Wake Forest entrepreneur Alex Perez has a simple rule for everything he creates: it has to be “silly, clever, and unforgettable.”
It’s the philosophy behind Preztin Games, the design-led indie art toys and games studio Perez is building right here in Wake Forest. From original tabletop games and collectible figures to 3D-printed toys, Preztin combines nearly a decade of professional toy design experience with Perez’s belief that the best products do more than occupy space —they create an experience.
“I’m not trying to make things that are cute,” Perez says. “I’m trying to make things that are well-designed enough to earn a spot on your shelf and funny enough that you want to show someone.” The shorter version of the Preztin philosophy? “Play with possibility.”
For Perez, building Preztin in Wake Forest is as much about community as it is creativity. After living in places ranging from Texas and Medellín, Colombia, to New York City, Fort Lauderdale, and Buffalo, Perez and his wife have plenty of experience starting over somewhere new. But North Carolina had stuck with him since a 2020 road trip through Raleigh. “I remember telling her then—if we ever get the chance, I want to live here.”
That chance came after Perez was laid off from Fisher-Price in 2024. While considering where to go next, he flew to North Carolina and explored communities around Raleigh before finding himself driving through Downtown Wake Forest. “I passed through White Street. That was the moment it hit me,” he recalls. “It felt like home—there was a sense of community in the air, and an entrepreneurial spirit on the streets.”
That entrepreneurial spirit became increasingly important as Perez transitioned from designing products for other companies to building one of his own. He quickly found The Loading Dock Wake Forest and began meeting other business owners who understood the challenges of entrepreneurship firsthand. “Finding people who’ve gone through the same thing gives you access to advice you can’t get anywhere else—not from Google, not from an LLM,” Perez says. “It’s the human connection and shared experience that nothing else replaces.”
Those connections eventually led Perez to the Wake Forest Business & Industry Partnership (WFBIP). He first met Clark Rinehart, Wake Forest Founders’ Entrepreneurial Specialist, during an educational program about AI tools at The Loading Dock and later attended a Wake Forest Founders pitch event, where he saw firsthand the network available to growing companies in Wake Forest.
For Jason Cannon, President of WFBIP, Perez represents exactly the kind of entrepreneur the organization hopes to support. “Alex is creative, experienced, and willing to take what he knows and turn it into something entirely his own. Preztin is a great example of the kind of innovative business that can grow here given the right connections and support.”
Perez shares that enthusiasm for what those relationships could mean for his young company. “I’m bootstrapped and in this for the long haul, and I’d love for Preztin to be one of WFBIP’s success stories.”
While Preztin itself is new, Perez is anything but new to designing toys and games. As a kid, he always had a clear answer when people asked what he wanted to be when he grew up: “I want to design cars.” He began studying industrial design at LaGuardia Community College in New York and later applied to Pratt Institute to continue his education. But he was rejected—a setback that unexpectedly redirected his entire career.
That same night, Perez discovered the Fashion Institute of Technology and rushed to submit an application before the deadline. A few weeks later, he received a call from Judy Ellis, founder of FIT’s Toy Design program. “She told me she was calling to reject my application—but she wanted to meet me in person first.”
That meeting opened the door to FIT’s Toy Design program and ultimately a career spanning more than nine years with Jazwares, Alex Brands and Fisher-Price. And that childhood ambition? It wasn't entirely wrong. “Turns out I do design cars. Just toy cars,” Perez jokes. “I still carry that kid’s soul.”
Those years also reinforced something much simpler about creating products people want to play with. “Play starts with curiosity,” Perez says. “Everyone relates to it through their own memories—that’s the spark, every time.”
When his career took an unexpected turn in 2024, Perez was forced to decide whether to reinvent himself or double down on what he already knew. Ultimately, he chose to bet on himself. “I started the company because I wanted to bet on myself—my experience, my talents, the things I’ve been building since I was a kid—instead of building someone else’s dreams.”
Even the Preztin name reflects that decision. Perez had begun using “Tino Prez” as a creative identity: “Tino” from his mother’s last name, Patino, and “Prez” from his father’s last name, Perez. PREZTIN emerged as nearly a reversal of Tino Prez and a play on “pristine.” When a friend questioned whether people would know how to pronounce it, they wrote the name on a napkin and asked a café cashier to read it aloud. “She nailed it, better than I did.”
That same mix of creativity, curiosity, and experimentation shapes how Perez develops products today. “Every idea starts with a feeling, not a plan,” he says. “My test is always the same: is it fun?”
Preztin’s first card game, Something’s Brewing, actually began years before the company itself. Perez created its mechanics as a print-and-play project for a game design class at FIT. When he later returned to the concept, the original robbery theme evolved into what he calls “silly magic,” influenced in part by his lifelong love of Harry Potter.
Perez had carried the idea for more than nine years, unable to fully develop his own game while working under industry non-compete agreements. Once he was finally building for himself, the choice of Preztin’s first game was easy. “The second I could actually build something of my own, it was the obvious one to lead with,” he says. “It’s the idea I’d been carrying the longest.”
His development process now combines creative instinct with lessons learned from years inside the toy industry. Perez starts with the experience he wants players to have, looks for evidence of market demand, creates an inexpensive prototype, and tests early. He watches players’ reactions, laughter, and energy while paying particular attention to frustration or confusion. “A game should always be fun, and it should reward the player psychologically.”
That process is now shaping GrudgeFall, a trading card game inspired by lucha libre. The concept combines Perez’s memories of watching his father’s university wrestling team as a child with an opportunity to create something rooted in his Hispanic heritage. Perez is designing the game around a 15-card booster pack rather than requiring players to build a full deck, creating what he hopes will be an inexpensive, easy-to-learn entry point.
For a founder accustomed to being “the designer behind a desk,” building Preztin has required learning an entirely new side of the industry. Perez now handles everything from product development and production to marketing, sales, and fulfillment. “My biggest surprise has been how much a product actually needs a community behind it to succeed,” he says. “Before this, I was just the designer behind a desk, making great products for someone else’s vision.”
Preztin is currently focused on getting Something’s Brewing into the hands of more players, expanding its line of original 3D-printed toys, exploring opportunities to license and produce designs from other creators, and testing demand for GrudgeFall as a potential future release.
For Perez, it all comes back to creating things that help people connect, have fun, and make memories—the same curiosity that first drew a kid who wanted to design cars into an unexpected career designing toys. Only now, he’s designing for himself.
Something’s Brewing is available directly at Preztin.com. Preztin’s 3D-printed toy line, including its current weekly bestseller, the Trash Truck, is available through the Preztin Etsy shop. Readers can follow Perez behind the scenes on Instagram at @tino.prez and YouTube at @preztin, or join the Preztin Discord community for early looks at what he’s building next.
