Tag advice

Pandemic creator Matt Leacock on fighting for designers’ rights, working with effective developers and his publisher ‘pet peeves’

After being catapulted into the board game industry limelight following the success of Pandemic in 2008, Matt Leacock has scored ongoing success through titles such as the Forbidden series, Ticket to Ride and Pandemic legacy titles and his Kennerspiel-winning climate-change co-design Daybreak. In this in-depth interview he spoke with BoardGameWire about how the industry has changed for designers over the last quarter of a century, how working with developers can best help a design to sing, and why fighting for designer rights is among his most important jobs in 2026.

Small is beautiful: Fight in a Box’s Seppy Yoon on succeeding with small-scale crowdfunds, managing convention maths, and keeping up with the competition

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.

“You can run a $1.5m campaign and end up with a net loss of $1m”: Why math, math, math has been key to Dux Somnium’s blossoming board game Kickstarters

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.