Gaming giant Hasbro has named long-serving Blizzard senior exec John Hight as its new president of Wizards of the Coast and digital gaming, three months after the resignation of former incumbent Cynthia Williams.
Africa's longest-running board games convention has returned to Kickstarter after two years of self-financing, as soaring inflation in its home country of Nigeria weighs heavily on the event's finances.
Heat: Pedal to the Metal co-designer Asger Harding Granerud has completed a full lap of the board game industry since he began designing games just over a decade ago, having launched a distributor, retail shop and design studio in addition to seeing his motor racing co-design accelerate into the BoardGameGeek Top 40. Granerud sat down with BoardGameWire to discuss his learning curve as a designer and publisher, the challenges of running a three-person indie studio, and how to avoid common pitfalls in bringing your game to market.
Academic researchers planning board game-related projects are being offered up to €20,000 in grant money through this year's programme from Game in Lab, which was co-created by Asmodee in 2018.
Bigger money crowdfunding projects inevitably take up the lion's share of discussion in board game circles, but the vast majority of projects inevitably run on a smaller scale - and with smaller margins for error. Managing production at that scale can be a significant challenge, but is one frequently faced by first-time designers and more established board game publisher alike. Seppy Yoon from board game publishers Fight In A Box has successfully managed a string of small Kickstarter projects - and one which failed to reach its goal. Amid raising funds for the company's latest Kickstarter project, he shares his advice and insights on deciding how big your game should be, managing convention finances, and balancing creative urges with keeping a game project manageable.
Petersen Games, the Cthulhu Wars publisher left struggling to fulfill more than $2m of Kickstarter projects after hitting severe financial issues during the coronavirus pandemic, has been bailed out by fledgling board game publisher and manufacturer Quimbley's Toys and Games.
Scammers impersonating a Facebook group and community with tens of thousands of members have managed to con multiple tabletop publishers into sending them review copies of their latest games.
Bringing any board game crowdfunding project to fruition amid the clamour of competiting offerings can be a challenge for even large publishers. But doing so as a one-person company, putting out the latest expansive board game from famed Axis & Allies designer Larry Harris, requires another level of plate-spinning entirely. In this sponsored article, Nightingale Games owner Thomas Gale talks deluxification of Kickstarters, savvy advertising and working in the post-Covid environment, while Larry Harris himself discusses his design approach and creating 'experiences' rather than just games.
Applications for board games trade organisation GAMA's annual diversity programme are now open for this year, offering $1,000 grants, convention support and mentorship to new board game publishers and retailers from under-represented communities.
