“Flashy ads don’t convert nearly as well as genuine conversation”: Don’t Starve: The Board Game guns for biggest Kickstarter tabletop raise of the year after topping $1m within hours of launch

An intensive pre-launch community-building campaign has already powered Don’t Starve: The Board Game to one of the biggest Kickstarter raises of 2025, with about $1.5m pledged less than 24 hours after the project’s launch.

Don’t Starve – an adaptation of the Tim Burton-esque survival video game of the same name – managed to rack up more than 60,000 followers for its Kickstarter campaign ahead of its launch yesterday, after publisher Glass Cannon Unplugged leaned hard on engaging with the video game’s existing fans, company co-founder and CEO Jakub Wiśniewski told BoardGameWire.

The surge of early support for the Kickstarter already makes it the fifth-highest tabletop fundraise on the platform this year, according to data from Tabletop Analytics – and shows it tracking ahead of the two biggest Kickstarter raises in the category this year.

The Shadowdark RPG: The Western Reaches Setting raised about $2.7m earlier this year, while the Alien RPG – Evolved Edition and Rapture Protocol brought in about $2.4m – totals which would not have seen them break the top five Kickstarter campaigns for dollars raised last year.

The crowdfunding landscape has changed significantly in the last couple of years, however, with the rise of Kickstarter competitor Gamefound as the often go-to platform for large-scale, miniatures heavy tabletop fundraises, and the recent impact of economic issues such as inflation and US tariff policy on both publishers and consumers.

Kickstarter’s total dollars raised from January to September this year stood at about $67m according to Tabletop Analytics data – down almost 20% on the same period last year. But the number of projects on the platform across that period has soared 30%, to more than 1,200.

Gamefound’s biggest campaigns this year have seen Agricola Special Edition raise about $6m, Ark Nova 3Dition around $4.1m, and This War of Mine Second Edition about $3.2m – but those are similarly down on its heaviest hitters from 2024, when the Cyberpunk 2077 board game raised $7.6m and Lands of Evershade $7.4m.

Wiśniewski told BoardGameWire, “The appetite [for crowdfunding campaigns] is still there, but it’s more cautious. Backers today are better informed, and they’ve seen enough campaigns to know that delivery dates are rarely exact.

“That means trust and transparency are more important than ever. The market is definitely more competitive – not just in terms of volume of campaigns, but also in terms of quality expectations.

“It’s no longer enough to have a big license or cool miniatures; you need a compelling, polished experience and clear communication.”

He added that the Glass Cannon team had approached Don’t Starve “with more caution and refinement”, after its previous campaigns taught the company “hard lessons about timelines, expectations, and communication”.

Frostpunk: The Board Game, the publisher’s biggest success to date with almost €2.5m raised, was initially estimated to deliver in June 2020. That game did not complete shipping until the begging of 2023, while Dying Light: The Board Game – due to reach backers in June last year – is currently estimated to arrive in Q2 of 2026.

Wiśniewski said, “This time, we built a more conservative schedule, invested more in testing communication materials before launch, and worked much closer with the licensor.

“The ‘why’ is simple: we wanted backers to feel more confident and better informed from the very beginning.”

Glass Cannon has made a niche for itself by specialising in adapting video game IPs to the tabletop, in a similar vein to UK-based Steamforged Games, the publisher of board game versions of games such as Elden Ring and Monster Hunter World.

The company’s other titles include Apex Legends: The Board Game, while planned crowdfunding campaigns include Diablo: The Roleplaying Game and strategy game March of Empires: Time of War, based on the MMO real-time strategy video game.

Speaking about Glass Cannon’s huge efforts to drum up support for Don’t Starve before the campaign launched, Wiśniewski said, “The pre-launch period was absolutely critical. We’ve learned over the years that Kickstarter campaigns don’t really start on launch day – they start months earlier.

“For Don’t Starve: The Board Game, we leaned heavily on community-building: developer diaries, early AMAs, playthroughs, and consistent engagement with both the video game and board game communities.

“The greatest impact came from authentic engagement – showing people prototypes, answering questions directly, and letting the Klei community feel involved. What worked less well was traditional advertising spend; flashy ads don’t convert nearly as well as genuine conversation.”

Other strategic considerations for the campaign included avoiding overloading the campaign with “stuff for the sake of stuff”, Wiśniewski said.

“Every stretch goal had to add meaningful value – more replayability, more variety, more ways to experience the game,” he said.

“Add-ons were designed to be optional luxuries, not mandatory pieces of the core experience. We think this approach worked: it gave backers excitement without jeopardizing timelines or making the pledge structure confusing.

“If I were to change anything, it might be pacing – ensuring the reveals match the rhythm of the campaign more smoothly. Also the campaign is still ongoing and new stuff will be added along the way and according to backer’s wishes.”

Asked for his essential tips on running a successful crowdfund, Wiśniewski said:

• Build community before launch – don’t expect Kickstarter alone to do the work.
• Set a realistic timeline and communicate it honestly.
• Don’t overcomplicate pledge levels – clarity beats cleverness.
• Test your message with real players early.

“Biggest pitfalls?” he added: “Overpromising with stretch goals, underestimating logistics, and neglecting post-campaign communication. Backers are forgiving if you’re transparent, but silence is the fastest way to lose trust.”

Don’t Starve: The Board Game’s Kickstarter campaign runs until October 23.