Financially-troubled Elf Creek Games brings in Genius Games founder to restructure business, says fulfilling overdue Kickstarters is ‘top priority’

Financially-struggling board game publisher Elf Creek Games has brought in Genius Games founder John Coveyou as executive director, as the company tries to “stabilise and restructure” in order to get its multiple unfulfilled Kickstarter campaigns out to backers.

Coveyou, who will take over full operational control of the company, is also the founder and director of accounting and tax firm Simple Financials, which Elf Creek said specialises ” in helping small businesses recover from crises like ours”.

Elf Creek currently has almost $340,000 of entirely unfulfilled Kickstarter projects, including Secret Villages & Santa’s Workshop (+Related Story Puzzles!) and Paradox Initiative, while some backers of Atlantis Rising: Monstrosities campaign from 2020 are also still waiting for French and German language editions of the game.

The new announcement is the first update Elf Creek Kickstarter backers have received since the business went radio silent in August last year, although company founder Brent Dickman confirmed to BoardGameWire in December that he was “actively looking for a home and way forward for all of our games, including our unpublished Kickstarter projects, and will make official statements when I am able”.

Elf Creek said it was working through legal matters and preparing for transition to new ownership – understood to be Genius Games, although the company did not explicitly confirm this in the update.

It also said it was “cleaning up three years of backlogged accounting and bookkeeping”, and “organising its outstanding debts, inventory, designer agreements and vendor relationships”.

A separate statement to backers of its unfulfilled Kickstarters said, “Our top priority is to preserve Elf Creek’s games and fulfill the commitments made to you, our backers, and to all our supporters.

“We are taking steps to make that possible, but we want to be honest: this is a long process, and we’re still early in assessing the full scope of what must be done.”

Coveyou founded Genius Games in 2013 following a career as an engineer, a science and chemistry teacher and a spell in the US Army.

The company specialises in science-themed games with an educational bent, with its best known releases including 2019’s Ecosystem and 2021 release Genotype: A Mendelian Genetics Game (2021)

Coveyou said, “I care deeply about this industry and I know firsthand the challenges of running a board game publishing company.

“I’ve worked with dozens of other types of small businesses that were working through difficult transitions, and I know how rare and special a game company like Elf Creek is. Its products are beloved. Its design quality is outstanding. And its community deserves answers.

“This situation resonates personally on multiple levels. I have close personal relationships with many of the people affected by what’s happened at Elf Creek. I’m stepping in not just because I can help, but because I believe it’s the best option moving forward.

“Elf Creek Games may be facing one of its hardest moments – but with structure, diligence, and a lot of hard work, there’s still a path forward.”

Elf Creek said it was working to get Santa’s Workshop delivered by Christmas, while Secret Villages and Paradox Initiative are yet to be manufactured. The company did not reveal what stage of production, if any, the French and German editions of Atlantis Rising: Monstrosities are at.

Elf Creek has raised $1.6m through eight Kickstarter campaigns since it was launched by Brent Dickman in 2017, scoring big successes for games including Merchants of the Dark Road and Honey Buzz.

But the publisher has been in turmoil since being hit with a $226,000 freight bill for shipping Merchants of the Dark Road in 2022 – more than four-times its initial $50,000 estimate – after global freight costs soared in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Rather than hold back fulfillment until prices fell, Elf Creek ploughed on in delivering the game at the vastly inflated cost, relying on the entirety of the game’s profits, credit, and forecasts for future sales – a decision from which company founder Brent Dickman admitted last summer the business had “never fully recovered”.

Elf Creek revealed in 2023 it was also facing a shipping shortfall of almost $80,000 for its Atlantis Rising: Monstrosities Kickstarter, which raised $242,000 from over 5,000 backers in 2020.

It said manufacturing costs had also risen by about 28%, and estimated that unexpected storage fees from the delayed project added another $3,000 to $5,000.

The company asked backers for donations of $5 to $20 to help offset the extra shipping costs last summer, and within a month had raised more than $5,500.

BoardGameWire reported last December that Paul Salomon, the designer of Elf Creek’s Honey Buzz and recent Stonemaier Games title Stamp Swap, was working to save the unfulfilled Santa’s Workshop crowdfunding project through his new company GameHead, which had rebranded from GamerMats as part of a plan to expand the game mat supplier into publishing board games.

Salomon, who said he left Elf Creek last September while owed “an enormous and life changing amount of money”, told BoardGameWire in December that he had reclaimed the license to Honey Buzz due to unpaid royalties, and was hoping to acquire the rights to existing art and print files so he could control the future of the game.

Dickman said in the latest statement, “I know the past many months have been frustrating, confusing, and disappointing. I regret the way this entire situation has affected so many of you – our backers, partners,
collaborators, and friends.

“I’ve been working closely with John behind the scenes to find a path forward, one that gives Elf Creek the best chance to make things right. I’m grateful that we finally have something meaningful to share.”