The Team behind the brand
Meet the makers, Rory Cockshaw & Issy Acosta!
Where the idea came from
This Is Not A Game Ltd. was founded by Rory Cockshaw and his then-girlfriend (now fiancée!) Issy Acosta, back in August of 2023.
On playing a few boardgames together early in their relationship, they had realised something: there were (almost) no vegan tabletop games in the world at all!
What's more: back then, both Rory and Issy worked for leading vegan organisations, designing awareness campaigns, running podcasts, and all the rest. Each had spent over a year as full-time activists.
Both Rory and Issy had spent hundreds of hours talking to people on the street about difficult topics like animal rights and climate change.
And both Rory and Issy knew that these conversations were never easy.
People are defensive when they're approached on the street - understandably!
It's hard to get an important message across to a random stranger you've only just met moments before.
Instead, Rory and Issy decided to try something new:
They decided to create a series of funny, engaging, and genuinely enjoyable card games and boardgames with solid vegan messages behind them.
These games are all designed to be played by vegans and non-vegans alike, enjoyed in the comfort of one's own home.
The motto behind the enterprise is "Laugh first, think second" - because, in Rory and Issy's experience, while food might be the way to someone's heart, comedy is the way to their head.
If we want to plant an idea, we need to make it fun.
If we can get rid of that age-old stereotype of vegans being grumpy, irritable, and offended and replace it with a vision of vegans as funny, open, and just so very human, we will make veganism drastically more accessible.
Not only that, but by providing social games to vegans, we're also hoping to help forge friendships within the movement, give a much-needed mental health boost where we can, and make genuinely good people happy.