Julian Miller went on a blind date with David McGranaghan in 2010. They hit it off, which is lucky, because a few years later they would move in together, get married, and start a company that sells banana tails, cardboard pirate ships, and cat paw mitts to people all over the world. None of that was the plan. At the time, Julian was acting in musicals and commercials. David was in the West End production of Jersey Boys, wearing wigs and high heels. But it turned out they both liked silly games. And they both had big, competitive families who liked yelling across the table.
The kind of yelling that happens when the rules don’t make sense, or the trivia questions are all about U.S. presidents, or the game ends in a tie and no one knows who’s supposed to clean up. So they decided to make something better. David wrote up some ideas, mostly theater games with a scoreboard. Julian made a logo. They figured if it was a disaster, they’d play it once and stick it in a drawer. They called it Game For Fame and self-published it in 2012.
They had no distribution plan, no marketing budget, and no real expectations. Game For Fame became a best-seller on Amazon UK. So they made another game. This one was about Jesus and Santa Claus fighting over Christmas. It sold too.
At that point, the couple was still working their regular jobs. They packed and shipped games in the evenings. One of them would be on the phone with a printer while the other one ran to Tesco for a roll of brown tape. Eventually, they moved to Los Angeles and started calling the company McMiller—half David’s last name, half Julian’s.
The Game That Went Bananas
In 2020, they made a game called It’s Bananas! where players wear long, Velcro banana tails and try to swing plastic rings onto a floor target by wiggling their hips. There are no turns. Everyone just goes at once. There are no quiet rounds. You either win, or you look ridiculous trying.
They made a TikTok video to show how it worked. The second video hit 50 million views. They sold out of inventory. Then they sold out again. Eventually, they quit acting and focused full time on the game business.
It’s Bananas! became the game that turned McMiller from “a couple with a hobby” into “a couple with pallets of banana tails arriving at their doorstep.”
They ran the company out of their apartment. Julian handled logistics. David came up with the games. They hired one assistant. And then a second. And then a warehouse.
The Games That Followed
Once It’s Bananas! went viral, McMiller leaned into the chaos. They launched a series of games designed to make people stand up, move around, and look a little ridiculous in front of their families.
Fire in the Hole!
A pirate game with a giant pop-up cardboard ship, felt cannonballs, and an actual explosion sound when you hit the target. The box is the board. The board is the box. The instructions are printed on the inside. No one has to read a booklet. You just open the box and start throwing.
Everything in the game is plastic-free. The felt balls are biodegradable. The ship folds flat. It’s like a toy you’d find at a pirate-themed street fair, but easier to store in a closet.
The Cat Mitt Game
You put on two massive cat paw mitts. Then you try to swat squishy balls into a cardboard goal. It sounds simple. It’s not. The mitts are oversized, floppy, and feel like batting a balloon underwater.
It’s messy. It’s loud. It’s also fully compostable.
UpRoar!
A fast-paced card game where you flip cards and make weird noises. One card might say “elephant,” another might say “snoring,” and the goal is to make the loudest, best, or dumbest version of both at the same time. It won a couple of family game awards. One of them came with a badge. The badge went on the box.
Muffin Time
Not technically a McMiller original, but they helped bring it to life. It’s based on the asdfmovie YouTube cartoons, which have a huge following. The game looks sweet and harmless but is full of cards that sabotage your progress, cancel your moves, or set traps for other players. It’s a chaos game. No one wins gracefully. You just try to win before the game turns on you.
How the Games Are Made
McMiller designs their games with three goals: no long rules, no boring rounds, and nothing you’d be embarrassed to post online. Most of the ideas come from David’s comedy background. If it makes people laugh in real life, it probably makes a good game. Julian focuses on the logistics—how it’s built, what it costs, whether it can be shipped in a flat box without a pile of bubble wrap.
They also made a decision early on to go plastic-free wherever possible. Except for It’s Bananas!, which includes a hard plastic tail base, every new game is made from cardboard, fabric, wood, or rubber. The ink is soy-based. The felt is compostable. The boxes are recyclable. Some of them are also absurdly large—but they break down flat.
The People Behind the Table
Julian grew up in the Netherlands. David’s from Scotland. One has a background in musical theater, the other in comedy. Together they run McMiller as a queer-owned, founder-led company that still tests every game on their own family members. If it doesn’t make Grandma laugh, or causes a cousin to complain about the instructions, it goes back to the drawing board.
They’ve shipped over a million games. They’ve been featured in big holiday gift guides. They’ve watched their games go viral more than once. But the company still runs small—intentionally. Fewer layers. Faster decisions. More weird ideas getting made.
They don’t release dozens of games a year. They release one or two, pack them with ridiculous props, test them until they work, and then post a video of someone slipping on a tail or yelling about muffins.
That’s the McMiller approach. Less strategy. More yelling.
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