Hey guys, and welcome to episode 140, Meeple to Meeple. This is number 5 in my content creator community series that we're in the midst of today. Joining me is a powerhouse couple of content creation across the UK and I'm I'm meeting them for the first time just like you are. I'd like to welcome Brad and Kate from Brad and Kate Games. How are you guys? I'm good, thank you. Yes, I reached out to a ton of content creators. Obviously I have a lot of followers in the UK.
And yet another powerhouse in her own right, Hannah from Hand Plays Games. She suggested I reach out to you and you guys were like, yeah, let's OK, cool. So thank you so much for joining. Us. Absolutely. Yeah, Hannah's lovely So. Yeah, that's price and being a part of it. And I also just learned that you guys are in Northern England is where you reside. Yeah, I'm from Leeds originally, Kate. We moved to the Union. We met there. That's exciting. How long have y'all been
together? Gosh, just over 3 1/2 years now. I'm, I'm slightly, it's slightly older, yeah. I turned 2025 in a in a couple of weeks. Yeah, I just turned 50 this year. It's just a number. But my wife and I have been we've been married for 16 years so. Love that. Yeah, I talk about her constantly, love her to death. So what? What? I want to know so so as part of
this series, right? It's all about just, it's all about community and you're the 1st, you're my first international guests in this community series that I'm creating. So again, thank you for that. So I wanted to ask because this is interesting because I'm also learning about you for the first time, whereas I've a lot of my other guests I've known offline or had interactions with I'm meeting you guys for the first time.
So all of these answers you're hearing them for the first time just as I am. So, so tell me and I'm I understand the answers are probably going to be different for the both you. So whoever wants to go first, y'all can work that out. What was the first game you ever played like as a child? OK, I. I mean, growing up as a kid, I loved games like, so I remember vividly being obsessed with a game called, I think it was something like Cinderella's Glass Slipper or something like
that. Something ridiculous. Genuinely, I must have been about 5 years old, but I was obsessed with this game. Or there was a game called The Magic Tooth Fairy, which was just an amazing game for a 5 year old again. But properly, I think it's got to be like Monopoly, like sitting down with the family and playing Monopoly. Yeah, yours. Mine also ironically would possibly be the magic tooth
fairy. I think it was given to to my sister as a birthday present by my grandparents and she we just played it constantly except so she ever wanted to play so. I'm going to have to look that up. The magic tooth fairy. It's basically just a board with a bed in the middle and you can like get a wobbly tooth and you pull out your tooth and put it under a pillow and then you have to like push the machine down and then open up your pillow and outcomes a golden coin that's. Exactly.
It it's not ridiculous. I game idea ever and like you're praying that you're like that and on the board it's like illustrated with that the most ridiculous ways that you can pull out a tooth like. I don't even remember the aim of the game. Like what was the? I think it's just to knock out as many teeth as possible, which is a bad idea to teach kids. Don't knock out your teeth. But you get money. You get money for it. So true. Not as an adult.
I wish you'd, I wish you did. I'd sacrifice. I hate to admit it. Yeah. Maybe the ones that no one can see, like the back ones. Yeah, right. For every wisdom tooth you get removed. What about the board game that got you into the modern gaming hobby? What was the first modern game that you were like? That's it. I'm a gamer for life.
Well, for me, like I mentioned my grandparents, when I used to go there, they used to pick me up from school on a Friday afternoon and they had a load of ball games. So I used to play games like Labyrinth, things like that. The classics. I was a big fan of Chinese checkers back in the day, but leading back into modern games I think. Well, I was together was pandemic. OK.
We just kind of first moved in with each other and we wanted to start our own collection so that when we had people over, we could, you know, sit and play board games with them. And it just spiralled really, didn't it? Yeah, which like one Saturday afternoon we're thinking, oh, what should we do? And we're like, well, we've been playing like a couple of games recently and maybe we could look do some research and find a, a new game.
And obviously Pandemic is a great gateway game for anyone and we just got hooked immediately. Yeah. And then it kind of spiraled into Catan and then we were like, oh, what's a good two player game? And then that led into Patchwork and it just went on from there, really. So were you were the 2 of you gamers before you met each other? Or do Joe get into games together as a couple? I think Brad was more than I
was. I mean, for me, my family used to do a Friday night games night, which could have consisted of board games to like games. Like, I don't know if you've ever heard it, but we've got a game called Blind Man's Bluff. Yep, I do know that I do. That was also a game that would be thrown in there. But yeah, so like ours was just like Cluedo Monopoly, but nothing really like nothing else really.
Yeah, in terms of modern board gaming, we got into that together and it was just through like playing like Pandemic and then going, oh, we should get ourselves another one and then going for that. We played when we first got Pandemic, we played the death out of that game. It was ridiculous, yeah. So just a few weeks ago I was just looking it up. It's episode 139.
This is episode 148. So 9 episodes ago, it was Craig and I, we were talking about the honeymoon period as a gamer and we were looking back on a, on that time period when you know, you get that first game, you have like 20 games in your collection. Every game is just so fantastic. But you're right, you blink and you have like 100 games in your collection and you're you have no way to walk around your your flat. Yeah, it just, it just spiral.
It has gotten out of hand. And once once we're in lots of modern board games and you see all the like ideas for ball games and the themes and the different mechanics and you just think, Oh my God, I have to have this, this, this. And it just spiraled. And we just kept like, especially the little card games that you can take anywhere. That's what we started buying first, all those sort of games. So Sea Salt and Paper is one of our favorite games of all time.
We played that constantly as well, everywhere we could. And yeah, it just kept getting worse and worse from there. Now. Well, we there's barely room for us in our flat with the amount of so. Do you know how many games you have in your collection currently? I think I've got a BG stats. I think it's about 90. 90 OK. That's I thought it was about 50 so it's clearly gone up in the last. Few months to say we've only been in the hobby for a couple of years. We've got a collection of 90
dish games. So there's something that I just learned about the two of you a few hours ago before we started recording this, and I think it's part of the reason why you have so many games is that you guys have the luck of the Irish. Oh my God, I know these last. The last this last month, I don't even know what's happened. I'm not a lucky person. I don't think you're like really a lucky person. I never win anything in my life ever.
And this last month we must have how many giveaways have we won? Four or five it. Must be. It's definitely four or five in the last four to six weeks. It's actually, it's ridiculous. And before we won, I mean, you'll have seen that the one earlier again, Kel, which is
incredible. Yeah. We were speaking to one of our friends that we've met through a TikTok, Andrew from Leeds Bargain Convention, and he was saying what once we'd posted about that to try and win, it was like, I'm going to put money on you winning this and then they. Said to him, You actually really should have put money on it because you would have been rich by now. Yeah, yeah.
Enough to come to an end soon. So what I've learned is not to participate in a giveaway if Brad and Kate have participated as well. I mean, hey, if people see us down there and don't want to participate, I hope that odds quite a bit. I am typically not a lucky person. I don't win giveaways, so I typically don't participate in giveaways. Having just completed my first giveaway, like posting a
giveaway. We successfully got a copy of Katan the 6th edition in honor of their 30th anniversary. I keep talking about it, the CEO of Katan Studios along the show and that was just that was just a great conversation. But because my first giveaway there was a there's a lot of work behind the scenes that people don't that just don't see to managing that and making sure it's fair and keeping track of all the entries, right. I bet it's hard work, really.
And honestly, at this point, like, spins our name for another giver, they're going to be thinking, God, we can't give them another one. Spin it again. Spin it. Yeah. So I want to ask you about your transition from just being too gamers in love to actually being intentional and becoming content creators, right? Like, at what point did you realize we need to do something more intentional?
Because that seems to be the theme is the difference between a gamer and a content creator, is that intentionality, right? You know, you probably started off, you took some pictures of a game that you just played to share it with your friends and family. And then at some point you became really intentional and you started making reels and short form video, which you've done a lot of and I love consuming that. When did that happen?
Why did you make that decision? Was it a natural thing for the two of you to just do that together?
Well, it was after we'd picked up the 10th of anniversary edition of Patchwork and we were just looking to find like some content on TikTok or Instagram. And we looked and we couldn't really find that much on it. So we thought, well, we could do something about that and show it off and just show what you get in it and all the new pieces and how cool they look because we love the look of it. And originally we posted that to
my own TikTok account. And then we posted and then we were like, oh, we should do another video because we found the process a lot of fun and it's something we can do together as a hobby. And we just quite enjoyed filming it, really. Obviously Kate has a background as being a creative. I'm a photographer for my day-to-day work, so it was something that I could channel
but have a bit. Not that I've ever really done video before, when it's just straightforward, like little clips and it was kind of easy to put together. And yeah, we just our second video was what sea salt and paper. Yes, we did a little overview of Sea Salt and paper, which at the time was probably, I think it's maybe still is our most played game. And that kind of did surprisingly well at the time for like, we didn't really know what we were doing.
And we were like, actually, shall we create our own channel and be serious about this? And that's and then, yeah, which is just not stopped. Yeah. And because obviously we've not been into ball games that long. We just come from the perspective of the new game, of picking up these new games. And if we don't enjoy something, we wouldn't say we enjoyed it, but we can. Obviously every game we pick up, we're like, why we like this,
why we like this? And we thought if if we're new to games and love this game, we can maybe share our perspective for other people that are also new to games and that sort of thing. So yeah, it just picks up from there. And it's just something we enjoy doing. You know, it's never, we don't ever go, God, we need to film tonight. It's every night. I mean, my brain just thinks up
like ideas constantly. Sometimes I'd have a bit of a dip where I'm like, I still want to film but the ideas won't be flowing. But other than that, like it's just constant. Yeah, it's kind of peaks and troughs really in terms of we'll have so many content ideas that we'll just have a full weekend of bashing out content. So we've got literally content for weeks. Or it'll just be like, oh, what do we do now if we've not really got a new game that we can like unbox or review?
It's like, right, so where can we go with our content to keep it resonating with our audience but obviously keeping people engaged and what feels good for us because we would never want to be disingenuous with our content. So yeah. I love that that is that. That's great and I love that y'all do that together. I think that's fantastic. There aren't many, although there seems to be a growing number of couples that can't create content together. I think that's fantastic, you
know, and inspirational. I think maybe that your work will inspire others and help this community to grow and move forward. So. Thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah, it's just worked out so well because Kate's got the creative background, so all of our videos tend to look aesthetically really good because of all the work that Kate puts in. Really good.
Editing is fantastic. I can't claim to do any of the editing, and I'm not much of a good photographer either, but I'd like to think that I come up with some good ideas. Yeah, we've got a good dynamic between us really, because I like my brain just isn't that way inclined, like in terms of ideas. So Brad brings that aspect and I bring them to life. In a way, yeah, because I have to film a video. It would look horrible.
There are times where I'll give Brad the camera to film like a little clip from his point of view, and I always just thank God this was me. I could just do it so much better. But I just have to, you know, we've got to have it both ways. It's it's the problem is it has to film, but I don't have the nice nails like Kate has to make it look nicer. Right. My God. Nail art. Oh. Look at these.
I know, I know, there are a couple of there are a couple of female content creators that I just like. I could just watch them hold cards all day. It just makes it look so much nice. But when Kate has to be behind the camera and film and you've got my stubby little fingers on the cards, it's like. Look, I know, I know. And I'm, I'm, I pay attention, I trim, I clean up my cuticles. But we don't. We don't get to do fun things with our nails like you do.
Hey you can if you want. I even stopped biting my nails for this. I used to be a nail biter and I just had to stop because I had to be on camera. Yeah. I just one day said like it was a bad habit and I just wondered. I said OK, I'm not going to bite my nails anymore. Yeah, I would say I'm not in the sense. So let me ask you, do you both have a favorite player color? Yeah, yes. Mine is usually green or if green is not available I like a white if there's in there or even a purple.
And for me I will tend to go if it's available because sometimes in games it isn't a purple. Yeah. Otherwise I'd go a red, which is quite controversial as a Leeds United fan, but my colour as a child, favorite colour as a child was always red because I thought Darth Vader's lightsaber was cool. Sure, why not? Lucy, I love you. Have a reason for loving that color? That's it. Yeah, most people don't. It's like, I don't know, I just love this color and this is always.
Yeah, that's. Kind of funny that is like, can't say any more than that. It's cool. It's it is cool. You're right. You're right about the color green. I was having a conversation with someone the other day about how the color green is. You're seeing it less and less as a, as a player color in components and games. And I think, I wish I could remember who I spoke to and it was no one in the board game community.
So it was, I think it has to do with color blindness and the and the use of the yellow and the blue, right. So you still see yellow and blue as player colors, but not green. I don't know, can't quote me on that, but there's definitely a trend you see in green available less and less that would make. Sense and it does make sense because obviously people want to make ball games more accessible and we've seen that like this on
paper. I fit one of our favorite games has like the colour blindness manual in it to make life easier for those that are colour blind, which is great. But it is a shame if green becomes extinct in ball games because what would you do then? You can't take purple. Yeah, I just like bright colours though. I'm OK. Like I like a yellow. I'm easy to please really. OK, well that that's your lucky man, Brad. Yeah, I know. But I'll be Pope and she'll be like, yeah, I'll be, I'll be
whatever. That's great. So do you have I always ask this question in two parts, although although you've only been in the hobby for three years, you I may not have to, but I'll ask anyway. Do you each have a favorite board game of all time? And if not, because I know that that's a challenge, do you have a favorite board game right now that you're just like, I want it to hit the table all the time. So mine of all time I, I don't know if we're the same but used to be the same.
But mine of all time is and will forever be River Valley Glass Works. Wow, I. Love that game. OK, tell me more. I love the game too. It's great, but why is it and because you just said and will be for all time. You know what it is about it. I think it is possibly the little characters. They're just so cute, the glass in the bag, stunning. The it's just visually such a beautiful game. We've got the deluxe version with the actual plastic pieces of the river that you have to
slide across. Yes, yeah, love that aspect. Like I said, I'm so easily pleased. Anything like that board game wise is a bit of me. Yeah, the game's, the game's really simple, but it's just still a lot of fun every time that you play it, which is perfect, is perfect for you, really. And a few months ago we bought the the Under the Sundries expansion pack. Yeah, yeah. The other scoring conditions which I didn't think that game could physically get any better. And it did.
So you'll you will be happy to know that in episode 146, as part of this content creator series, I had Adrian Mora on and she was Rosie the Alligator. Like she was the mascot at Gen. Con 2 years ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah, she didn't. She talks about that story, so make sure you go check that out. It's really just a wonderful story.
But what she didn't say is that she got, she got a tattoo on, I think it's her arm, her forearm of Rosie, because it's like her favorite character of all board games because of that experience. Maybe that'll be your next tattoo. Yeah, Kate just got a tattoo for the first time in the last month. Yeah. So maybe the next one's got to be. Shellsworth. Yes, you love you. Love Shellsworth? You you then you have to do that. You absolutely have to. Yes, you definitely should do
that. I I got my first tattoo just a month ago, right before Gen. Con. I got I got the cook from obsession on my arm. That's so cool. Yeah, I'm thinking about getting more of all the all the servants Maples wrapped around my arm perhaps. Oh, that's cool. I think I could do that because it didn't take very long. The tattoo artist was fantastic and it was not. And it it took less than an hour. So yeah, it was worthy. So Brad, what about you?
You got a favorite game of all time or a favorite game right now? It's a bit more difficult for me because I think it changes every week. Eventually, I think, when we can actually get to the table. Sleeping Gods is my favorite game. If we can get a good session in for a good like a long time that I will then be obsessed with that and just want to play it all the time. But obviously you can't play it all the time because it's so big.
And to get actually any progress, you've got to at least set aside a good four hours really. But for now, currently, what do we reckon? Santorini. Santorini, potentially, but it's a lot of fun, I know. I know that Kate's getting me for my birthday. The expansion of Santorini, which should hopefully make it even better. OK. Either that or we recently received Timber Town from Ali Ka and I love that game now. It's so good. It's so good.
So sleeping gods all time if it can, if you have the time to play otherwise. Otherwise it's basically whatever it sounds like. Whatever game is in front of you is your favorite. Yeah, pretty much. I'll enjoy anything, to be honest with you. I don't think, I generally don't think we've ever had a game that I've played and thought I don't want to play this again. Yeah, no. I just, I just like playing games, you know? It doesn't matter what it is.
It's probably more the company, to be fair, yeah. Yeah, maybe. Maybe Food Chain Magnate. I'd like to burn every copy of Food Chain Magnate. I don't like blood and I don't like blood on the clock tower. Yeah. Tastes like that Kate has a few controversial takes on board games. Do you know what mine so I and this could change because we need, we do need to play it again, actually, because we've only played it once and I didn't like it.
So I've refused to play it because we had an argument when we played this game. So that's also tainted my view of the game. 7 Wonders Jewel, which I know is a lot of people's favorite game. I know we just had an argument and I think that's what has made me not like the game because I attached the game with that time. So, you know, there's some, there's some legitimacy to that. Last year we were playing tiny epic dinosaurs and my wife and I had an argument. I started it.
It was my fault. I behaved badly, I'm sorry to say. I, I don't know what got into me that day, but like, I had realized that I was doing something fundamentally wrong. And I just got really frustrated with myself. But I came across as if I was frustrated with her and I had to dig myself out of that. We haven't we haven't played that game since. And I know it was a favorite of hers. Oh yeah, that could happen. You're also enough.
The crew are you? No, I just trick taking games in particular for me, with the exception of Fox in the Forest, I just they just don't really excite me. OK. And I don't know if, I mean, the last time we played The Crew, it was very late and I was a bit tired. So again, it might just be that, but I just like I just, I don't know, they just don't they don't have that element like the rest of my game. They don't make. Them to play it again. No. That's fair.
OK, so trick taking for Kate is out. So this leads to my next question, which is for both of you. Do you have a favorite board game mechanic that you absolutely love? You don't care what the theme is. You don't care who made it. You don't care how old it is, how new IT is. You want to play this mechanic. Think for me it's got to be tire laying. I mean with with River Valley and even Timber Town, I just I
just love that. I don't know what it does, but it just makes my soul feel very happy. Right, right. And they're always so satisfying as well, especially if you get the perfect piece. It's just something, just that moment of how you feel proud, especially if it's like a little city builder and like you've just completed your little, your little town and it's perfect and you're so happy with yourself. No better feeling. And plus in games like tie lane games, it's all good vibes.
You're normally just completing your own thing. Except, except just like Carcasson and when you steal someone else's city, that might be a bit different. But a lot of tile games, it's chilled. You're doing your own thing, you're just having a good time. And I think, yeah, tie lane games are brilliant. So good, so good. There were. So years ago Catan introduced a tile laying component to their
game, one of their expansions. So you would start out, you would create the island on the hexes, but everything else would be face down, so you'd be forced to explore outward. That for me, that was the moment I realized I love tile placement and that I love exploring. So in X Games, right, I'm going to explore. I don't really care. I don't care what happens. I just I want to manipulate the map. Let me grab the tiles and place them out. There's just something so much
fun about that. And that was when it started, was I was playing Katan with a group of friends years ago when I was in university. And yeah, I was like, this is cool. The revealing, right? The revealing of the new tile on the board was more exciting to me than scoring any number of points. Yeah. And it's the pressure of am I going to get the tile that I need? And I mean, if you don't, it just ruins everything, especially like especially like a patchwork as well.
And you, you're going and you've got a perfect space and someone, someone takes it ruins again immediately. But you still have a lot of fun anyway. And let's be honest, by someone you mean. Kate. Yeah. Kate. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so, oh, I'm really sorry, but this all, I'm like, no, you could go for that one. Then she'd be like, no, that's OK. I'm sorry, but why am I sacrificing my game and my potential win for you?
You shouldn't you? I mean, you know that I tracked the stats in BG stats, so you got to do everything you can to win. Yeah, yeah, Katie does the same. She's the stat tracker amongst us and I don't know what it is, but for the year because we we reset every year to track and I'm I'm in the lead by a lot. I know I talk about how I don't win and all that, but the reality is is that I tend to be
in the head to head right. Like if I'm playing a game with you guys, I don't care if y'all win, it doesn't matter to me. I just want to be there. I'm happy to be at the table as long as I'm beating my wife, that's all that matters. Pretty even, I think. And because we both win more than we should according to BG stats, like especially when we're playing in groups and things like that. I think I'm only a couple of percent higher than you, but we
both do tend to do quite well. There's just occasions where Brad will have a real like, we'll spend a day playing games and he will win every single game we play. And I just, and then I'm just sat there like, well, what am I meant to do? You know, how do I go about this? I wish I had an answer for you. I I don't know. I'm always surprised. Like we will sit down for an entire day and we will play four or five, six games and I've won all of them.
And you feel really guilty as well because I mean, when you play a ball game, it's you. You're not playing just took because you want to win. But losing does make the session a lot worse. Especially if you lose every single game by a landslide as well, then it's going to suck. Yes, you are absolutely right. I totally agree with that. It's also the dynamic of being with your partner's spouse,
significant other, right? It's when you're playing as a couple and I, I know that I have to be really careful and sometimes I fail. If my wife were here, she'd probably say I fail more times than I succeed. I have to be really careful when we're playing with other people to not let that internal rivalry between us impact negatively the experience of our friends at the table. Well, do you want to tell the fire tower story? I can't wait to hear the fire tower story.
We have the same thing where when we're together we are very competitive. Everyone like our families and friends know it. So we recently, not recently at the time when we first played Fire Tower, we had only bought it like two or three days before we played it and we took it to a friend's house and Brad had been wanting this game for months. Oh, really excited to play it. And obviously Fire Tower, you have to be so cut throat otherwise the game will just go
on forever. And it started out being all fine and nice. Everyone was being nice to each other. And then me and our other two friends just collectively decided to gang up on Brad and he was out. First, Yeah. So again, I'd wanted for ages and really wanted to try. They're like, yeah, let's go for him. He doesn't get to enjoy this game anymore. No, no, you don't go for me. But they do, obviously.
And like you say, when you're in a group, you just have to go for your significant other because it's just funny, isn't it? And Kate had a great time. Me, not so much. I wanted to play Fires out. Oh. My gosh, that is such a good story. It's funny because every time we play it now with those two friends, obviously we were all just ways always going to gang up on Brad. Because the first time was so funny, they have to do it again. And they do it every.
Yeah, Yep, yeah. See, that's what happened. You set the tone in that, you set the dynamic in that group, and now it's like. Now I'm the victim. I am the victim. I am so sorry. But they also, once they found out about the stats thing as well, like my friend that we play with, he didn't know that I'd been tracking the stats all this time. And once he found out that I did that, he then suddenly started trying incredibly hard to win every single game.
Before it was just like, oh, we're having fun now. He will be ruthless. He will he'll do anything to his, well, fiance now. Yeah, he'll do anything. He will kick her out straight away. He'll be, he'll be like, no, I'm having this just so that you can win. And you know what, fair play. Because of everyone that we've played with, he does have the highest win percentage. And there's a reason he's ruthless. Yep.
I hope. I hope when this episode airs, they listen to this episode and hear this story and be like they're talking about me. Yeah. Yeah, he'll, he'll be happy with himself as well because he got a mention. So I was doing a little research and on Instagram. So you guys joined Instagram in January of 2025. So y'all have not been creating content on Instagram for very long.
Unfortunately Tiktok does not provide me with when you joined Tiktok. So that begs the question, which platform do you prefer when creating content? So we started on TikTok first. It was November 2024, I believe Yes, because we started out making obviously a few little gameplay like patchwork and see some paper. They all got reposted onto our account and then we started making like stocking filler ideas, like with the little games that we had collected, obviously, or like present
ideas, that kind of thing. When it comes to making content, we always make the content for TikTok specifically and then repost that to Instagram rather than doing separate. I just, we just, that would have been too much of A workload for us. And obviously we're super happy with all the content we make. So why? Like obviously we would share it on both platforms.
Right. In terms of, I think it changes really for us, like recently Instagram has been probably our most preferred platform in terms of engaging with people and the growth that we've had recently. I think with TikTok, it can be very hit and miss, especially as like I think the last they've checked in twice in like the last few months, they've changed their algorithm. So we find it really hard to reach. Even people that would usually see our videos don't really see them anymore.
So we found, like, aligning ourselves with that quite difficult in a way, yeah. Yeah, it's a shame as well because TikTok was our original platform, but our Instagram views are potentially five times what they are compared to TikTok in the last couple of months. Wow. It's a big difference and we love TikTok and we love our community on that, but at the same time, the community on
Instagram is great as well. We didn't start on Instagram like as early as I TikTok because we just started out like we weren't really showing our face on TikTok because we were a bit like nervous about it and all that sort of thing. And we had like more contacts on Instagram.
Like we didn't really want to see our videos because we thought, well, we like doing it, but it's sort of like it's a bit of a hobby and like we don't really be in it because we weren't confident with it yet, face and stuff like that. So that's why we joined Instagram a bit later and it was sort of. But also for the fact that it was just before the 1st TikTok ban was meant to come into place. Right.
And we wanted to because obviously at the time, I think majority of our viewers on TikTok were American. So we would have lost a whole chunk of our audience and we didn't want to lose that. We'd made so many good connections that curve in specifically on TikTok, and we
didn't want to lose that. So we were like, we need to do something so we can keep those connections alive and meet new people and, you know, still engage with the audience on there rather than on TikTok. Yeah because currently y'all are like 5800 followers on TikTok. If you're closing in on 6000, you're 3 point 8003.838 hundred 3.8 already 800 on Instagram and that's just a reflection of you were on TikTok first. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it is.
And like we had a few good videos on TikTok for a while and that's why it sort of skyrocketed from around March this year. I think with within the space of a couple of months, we'd gone from like 1500 followers to about 4000 or something like that. And then it slowed down quite a lot now. But that's OK. You know, we still enjoy making content. It's never been about gaining followers. It's just been to a little hobby that we can do and share, like our board games with other
people. So what advice would you give to someone if they asked you? It's like, hey, you know, that they've they've recently got into games or they've been gaming for a long time and they just never gave content creation any serious thought. What advice would you give someone who is thinking about, you know, being more intentional and creating actual content online?
I. Think, I mean for US, one thing that I wish we did differently in the beginning was initially putting ourselves out there and just being confident with it and just going for it because obviously we started, we didn't post our faces and it was just like little reviews. We didn't even do voice overs to begin with. We were very much like we're just dipping our toe in and we're just going to see where that goes. And obviously it's got us where we are.
But to anyone who would want to get in, I would just say to them, just if you enjoy watching the content, if you're even thinking about making the content, just do it with full confidence, regardless of the views you're going to get, because it's not about that. If you enjoy it, just do it. Yeah, and like, I mean, I tend to mumble quite a lot when I speak, so, you know, I'm not the person that should be making TikTok videos because I've got quite a heavy northern accent.
So and I'm mumble. So it's not a great combination. And yet it's just something we enjoy. Yeah. Like, like Kate says, just do it
with confidence. Put yourself out there and people, the community will build itself because people will see that you're trying to do. And I mean, we've seen people do it as well where someone sort of introduced themselves on their first video and immediately the entire community, especially on like TikTok and has just gone to the straight to that video and been like, welcome to TikTok. We we're excited to see what you do sort of thing and if I just wish we'd done that start with,
but obviously we had to find our feet our own way and we possibly if we did just jumped in potentially straight away, we would have been OK. But it might have been a bit more nerve wracking to put ourselves out there. We just did it a little step at a time. But I think we'd have been fine if we'd have, you know, gone straight away. Right. So, you know, it's challenging. I had the luxury of having a partner on the podcast from the very beginning.
But when when things took a turn and Gareth had to step back from the show, I had a real crisis of identity, right? What do I do? Do I get another host regularly? Do I go on my own? How do I, how do I do that? The one thing I didn't want to do was turn it into a vlog where it's just me talking to the camera. And I have to admit, I'm not good at that. I I need people to talk to. That's why the content I create
is long form. I need to get better at the short form content to draw people to the long form. I love talking and sharing your stories. But yeah. And it worked out, but it I had. I had to deal with all that. Even as a seasoned content creator, I had to struggle with those very same things, right? Obviously I'm used to being on camera, but now I'm alone. And what does that look like, you know? Yeah, of course. And fine.
It's just good that we could do it with each other because if we were, if we were separate and still both football games, it would never have been something that I would have wanted to do on my own. And I think you're probably the same. It would. I would have done it, but I think in terms of idea generation, I think I would have fizzled out, to be honest, because like I said before, a lot of it is like a lot of it is Brad's ideas and that's why we work so well together in this.
But yeah, I think it can be a struggle if you were to do it on your own. So yeah, I think that would be our advice. Just do it because the community is genuinely amazing. Everyone that we interact with is incredibly like lovely, nice, so welcoming. Like just posting your first video and like everyone flooding in finding this new fellow content creator that they can support and watch their videos and watch them grow. And we've loved doing that while and seeing new people pop up and
encouraging them. And it's been a lot. It's been a lot of fun. So I'm going to ask a question and I think you just answered it, but I'm going to ask anyway in case what is the one thing in this community that we do right? Like what is it that you love the most and you hope it never changes? I think it's just got to be the amount of support people have for one another, for complete strangers that you've met on the Internet.
It's just, especially in today's day and age, there's just not enough positivity in this world and I think the board game community really hit it on the head with just the amount of positivity, the support, the kindness that they dish out to anyone and everyone. It's just beautiful to see and I just hope it never, ever changes. Yeah, and like you mentioned in this day and age, like if you just like people disagree with someone opinions and immediately
attack them and hate them. But like I can say that a ball game, I dislike it and someone might disagree with that, but we're all ball gamers and no one's going to hold it. Again, she was saying something like that. Like Kate has said so many times that she dislikes 7 Wonders Jewel, which is one of the best games of all time rating wise, and she never once been attacked for her opinion because it's her opinion. If she doesn't like the game, she won't play it. Exactly.
Yeah, I agree with that. So how about the flip side? Is there something you've seen and you have a unique perspective? Because I didn't realize that y'all were so new. New three years, right? But you're so new to the hobby. Is there something you've seen that we get wrong and that we need to do better? Interesting. I personally don't know if there is. I just see the love and the support people have for each other and it's just beautiful.
Yeah, people just love the hobby and then they find more people that love the hobby and they love them in turn. And it's just, I don't think that the community generally does anything wrong. Rarely, I think maybe twice, we've experienced a bad comment or something like that, and that's in almost a year of posting. And even then, it wasn't really that bad, you know what I mean?
Also usually in those cases it's no one from the community, it'll be just people who have seen our videos who don't agree with our opinion or whatever it might be. But even then, like we've had so Andrew from Leeds board game convention, he came to our defence at one point and it wasn't even a big deal what someone just said something in the comment about one of our opinions and he just was instantly there backing us up,
you know. And it's just though that support that you just get, it's just unmatched really. You can't fault. The ball game community in any way really, it's just been incredible and we've made some very good friends from doing it. It's great. So what about? What about the local game community where you live, right? Do you have a board game cafe or a friendly local game store in your area?
Is there a board game club? Do you have friends that you can game with where you don't have to drive very far away? Yeah, I mean, so our local board game Cafe is called Chance Encounters and we go there at least once a month, even though we probably have games in our collection that we should possibly more be playing because we've not played them before. But we just love to go and check out the new games that they've
got. And the atmosphere there is just, it's amazing and everyone's so friendly. And we also have so many different, I mean we have the big chain stores like Waterstones, which I presume is our your Barnes and Noble for us basically.
Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, which I mean we visit and we always whenever we're in town, we just go in and have a look, even if we're not in the market to buy any another board game or travelling man, which is another one we've got, which do like loads of Warhammer things, but also board games. We're always in there. So have either of you had an opportunity to go down to Daventry and spend the day and play with Craig and Becky from Get Into Games?
No, actually. OK, so I'll have to talk to him afterwards and be like, dude, you need to get Brad and Kate down because they do that. They'll have people come up for a day and just to host you. I really enjoyed the the game community in the UK is just, it's, it's so phenomenal. I think that y'all are just some of the loveliest people that I've ever had the luxury of ever meeting. I mean, the Borgen community in the United States is pretty diverse. So it comes with all shapes and
forms. And there are some, you know what, black sheep. I didn't experience that at all. Everyone was just so delightful. We went to UK Games Expo this year. Yeah. How was that? It was a lot of fun. We only did the one day and it was really hectic. We set off at 6:00 in the morning, set off back at about 10:00 at night. We were absolutely knackered. It's a miracle. I was so tired driving. It was unbelievable. I just wiped out from all the
walk in and meeting people. Honestly, even to this day, that has got to be one of my favorite days. Just everyone we met was so lovely. There was people coming up to us that obviously we'd not seen before. And they were like, Oh my God, it's Brad and Kate. And I was like, how is this our life right now? You know, because we're just, we're just us. And it's just so surreal. But it was amazing. I I'm still waiting for that to happen for me. You'll get it.
It, I mean, I go to Origins, Game Fair and Gen. Con and there are people that I am friends with content creators and whatnot, but there's never been a moment where someone came up to me and like, Oh my God, you're PJ for me. But I have not had that happen yet so. That'll happen 100. Percent I. I think the only reason why I'm jealous is because everyone else seems to have at least had that once.
I want that too. Well, I can't believe people recognize this, to be honest, because we're not like wearing like big things in our heads that say we are bright and K games. I mean, I'm supposed to just blend in, to be honest, like with everyone. Yeah, actually. But yeah, we did great. I genuinely think so. I think it's twofold and I can only speak for myself. Obviously the first one is so much credit to Hannah. She suggested. You know, she was not able to because I reached out to her to
joint. She's been on the show before and she's like one of my my favorite citizens of the UK that I've never met because I didn't get to meet her when I was there last year. But she was just busy. And I was like, Hey, can you suggest are there some new up and comers? Because I'm trying to get a diverse group of people from experiences and races and sexualities and everything, but more importantly, new and old. And you guys were pretty new, and you're just taking off.
Everyone seems to know you. And she recommended you. So that was the first part. The second was then I was drawn to your account. And I'm like, your content is just stunning. Oh, my God. Yeah, right. I am so jealous. You can borrow it on weekends if you want. I'll send her over there. Well, look, you know you both can all. You're both always welcome. We'd love to have you here. I have room in my home. You can stay for a week and we could put you up and we can play
games and let me cook for you. Those are the two things that I require of all my guests. You allow me to cook for you, and you played games. That's great because I can't cook and that's that's not good. Well, there you go. There you go. So. I I have to cook rarely and the in our flat beer and my brigade once turned up because of my cooking so. Yeah, this is another famous story in our household. I was. I finished work late and I have to get the train to and from work.
Brad was in charge of cooking tea and I come home 2 minutes before we've got a fireman knocking at our door because he had burnt some steak that we were having in a stir fry and just I don't even know how he managed it. It wasn't even that smoky, though. And then there's I was like, oh, that's weird. The fire alarms going off. It must be, it must be someone else. That's fine. And then just a bang on the door, like, is there a fire in here? It's like, I'm just cooking.
He's like, he's on his radio. Like we found it. I was so embarrassed. Like have a nice tea. So one of your fellow countrymen who is not a part of this board game community at all, but is a personal hero of mine, and that's Paul Hollywood. Oh my God, I love Paul. And my wife got me one of his books because we've been we've been learning how to make bread and we've just been going through these courses on, you know, from the quick breads all
the way to the croissant. But she got me a book that he, he includes like a recipe to cook that would go with a bread recipe, right? So, and so he matches them all up. So I will cook, Katie will make the bread. And it's something that we can do together as well, so. Yeah, that's a nice activity together. We can cook together as long as I don't do any of the actual cooking and do chocolate things like that. That's OK, there's nothing wrong
with that. Someone's got to prep the food so. Thankfully. Yes, a couple that games together, a couple that cooks together, stays together. I truly believe that. Absolutely. Yeah, so that's great. Well, I I just want to thank you both. It has been a true delight. I appreciate you giving of your time. You know, this is a perfect example. I'm a stranger who just reached out and said would you like to join my podcast in the hour? Like yes. And I, I appreciate it, right?
Absolutely. Thank you so much for having us. Absolutely, so tell everyone that doesn't already know where they can find you and all the socials. So we are Brad and Kate games on TikTok and Instagram. And are you on YouTube at all? We have an account, we thought about it, we tried to upload on on it. It just the upload was just taking hours and hours for some reason. So we just kind of abandoned ship. But you have a channel, it just lays fallow. Yeah, yeah.
We've not unlocked long form content yet. We think we're short form. I mean, I can be entertaining for 30 seconds, but I don't know about 10 minutes, you know? Well, it's been almost an hour and I think you've just been lovely, so thank you for that. Well guys, thanks again. There's still more to come in this series. Make sure you hit that like and subscribe button. You know, the numbers matter. We're trying to promote positivity and community, diversity and unity.
Those are very important and we're only going to get there being kind to each other and let's play more games. Absolutely.