What is an unexpected surprise?
That was the answer for St. Louis board game startup Wam Wam Games when it found itself featured in a question on famed game show "Jeopardy!" in May. The May 16 episode included a clue about a “recipe completion card game in which you try to build the hot dog is called ‘turn for’ this.” The answer, which none of the contestants knew, was “the wurst,” a reference to Wam Wam’s game Turn for the Wurst.
How Turn for the Wurst ended up a "Jeopardy!" answer remains unknown, though it has provided a boost for Wam Wam Games, a small independent board game company founded by brothers Phill and Jake Wamser. It has grown sales for Turn for the Wurst, the first game commercialized by the company, and comes as it readies to release its second game and eyes expanding the scope of its business, with a goal of becoming a publisher for other game designers.
And while a milestone for the business, the "Jeopardy!" appearance also came with pride for its founders, with Wam Wam CEO Jake Wamser saying the game show is “kind of sacrosanct” for their family.
Why did two brothers launch a board game company?
For Jake and Phill Wamser, the board game industry is a new venture for them, but it's a field in which they have familiarity.
“Games have always kind of been a part of our lives from a very early age,” said Jake Wamser, adding the family would play games like Checkers and Monopoly with their own alternative rules.
The love for board games has remained over the years, with Jake and Phill attending tabletop gaming convention Gen Con in 2019 in Indianapolis. It was there the brothers decided they wanted to take their own stab at creating games, initially envisioning it as a hobby that would allow them to spend time together, rather than a full-fledged business endeavor.
“We reached a point where we thought we could do this,” Jake said. “This would be a fun activity or hobby for us to do together and maybe down the line make some money off of it.”
The Wamsers incorporated Wam Wam Games as a business in 2021. As they began the process of creating games, they made a key decision early on that has defined the operations of their business. They chose to remain an independent game maker, deciding they would self-fund and self-publish their games, believing that provided the ability to keep creative control over their projects.
Wam Wam’s day to day operations are led by Jake Wamser, who has a background in business-to-business sales and promotions and continues to work as a consultant. Phill Wamser is a youth minister at Most Sacred Heart Parish in Eureka.
How 'Jeopardy!' provided a boost to Wam Wam?
The Wamsers are left guessing how Turn for the Wurst ended up as a clue on "Jeopardy!" Inquiries to the "Jeopardy!" have gone unanswered, Jake Wamser said. That hasn’t kept Wam Wam from capitalizing from its cameo on the famed game show, with sales having doubled for Turn for the Wurst since the May 16 episode.
Wam Wam received its first copies of Turn for the Wurst in October 2022 and had sold more than 300 copies prior to the "Jeopardy!" episode, a figure that Jake Wamser said exceeded expectations. Sales for the game, which retails online for $24.99, have topped 700 copies since the episode.
Given it was a surprise the game appeared on "Jeopardy!," Wamser said the company moved quickly to try and make the most of it.
“We weren’t ready for it, but we did a good job of capitalizing on it, using it within all of our social media marketing and using it with some of our social media ad buys,” he said.
Wam Wam so far has mostly concentrated its sales efforts on conventions and events, like farmer’s markets, and online through Amazon. He said big box retailers could be another sales channel, but that the company wants to boost its sales and grow its brand before it pursues that opportunity. He said the appearance on "Jeopardy!" has helped bring more attention to Turn for the Wurst as events where the game is sold and has grown online sales. In an interview last month, he said Wam Wam was selling about one copy of Turn for the Wurst per week before "Jeopardy!," and that figure has grown to about five per week following the episode.
What’s next for Wam Wam?
The boost in sales for Turn for the Wurst comes as Wam Wam has wrapped up a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for the release of a new game, Shiner, a card game in which players build a moonshining operation. The company raised $10,427 through the Kickstarter campaign, surpassing its goal of $10,000.
With the execution of the Kickstarter campaign, Wam Wam has self-funded its operations. Jake Wamser declined to disclose how much he and his brother has invested in the company, but said revenue from sales of Turn for the Wurst has now provided capital to fund other projects.
While it plans to release its own roster of board games, Wam Wam also wants to be a publisher of games designed by others. Wamser said the company is in negotiations with other game designers to publish their games.
As Wam Wam markets new games, Wamser said he believes the business will be poised for growth, if it’s able to capitalize on its new titles.
“I think that if we can get into the right marketplaces and get the right games out in the right order, it can be enough of a business to sustain one of us, and maybe in a year or two, it can be enough to sustain both of us from an organization and payment perspective,” he said.
