even better than we hoped. At the time of writing, we have sold more than 100,000 games and we have just won the Amazon Small Business of the Year award. Every week, we hear new stories of how our games have helped people connect and laugh together and we couldn’t be happier about the way we are doing business.
We are a unique business, and as the year has passed we’ve realised more and more that not having any external investors really allows us to be ourselves. For us, business is not just about profit - it’s about doing good, making the world a better place and having fun while we’re doing it. As well as releasing two brand new games - Jibbergiggle and Frozen Unicorns - and adding Dave to our dream team, this year we’ve donated thousands of pounds to charity, given away hundreds of games to good causes and have sought to look after our team well in all sorts of ways. While we believe that these things are ultimately good for business, and very compatible with having a profitable business, we don’t have to prove the ‘cause and effect’ to anyone. And this freedom really allows us to take risks, give generously and act from the heart.
So, in summary, can investors be helpful to a small and growing company? Of course they can. But, there are plenty of other places to get input, advice and support. And for us, the freedom and flexibility that comes from being independent of investors brings huge benefits. While investment can be helpful, I’d encourage any young company to think twice, and consider where they can find other sources of finance, knowledge and support to make the business that they want - and not the business that an investor may be imagining.
I feel confident that Gamely is a significantly better, healthier and happier business for following its own path over the last 12 months and I’m pleased to report that, despite Peter’s predictions, I’m yet to feel even a hint of regret.
P.s. We wouldn’t be able to do any of this without the amazing support of our families, friends, mentors (including the brilliant people we met at Kings 20) and partners. And of course, every single one of you who has ever bought, played or talked about any of our games. We feel incredibly lucky to be able to be doing what we do and we are thinking up even more ways to share the love and do even more good things for our customers, our team and the wider world in 2020.
Putting Smiles On Faces - Gamely Donate to Carer's Centre
Young Carer’s drop-in activities in full swing
At Gamely we like to do good things - good things for our customers, good things for our team and good things for the wider world. Today, we’re donating £1200 to the Carer’s Centre for Brighton and Hove.
You may or may not know that at Gamely we give 10% of our profits (or 1% of turnover - whichever is bigger) to good causes and the Carer’s Centre is a wonderful local charity doing amazing work, well deserving of this donation.
Hazel and Dave recently visited their Young Carer’s Drop-in service, where they met some of the incredible young carers the charity works with. As well as having lots of fun playing our games with them, they both went away really impacted by the challenges these young people face, and the incredible strength and resilience that they show through it all. They really are amazing!
The money that we are donating will go towards paying for a special Christmas activity for these young carers, with more left over for other work that will help support future work of the Carer’s Centre. Tom Lambert, CEO of the Carer’s Centre had this to say: ‘The generosity of Gamely is a recognition of the amazing work Young Carers do in supporting ill or disabled family members every day across Brighton & Hove. The Carers Centre will use this amazing donation to provide peer support activities for isolated Young Carers over the festive period and into 2020’.
We’re also donating 40 games to be used as Christmas gifts for each young person attending their drop-in, as part of our initiative to get free games to children most in need of a smile.
Carer’s Centre trip to the beach
We also want to say a massive THANK YOU to all of you who have bought our games - this is your donation as much as ours and is only possible because of your support. This is just the first donation we are making this Christmas, so do stay tuned here for more good news coming soon.
Amazing People, Inspiring Journeys: Lessons from giving away £1500 in a day
By Dave Perrins
Two weeks ago, on the 1st April, we ran our marathon giving day, sponsoring 150 people £10 each for their marathon efforts towards good causes they care about. We did the same last year, but I wasn’t at the company then, and I’ve got to say that I found it an unexpectedly inspiring, encouraging, sobering and moving experience. Now that the dust settled on all the giving and emotion (!) I wanted to share some of the incredible stories I heard, and how it impacted me.
