Financially-troubled French board game publisher FunForge is understood to be within weeks of signing a contract which will give it the funding to get its heavily-delayed Monumental Kickstarter to backers within the next two months.
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.
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.
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.
Crafting a game system so compelling that other designers want to create their own games using it is a rare beast in board gaming. Veteran wargame designer Volko Ruhnke has managed it twice - first with the COIN series, which saw its asymmetric counterinsurgency design influence games including Root, and his Levy and Campaign series, which currently runs to nine volumes of designs by various creators. The former CIA intelligence analyst spoke to BoardGameWire about his continuing drive towards accessibility with new design Hunt for Blackbeard, which is on Kickstarter now, how he's solving the hidden movement mechanics conundrum, and which games have been influencing his own design processes in recent years.
Abstract lightweight tile-laying game Harmonies has powered to the top of the charts for the number of BGG users adding new games to their collections in May.
Innovative hex and counter wargame Downfall: Conquest of the Third Reich has been named Game of the Year at the latest Charles S Roberts Awards, seen by many as the Oscars of wargaming.
Economic class warfare simulator Hegemony: Lead Your Class to Victory is looking to add Portugal's game of the year award to its resume in the wake of a powerful showing in the Golden Geek Awards last month.
Game Brewer, the Belgian publisher of board games including Gugong and Paris, is shutting down after struggling to remain profitable amid rising competition.
The word 'meeple', which board gamers around the world will recognise as meaning a stylised human-shaped playing piece, is being trademarked in the US in reaction to Carcassonne's German publisher Hans Im Glueck sending a 'cease and desist' email calling for a crowdfunding project to be taken down.
