UKGE Vlog | 2026

0:05 It's UK Gay Expo day. I'm so excited. Jennifer is at my place, so she's upstairs getting ready. We leave in a little bit and then we're going to fly to Birmingham, which is exciting. Um, I can't wait to be there and meet everybody and see so many friends. Um, but yeah, it's very, very exciting. We're finishing up packing like the last little bits and pieces. Um, and then we're just going to head out and it's going to be the best. So, come along and let's see what games we can play, buy, and discover together.

1:13 We are finally here. Yay. At the Ardan Hotel. Amazing. It's just a small room, which is fine.

1:21 And it's a little bit hot.

1:23 It's warm. We have this fan on. the European aircon, you know, that's what we deal with in Europe. I'm so sweaty from the flight. We might head to the pool, actually. We don't know yet. Um, but we'll see. And then we're going to do the press event tonight, which is exciting. I'm curious to see what that will be like. Um, and we're going to have some food. Exciting. Voice over time. It's press night. It's always exciting to talk to everyone like Leon from Questiny whom I love and is a dear friend. Excited to see the release of this game on the 1st of September. Link down below to the Kickstarter. Cult of the Lamb. A lot of people were talking about this. It's exciting. Compile. I love Compile, but it's two players, but they told me that they're working on a solo mode. I'm so excited for that. I think it will be really cool.

2:19 This cute little game, Circadia looks very pretty. Sashi and Sashi, of course, my favorites. Very excited for Realway Porters. Stag and Mycelia. Stag is the new game from the same designer as Myelia. Fame and Fable by Owen Davyy. He's incredible. Yonder. Beautiful looking game. Honestly, this just looked so funny. The artwork for this really speaks to me. Spokes. Jennifer picked up a copy of this game. It's like a bicycle game. Jason, if you know me, you know I love Hercules and the 12 labor. So, I'm very, very excited about Jason and Argonauts and how it's going to play. And it just looks stunning. Of course, Aritic. This is a Ukrainian game that's been doing very well. It looks really good, honestly.

3:15 Shug. Very excited to play this. It looks incredible and the guys were so nice. Personal demons by the same designer that did Deep Regrets. I love Deep Regrets as you know and this is looking so good right now. The art is crazy. Container. This is one of the biggest talked about games of the expo for sure. The new game from All Play. It's an older game, but they've done a rebrand or like a reprint, a redesign, however you want to call it. The colors are so nice. This just looks beautiful. The cats, I mean, say less. Stunning. Night at the zoo, the new Thomas Holic game. Very, very excited to try this. I hope I'll be able to play it.

4:07 It is day one of the UK Games Expo. I'm so excited. Yesterday we had the press event which was fun. We saw a bunch of games which you all saw before this. Um there are so many games. I'm not going to have time to see them all which is fine. I'm trying not to stress about it. It's also just very very hot in our hotel room. So, I'm hoping outside will be better, but I can't dress for like the weather outside when I'm so hot in the hotel room and I have like no makeup on almost cuz it's too hot for makeup. So, we're just going to have to deal with a lot of sweat and it's fine. We're we can manage. We can do it. So, yes, wearing my BL shirt. I kind of want to wear like this underneath the like lace, but it's too warm to to even think about that right now. But I might change after breakfast. We'll see.

4:59 So, let's go get coffee.

5:39 My favorite booth, Van Rider Games. It just feels like coming home. chilling with the guys. It's the best. And I was very excited to be able to see my mini and my card. Look at her. She is stunning, if I may say so myself. We played Flipic Towers. This was so fun. A great flip and right game. It felt very much like Ctographers to me, which I love that game. And this just felt in the same vein. So cute. Class of 89. This is very puzzly. It's quite intense. Um, but I think solo it could be actually quite cozy.

6:29 Zoology from Ice Makes. This is uh a great little family game, like a deduction game where you're trying to find out which animal you are. And you can see which animal everybody is except your own. And by asking questions, uh you can like try to deduct deduce who you are, which animal you are.

6:52 You're looking at me. Are you looking at me? Back off. Hey, hey, hey. Back off. Hey, that's better. That's what I thought. That's what I thought.

7:29 Okay, had a great day so far. Uh, great first day. Met so many lovely people. Thank you to everyone that said hi. Uh, I'm now at the open gaming area. It's still quite early. It's like 4:00. Um, and the expo is until 6, but oh my gosh, I'm getting old and I'm tired. So, and I really really wanted So, I came to Open Gaming um to just sit down and I thought, you know, I can just use this time to learn Railway Quarters. I'm so excited. Um hoping to play this maybe today uh at Open Gaming. I mean, no clue what's going to happen, so we'll see. But I can at least like learn the rules, sit down, have a bit of a breather. Um, and there's two more days and I feel like I've I'm already so fulfilled with the games I've played, with the people I've seen, with the games I bought. Um, so great first day I played. Um, started the day with Flip Pig Towers. I keep wanting to say it wrong. Flip Pig Towers. Really fun.

8:37 Bought it straight away. So, spoiler alert, that's what I got. Um, very fun little flip and right and I'm really excited to play it solo. Uh, and I'll make a video of course on the channel, but I'm very very excited to to try that uh solo cuz obviously with the demos at the expo it's all multiplayer. Um, and then I had a demo at Hson Games. I played Class of 89. I was very very excited to try this. I also still want to play Ringo, so I'm hoping to maybe do that tomorrow. Fingers crossed. I don't know if it's gonna happen, but you know, we're gonna try. Um, but oh my gosh, Class of 89. Really fun. Lots of combos.

9:23 It's a combo crazy game. I hope, by the way, that the sound is okay cuz obviously it's very busy. Might be a lot of noise, but I'm hoping obviously the mic will help. Okay, but yes, class 89. a fun game. Um, a lot of combinations. So, like you do an action and you can really like stack the combos, which does feel very good. Um, I definitely would want to know how the solo goes. I think it would be a really nice cozy puzzle game for solo. So, who knows? It's coming out at the end of the year. At least that's the plan. So, not sure yet if it's like a game that I need in my collection, but I had a great time and I'm really glad that I got to demo it today. And then I had the demo uh for Tetics Games, the new game from the designer of Deep Progress. And if you know my channel, you know I love Deep Progress. So, we played Personal Demons.

10:23 Yo, that was so fun. We played a whole game of it, which I did not expect. Uh, I thought it would be maybe half a game, but we had um a demo for an hour. So, we played the whole game with teaching. So, and obviously we had we rushed it a little bit at the end. Um, but very fun. I love the scoring mechanic. It feels very satisfying. The artwork again, I mean, if you know uh Deep Regrets, the artwork is crazy and I love it so much. It's so unique and creative and gross and creepy but still fun. Um, and it's the same with personal demons and the whole concept of the game is like it's like a big therapy session. So, you're fighting literally your personal demon.

11:10 So, you get a fear like a fear for bees or a fear for commitment. Um, and then obviously the demons are all like real demons, but the game is more about real life demons, like fears, uh, which I think is a really great combo to make. And you're playing cards trying to make these patterns uh, to make seals to summon the demons and to summon bigger demons. And it's co-op or not, it's not co-op. I'm so sorry. But like when you play the multiplayer, there's no obviously you're playing to win, but the aspect where you're like um I don't know how to say this. When something happens that affects all players, it's always a positive. So if I summon a huge demon, which is good for me, then all the other players will get a benefit as well. So, it's like how they explain it, it's like therapy.

12:12 You're having like a group therapy session and therapy is good for everyone. Everybody wins in therapy. So, that's like the concept, which oh my gosh, I love that so much. And the art is great and the game play is really fun. I'm I don't know how the solo plays, but I'm excited. It's on Kickstarter now or it's coming to Kickstarter soon. I'll leave it linked below. Hopefully I'll remember to do that. But it's great. Check it out. So yes, a little bit of an update. Um, and yeah, so open gaming, having some food hopefully. Uh, and then just back to the hotel. We'll see how it goes.

13:00 I know what I want and it's none of that.

13:02 I mean, it's unfortunate. Day two, UK Games Expo. Whoop whoop whoop. I'm excited. Games have been bought. People have been met. And today we're going to do more of those things. I'm wearing my favorite outfit from last year. You can't really see everything, but the Van Rider Games outfit. Very excited. And we're going to meet more friends. I have a bunch of demos in the afternoon and in the morning we'll see what happens. Just going to explore the halls. Probably meet up with some people. Yes, exciting stuff. I'll bring you along. Let's go.

14:19 was very excited to be able to play night at the zoo. It is so fun. So all the animals at night leave the zoo to explore their own things. So it's your task to get all the animals back into the zoo before the zoo opens. But all the animals have their own way of moving. So it's difficult to get them back into the zoo in an efficient way.

15:27 As a peasant in the land of old legend, the legend show

15:53 So, for those familiar with Hercules and the 12 labors, you will find similar gameplay in Jason and the Argonauts, but we are starting with 10 dice, and you will be losing dice over the course of the game, which is like the opposite as with Hercules. I think this will be a more difficult challenge. I'm excited. in stack. You're trying to grow your beetle from a larae to a full grown beetle and you're choosing your actions every turn with this little like playerboard. It's tricky. It was way more thinky than I thought it was going to be and it was such a fun puzzle to do. I'm very excited to see this released. Song of the Wild Kin is a cooperative adventure campaign style game that is cozy and cute, but still has a huge gameplay impact. This is looking incredible. I can't wait to see them again at Spiel.

17:24 Day three. It's the last day of UK Games Expo. I'm just going to do my makeup while I talk to you. Um, I mostly just want to do a recap of yesterday because I didn't do that yesterday because oh my god, the UK Games Expo is just amazing. It's just that I get back to the hotel so late because of the like open gaming at the end, which which is like the best part of the UK Games Expo. Um, but that's why I then am tired when I get back and have like no time to or don't want to do anything else. Um, so that's why I'm doing it now. I might be repeating myself sometimes because I will be doing a voice over of the B-roll. Um, and now I'm doing like a recap. So, I might be repeating myself.

18:09 So, I'm sorry if that's the case. I'll try to not do that uh as much or there will be just more music and less voice over. We'll see. Um, I am creatively seeing what will happen when I get back when I edit. Um, but yesterday was so fun. um started the day with Night at the Zoo. It's the new Thomas Hollic game, which oh my god, it was so good. I need that game. Like, I was so sad that I couldn't buy it yet. I'm going to try to do my eyeliner, which is going to be not good, but all right. But oh my god, it's going to be released at Gen Con. I'm very excited for it. It was so good. All the animals move in like different ways.

18:56 And there's multiple animals in the base game. And there will be an expansion with four new animals as well. So like 10 animals total because the base game comes with six, I believe. Um, so it's going to be a whole thing. It's going to be great. I think a lot of people are going to love it. It's very puzzly. Uh, there's not a lot of player interaction, so if you do like player interaction, maybe less your thing. But for me, I was like, yes. Can I buy this now, please? And they were like, "Sorry, no." I was like, "Oh, well, too bad." And then I went over to play Shug, which oh my god, I will back that straight away when I get home. Um, because that was amazing. That was absolutely incredible. Not a game that I will probably get to the table very often because you can play it solo, but I think it shines in the multiplayer because it's more like a party adventure type game, like a party game. Uh, but different. I you can't really even explain it because it's so whimsical and unique. But yeah, that was so good. And it's like I can't even explain how it plays. You're like exploring trying to find this mythical creature called Shug and you need to bring him back to the pub because there's this like prophecy or like legend that when you bring Shug back to the pub, the king will be defeated. And the king is like a tyrant. So, you're trying to defeat the king by finding Shug and bringing him to the pub. Just

20:29 it's so funny. And it's just a lot of whimsy, a lot of nonsensical stuff, but so thematically on point. Like for example, you're trying to like make friends with these monsters to help you on your quest. Um, and whenever you flip a monster card, you're trying to make it your friend in like a party style game kind of way. So, I flipped a card and it was an imaginary friend. So, the artwork of the imaginary friend was just a black empty card cuz it's an imaginary friend. And then it says, "Give him a name or give the friend a name and a backstory." And that's how it becomes your friend. So or that how how how it becomes friendly to you. So did that you just do this out loud in the group. Um and then it's your friend. And there was another one. It's like oh name a random fact that nobody knows. And there was another one where we had to put like a timer for the person that drew this monster card.

21:35 And they had to like exactly say stop at 22 seconds. if you don't do it, it doesn't become your friend and it attacks you. So, all these like whimsical, nonsensical things. It was just very, very fun. Um, the artwork is crazy, which I love. So, yes, that was really great. I had a great time. Um, and then I played Stack. Oh my god, that was great as well. I'm It's not on Kickstarter yet, but I will back it when it is. Um, and that is the new game by the designer that did Mycelia, the like realistic mushroom Mycelia, not getting it confused with the cute Ravensburgger Myelia. Uh, very different games. Um, and it is in the same kind of vibe, but different of course. Um, but with like beetles, like stag beetles and all types of beetles. And the artwork is so beautiful as it is with myelia. So that was really really good. I was very like excited uh about playing it and I really like the game play. It's very like thinky puzzly as well. Uh trying to get the best combinations of actions to do as many things in your turn. Uh very fun. Um and I think that's actually everything we played. We did open gaming. We played Yubibo, which is like this game with the sticks. Oh my god, that was crazy madness. So incredible.

23:04 It was so funny, so difficult, and just hilarious cuz you're like so uncomfortable sitting with all the sticks on your fingers and crazy. It was crazy. It was so fun. And today is pretty busy day. Um, we'll see how it goes. I I will see how much footage I can get. The expo ends early today at 4, so we'll see. I won't get as much gaming in today uh as the other days, that's for sure. But that's all right. We might do some games at the hotel because we will be flying back tomorrow. So, we have like the evening still. Um so, me and Jennifer and maybe some other friends will probably just play some games and have a great time. So, yes, I'm hoping I don't know how long this vlog is going to be. Hopefully not too too long. Um, and I bought this crazy necklace yesterday. Oh my god, I won't be able to wear this a lot in life, but I just needed it. I saw it and I was like, I need it. Let me do a little shout out to the uh it's Suki Blade. That's the brand. I'm sure I showed a clip uh in the video as well, but Oh, every I wanted everything. I might go back today actually and get some more stuff from their booth. So, all right. Well, let's go do day three and see what other games we're gonna find. Went to Alicat Games to check out

24:34 their upcoming games. Two new tins. Firework has a solo. Highlands looking beautiful. This is a new pusher game. Looking fun. Chocolate Factory is a reprint of an already existing game, which I'm very excited for.

24:56 went to Chip Theory Games to see their new 20 strong games that are not out yet. Um, three new ones. Tainted Grail is looking amazing. Look at this artwork. Such Dark Souls vibes. Say less. Fade of Witches is looking beautiful. I had to just pick up a copy for myself because I couldn't resist. What can I say? We played Mariners. I was very very excited to play this because just look at this artwork. Incredible. And the gameplay is so fun. I can't wait for this to get uh the Kickstarter release. I'm backing it straight away.