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.