North America's giant tabletop gaming convention Gen Con has broken new ground again after a record 71,000 people flocked to Indianapolis for this year's event.
Approaching large companies to use their IP in board games can be a daunting task - and they don't come much bigger than $3tn computing giant Microsoft. That didn't put off two-person Swiss board game publisher Treecer, though, whose successful pitch ended up with more than 5,000 backers committing about $600,000 to the Zoo Tycoon: The Board Game Kickstarter. Treecer co-founder Marc Dür took time out from managing the crowdfund for the game's New Shores expansion - which has raised almost $500,000 itself so far - to tell BoardGameWire how his company went about securing the licence, how their approach to crowdfunding has changed over the years, and lessons they learned from the original Zoo Tycoon campaign.
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.
Professional streamer Banzainator, who has thousands of Twitch followers and also works as a community manager for Alderac Entertainment Group, shared with BoardGameWire her strategic advice for how to best work with streamers to get your game noticed.
Game Brewer, the Belgian publisher of board games including Gugong and Paris, is shutting down after struggling to remain profitable amid rising competition.
Tabletop gaming publisher Modiphius has seen sales of its Fallout-related products more than double month-on-month amid the huge popularity of Amazon Prime's new Fallout TV show, which attracted 65 million viewers in just over two weeks.
Perepau Llistosella, the co-founder of Spanish board game publisher Looping Games, has left the company to launch his new business Kokorin Games.
Board game publishers in Germany are short-changing designers when it comes to paying out royalties by using opaque payment structures, the country's tabletop game designers association SAZ has said.
When Rummikub owner Goliath bought Funko’s board game and puzzles assets last month, there was no place in the deal for most of the 30-plus team that had created some of its most lauded designs of recent years.
In an industry where selling several thousand copies of a game can often be considered a success, getting eight million people to look at your products is something most publishers would bite your hand off to achieve. Board game media and marketing specialist Ray Billings, who has years of experience under her belt with companies including Czech Games Edition and Resonym, told BoardGameWire how her foray into TikTok since joining The Op five months ago has led to eye-watering engagement figures for the company - and explains how other publishers should be following suit.
