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.
Raising $1m in crowdfunding for a board game is no mean feat, even for veteran publishers with multiple campaigns under their belts. But high school sweethearts Dusty and Amy Droz managed just that last year on their first try, after more than 15,000 backers pledged funding to create Victorian-themed flower hunting game Botany. Amid juggling their wedding photograph business and managing their own lavender farm, Dusty spoke to BoardGameWire about how the lessons learned from their crowdfunding debut helped Dux Somnium score its second success in raising $550,000 for follow-up game La Fleur.
Paper Fort Games, a small UK board game design studio with a single game under its belt, could hardly have been more ambitious when it approached video game developer Re-logic with the pitch for its second game - adapting Terraria, one of the biggest-selling video games of all time, to the tabletop.
The UK’s largest hobby gaming convention is planning a big expansion in 2025, after a surging attendance saw more than 39,000 people descend on this year's record-breaking event.
A host of board game publishers, designers, artists and content creators are hoping to raise $5,000 to help Palestinian children affected by the Israel-Hamas war, via a 12-hour internet livestream this coming weekend.
Launched in the depths of the Covid-19 pandemic, All About Games Consulting has swiftly grown from offering manufacturing and sales support to become a one-stop shop for board game business services. In this sponsored article, AAGC co-founder Cedric Delobelle explains how the company has quickly expanded to fill a gap in the industry, sets straight some assumptions about what a consultant actually does, and talks about why smart sales rather than pushy ones will always win out.
Kevin Wilson barely needs an introduction when it comes to the modern board games industry, having spent more than 20 years working across titles ranging from Descent: Journeys in the Dark and Arkham Horror to Cosmic Encounter and Civilization: The Board Game. Since being named director of game design at Incredible Dream upon the company's 2021 launch, he's been the design lead on a trio of games in the new Kinfire setting. The latest, Kinfire Council, sees Wilson bringing his own take on the worker placement genre - and is just about to complete a successful Kickstarter campaign. Wilson sat down with BoardGameWire to talk worldbuilding, prototyping, and best practice for designing as part of a team.
When professional graphic designer Ross Bruggink decided to mix his love of gardening with his eye for creative artwork and create his first board game, he was adamant that visual beauty should be at the heart of the game. That push to create a striking game that was also strategic and quick to learn has reaped big rewards, with Vicious Gardens currently closing in on $300,000 with half the campaign still to run. Bruggink explained to BoardGameWire how his design and playtesting process, and his decision to partner with services providers for publishing and marketing, helped the campaign to blossom.
Hackers have broken into the website server for Game Market, the organiser of Japan's biggest board games events, causing tens of thousands of images to be deleted from the site.
