Ninja Division, the troubled miniatures game publisher which raised more than $3m via Kickstarter for a string of tabletop projects, has filed for bankruptcy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The company’s voluntary bankruptcy petition said it had liabilities in the range of $1m to $10m, with assets of between $0 and $100,000 – and up to 49 creditors, although that figure does not include the thousands of Kickstarter backers who never received their games from the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ninja Division made a name for itself as a successful tabletop games Kickstarter business in 2014, when it raised $1.2m from more than 6,500 backers to fund Super Dungeon Explore: Forgotten King, an extension of its Super Dungeon Explore line of miniatures-focused dungeon crawlers launched in 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The company successfully got that game out to its backers, and buoyed by its huge success returned to crowdfunding in late 2015, raising almost $1.3m from over 6,600 backers for Super Dungeon Explore: Legends – billed as containing two campaigns and the tools for players to build their own adventures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That was slated for delivery to backers in December 2016. More than seven years later, backers have never received their games – and are now pushing for the company to at least release PDFs and 3D-printable STL files so they can create their own version of the game at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Almost 2,500 backers of Ninja Division’s Relic Knights 2nd Edition game are also out of pocket, with that game also failing to be delivered – seven years after it raised more than $380,000 on Kickstarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ninja Division’s problems began in 2016 during development of Super Dungeon Explore: Legends, according to a response from the company to a complaint filed by a backer to the Attorney General of Washington State in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It said “lukewarm” feedback to in-development rules it posted as Kickstarter updates had led to it deciding to scrap the entire ruleset and begin again from scratch – a decision it claimed was well-received from backers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ninja Division said in the response that it did not fully realise the “complete ramifications and ripple effects of this decision”, which included increased development time and costs for development, manufacturing and shipping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Matters were also complicated by lead designer Dietrich Stella developing heart problems in 2017, which led to six months of limited work ability while he received treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ninja Division’s finances dwindled, and by 2017 it had exhausted the Kickstarter funds for the game, estimating that it still needed $750,000 to complete and ship the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An ICV2 report from March 2018 quoted Ninja Division co-owner and creative director John Cadice as saying the company would no longer fund large projects on Kickstarter, citing “toxicity” from users on the platform. That report made no mention of the delays to Super Dungeon Explore: Legends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ninja Division revealed in a Kickstarter update in February 2019 that it had let the majority of its staff go at the end of the previous year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Four months later, its Starfinder Masterclass Miniatures Kickstarter, which raised more than $450,000 from 2,200 backers was taken over by Paizo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The last Kickstarter update from Archon about that project, in June 2022, said 71 of the more than 100 miniatures were still to be produced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n