It started, as the best bad decisions do, in lockdown. While the rest of us were murdering sourdough and panic-buying loo roll, Radio 1 and TV presenter Matt Edmondson taught himself graphic design, copywriting and the dark arts of game manufacturing — then roped in his brother-in-law, businessman Laurence Emmett. Format Games was born in 2021 from a simple, stubborn belief: a board game should be genuinely funny and so easy to learn that even people who'd never call themselves "board game people" are playing within a minute.

Turns out, people liked them. A lot. What began over a cup of tea and a chat snowballed into a global distribution deal with Asmodee — "like a couple of guys taking up busking on Monday and getting signed by a major label by Friday," as Laurence put it. Along the way came the award-winning Noggin, the gloriously chaotic Karen, and the breakout hit 13 Beavers, a game people react to like a last-minute cup-final winner.

Today you will find us in all corners of the world! Format Games are on shelves across the UK — John Lewis, Waterstones, Argos and Amazon — and right across the US in Walmart, Target, Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble, with games selling from Canada to New Zealand to South Africa. We're still a small team making silly ideas at speed, and for 2026 we've got our biggest line-up yet. Consider yourself warned.