Sea Cove Games scraps Gamefound campaign for debut game Carolingi, says platform is “not the right fit”

Sea Cove Games, the new board game publisher launched by the founders of Eggertspiele and Spielworxx, has scrapped its debut crowdfunding campaign on Gamefound two weeks after launch.

Carolingi, an area majority bag-builder set in the wake of the death of the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne, had a €25,000 goal on Gamefound – but Sea Cove halted the campaign on January 24 after picking up just 55% of that total from 183 backers.

Spielworxx’s Uli Blennemann, who launched Sea Cove last year with Eggertspiele founder Peter Eggert, told BoardGameWire the team was not too disheartened, and pointed out a separate crowdfunding campaign for the game was still running on German site Spieleschmiede.

That campaign has picked up about €16,500 so far from 179 backers, beating its €14,000 target. Eight days of the campaign remain.

An update posted on the Gamefound campaign page on January 24 said, “Much like the transition of the real-life Carolingian heirs, our journey to bring this game to life has been met with a degree of struggle.

“After careful consideration and assessing the current campaign momentum, we have made the decision to redirect our crowdfunding efforts and pause the current campaign.

“Every product has the perfect vehicle to reach its complete audience, and at this time, it appears that Gamefound is not the right fit to bring Carolingi to find those perfect players.

“Our efforts will now be refocused on building a pre-order audience from the Sea Cove Games website and on Spieleschmiede, where we can better engage with a broader community and make the process smooth for everyone involved.”

Carolingi sees players take on the role of Charlemagne’s grandchildren – the Carolingi – as they fight over his vast realm, using a bag-based action selection system to control areas of the map, unite regions, develop their realms, attract followers and gain glory.

Eggert brought the game to Blenneman due to his experience with historical games, having published titles including Arkwright, The Virgin Queen and John Company through Spielworxx.

Eggert’s own significant experience in board games includes publishing Spiel des Jahres winner Camel Up, Kennerspiel winner Village and Alexander Pfister designs Great Western Trail and Mombasa.

He left Eggertspiel in 2020, three years after the company was taken over by Plan B Games. A year after that Plan B was scooped up by Asmodee as part of its frenetic acquisitions spree under the ownership of private equity investor PAI Partners.

Eggert is also part of Deep Print Games, the publisher launched in 2020 as a who’s who of German board game industry. Its team also includes Pegasus Spiele’s Karsten Esser and Andreas Finkernagel, ex-Eggertspiele and Plan B designer Philipp El Alaoui, and Viktor Kobilke and Matthias Nagy from Frosted Games.