Category Feature

Feature

“Influencer impact was judged to be quite high. I think that tide is receding”: Alderac’s veteran COO on how to master board game crowdfunding

Alderac's veteran COO Ryan Dancey has managed more than 20 crowdfunding campaigns during his long career - and is currently overseeing another Kickstarter success with Wingspan designer Elizabeth Hargrave's latest offering, Undergrove. In this in-depth guide he picks out every aspect of the crowdfunding process designers and publishers need to nail in order to run a successful campaign.

Mike Didymus-True
16 November 2023

Feature

“Building an audience is crucial”: Mayan Curse designer Joe Slack reveals his secrets of a successful Kickstarter campaign

Board game designer Joe Slack taps knowledge acquired through his four successful Kickstarters to provide some guidance on running a strong crowdfunding campaign. He talks knowing your numbers, how to spend a marketing budget and why building an audience before…

Mike Didymus-True
15 November 2023

Feature

“We didn’t expect to find this dark underbelly of the game design industry”: Two seasoned board game designers highlight why a professional association is so badly needed

Two board game designers describe a horror-show of interactions with publishers around contract law, overwork and unprofessional communication and attitudes - and underscore just how badly something like the TTGDA is needed in the modern tabletop games industry.

Feature

“It’s clear there are too many games being published”: Pegasus Spiele’s co-founder talks Dorfromantik, economic uncertainty and how it keeps winning board gaming’s biggest prize

Pegasus Spiele's co-founder talks Dorfromantik, economic uncertainty and how it keeps winning board gaming's biggest prize

Feature

Essen Spiel’s new head on how the world’s biggest board game fair is reinventing itself for its 40th year and beyond

Carol Rapp, a long-time Asmodee and Kosmos senior marketing executive, only joined the Essen Spiel team in November last year - and quickly found herself in charge of managing its biggest event yet.

Mike Didymus-True
20 September 2023
3 Comments

Board game designer Antoine Bauza sits in front of shelves full of games

Feature

“I began to be a little bored by designing games”: Why launching a board game publishing house has renewed 7 Wonders creator Antoine Bauza’s spark

Do any job for 15 years, and it can end up feeling a little stale. That even goes for board game design royalty - and was the position 7 Wonders and Hanabi creator Antoine Bauza found himself in last year.

Mike Didymus-True
19 July 2023

Feature

‘We delayed the game, but that saved the company’ – how Darwin’s Journey publisher Gonzalo Aguirre Bisi steered the project to success amid the post-Covid chaos

When Darwin’s Journey launched onto Kickstarter at the beginning of 2021, the world was beginning to show small signs of optimism that the Covid-19 pandemic that had gripped the globe for the previous 12 months was starting to lose ground.

Feature

“I almost lost my lunch” – Earth publisher Conor McGoey on managing one of 2023’s biggest board game successes

“I almost lost my lunch when I saw the invoice that came along with that order,” Inside Up Games founder Conor McGoey tells me, describing his decision to “bet it all on black” and print an enormous 25,000 English language copies of plant-themed tableau builder Earth.

Feature

Interview: FryxGames’ Jonathan Fryxelius talks Prelude 2

The surprise reveal of a second Prelude expansion for Terraforming Mars last week was met with widespread excitement online, with the as-yet-unreleased box soaring to the top of BoardGameGeek’s Hotness tracker of the most popular trending games. FryxGames said the…

Mike Didymus-True
15 May 2023