Incredible Dream scraps new Kickstarter after just a day, despite reaching almost 90% of target

Incredible Dream, one of the few board game startups to attract millions in venture capital dollars, has scrapped its new Kickstarter project just a day after launch, despite reaching almost 90% of its target amount.

Boundless Stride: Into the Denlands picked up support from almost 240 backers following its launch on November 29, quickly raising more than $17,800 of its $20,000 goal.

But that wasn’t enough to save the project from being pulled a day later, with the company saying in a Kickstarter update that they were “unlikely to hit our goals for the project”.

Incredible Dream’s first game, Kinfire Chronicles: Night’s Fall, raised more than $300,000 on Kickstarter from over 2,400 backers in September last year.

The update blamed poor timing of the campaign around Black Friday as one of the reasons for the failure, but did not elaborate on the others.

It added, “While this isn’t the outcome we hoped for, we see it as an important step in our journey. Crowdfunding is a great means for us to test ideas before making bigger commitments to manufacture and ship.

“We are heading back to the drawing board to re-envision Boundless Stride, and your input will be invaluable in this process.”

Several backers commented that high shipping prices had been a potential sticking point. Incredible Dream estimated a cost of $20 to send the $49 base pledge to most US backers, rising to between $24 and $60 for European delivery.

The Los Angeles-based business scored $2m in seed funding two years ago led by investment giant General Catalyst, a venture capital firm which has raised more than $20bn of capital since it was founded in the year 2000.

Venture capital investors pool money from institutions such as pension funds and insurance companies, as well as from ultra-rich individuals and families, to invest in startups at the earliest stage, in the hope their investment will soar by several multiples as the company grows.

Both Boundless Stride and Kinfire Chronicles are adventure-themed co-op titles, co-designed by ex-Fantasy Flight Games designer Kevin Wilson, who previously created Descent: Journeys in the Dark and was the co-designer of Arkham Horror and Sid Meier’s Civilization: The Board Game.

Wilson is Game Design Director at the company, while other hires include The Witcher 3 lead quest designer Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz, who has since moved to Riot Games, and actress, gamer and creator of The Guild web series Felicia Day, who acts as an advisor.

The other co-designers of both Kinfire and Boundless Stride include Runebound co-creator Darrel Hardy and Descent: Legends of the Dark and Journeys in Middle-earth co-designer Brandon Perdue.

Earlier this year Incredible Dream hired Kovray influencer Ilya Ushakov as social media and community manager.