Guards of Atlantis II races past €30k crowdfunding goal in 10 minutes, passes €300k

Guards of Atlantis II, which looks to translate the format of multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video games to the tabletop, has raced past its crowdfunding target to reach more than €300,000 on day one of the campaign.

Latvia-based publishers Wolff Designa took just 10 minutes and 17 seconds to hit their €30,000 goal for the game – about half the time Kickstarter sensation Exploding Kittens took to reach its initial €10,000 target.

Almost 2,000 backers have committed just over €344,000 to the project on Gamefound, just three hours into the 30-day fundraise.

The campaign for the second printing of the game is Guards of Atlantis II’s second storming crowdfunding success, with the first edition also funding on day one of its Kickstarter campaign in April 2020.

That debut crowdfunding campaign brought in more than $280,000 from about 2,250 backers, easily beating its own $50,000 goal.

So what’s behind the latest impressive campaign? As well as holding a hefty 8.6 rating on BoardGameGeek, Guards of Atlantis has gone down incredibly well with a string of board game reviewers.

The always insightful Dan Thurot of Space-Biff! called the game the king of cardboard MOBAs, saying:

Guards of Atlantis II excels at setting stakes. Every match feels dire. In the moment, every turn feels like you’re watching your best-wrought plan crumple under the weight of error and sabotage. It’s in the game’s moments of panic that it comes together. Plans that work despite themselves. Attacks that ping an enemy who wasn’t expecting it. A sudden turn of momentum that sends your minions surging forward.

Dan Thurot, Space-Biff!

His criticisms of the game included the map tending to devolve into two separate 2v2 matchups and the incredibly high skill ceiling, but concluded that “what Guards of Atlantis II does well, it does with such grace and competence that these are minor blips compared to the good stuff”.

The crowdfunding also potentially received a boost from Wolff Designa saying the game is unlikely to be available in retail, adding that the first edition is already notoriously hard to find on the secondary market. 

A single copy of the original 2020 release is currently available on eBay, priced at $595.

An update on the Gamefound page celebrating the funding passing its goal said:

Guards of Atlantis II is by far our largest game to date. The work on it never really stopped since the release of the original back in 2017. A ton of love and effort was put into Guards of Atlantis II by everyone at Wolffdesigna, as well as by our amazing community who helped us playtest and develop the game further and create new content.

Even though deep down we always knew that we have something special on our hands, the campaign launch is always a step into the unknown. How will our efforts be received?

Will you, our backers, like what you see? It’s never a given.

This is why we are super excited to see the momentum we are having on day one, and are very grateful to see you all here and hope that this campaign will be as fun and engaging for everyone as we hope!

Wolff Designa, Gamefound update