Financially-troubled board game publisher CMON says it plans to relaunch its halted crowdfunding operations later this year, after seeing its annual losses soar to almost $20m in 2025.
But a month later it emerged that CMON’s financial problems had been growing long before the tariffs, with the company announcing it had slumped to a loss of more than $3m in 2024 due to falling sales for its crowdfunding campaigns.
CMON’s $23m losses across 2024 and 2025 are now almost 5.5-times larger than its profits from the preceding nine years combined – and have led an independent auditor hired by the company to question whether it has the resources to stay in business for the foreseeable future.
An extract of a report from auditor Zhonghui Anda shared by CMON, which is set to appear in the company’s 2025 annual report next month, considered the publisher’s $19.9m annual loss, its net liabilities of more than $3.5m and contract liabilities of over $7.5m, saying, “These conditions indicate a material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt about the Group’s ability to continue as a going concern.”
CMON’s directors have a different view, however, saying in the 2025 financial report that the company “should be able to continue as a going concern” thanks to a trio of factors.
They include financial support from some of the directors “sufficient to finance CMON’s working capital requirements”, the roughly $2.4m proceeds from selling its Singapore office that it received in January, and the roughly $1.25m gross proceeds from a successful share sale last month.
CMON’s hefty liabilities are largely due to its eight undelivered crowdfunding campaigns, which are not recognised as revenue on the company’s books until they are fulfilled to backers.
The company said that delivering crowdfunding projects in 2024 contributed about $20m in revenue – a figure which had sunk to just $200,000 last year according to its latest financial report.
CMON said the 2025 losses were driven by a “significant decline in revenue”, which fell more than 73% to $9.9m last year, compared to the $37.3m total from 2024.
DCeased from CMON || Kickstarter image
It also cited impairment losses on property, plant and equipment, right of-use assets and intangible assets, and a loss it made disposing intellectual properties and related assets as part of its “strategic portfolio restructuring”.
Those IP sales included parting with its most famous and profitable title Zombicide – which has raised more than $40m on Kickstarter since its 2012 launch – to Asmodee, as well as Blood Rage, Rising Sun and Ankh to Tycoon Games.
CMON said all those sales combined amounted to about $5.1m, but added that it actually made an overall $2.4m loss on disposal of intellectual properties and related assets across 2025.
It also made a $5.7m loss due to undertaking an impairment assessment on some of its property, plant and equipment, right-of-use assets and intangible assets “with finite useful lives”.
CMON said in the financial report, “These actions, while negatively impacting short-term results, were undertaken to strengthen the Group’s operational focus and reduce future cost burden.”
The company’s remaining significant IP includes the Massive Darkness series, with the most recent installment, Massive Darkness: Dungeons of Shadowreach, completing a $2.85m crowdfund on Gamefound early last year – a figure which rose to more than $3.7m including late pledges.
That campaign was CMON’s last before it scrapped its future crowdfunding plans two months later. The company has pivoted in the interim to releasing several small-box games direct to retail, including Collect!, Peanuts Talent Show, Fairy Perfume, Rocket Punch and Yokai Carnival.
Collect! from CMON, designed by Jérémy Ducret and Johannes Goupy
Discussing its current strategy in the report, the company said, “In light of the continued uncertainty in the global market, particularly the instability arising from US import tariffs on certain products since the first half of 2025, the Group has taken decisive steps to restructure its operations and strengthen its financial position.
“Our current strategy is to:
1) reduce exposure to large-scale crowd-funding launches in the near term, focusing on fulfilment of games already committed to backers, with plans to resume crowdfunding activities in the second half of 2026 with new titles from current game lines;
2) grow distribution in Asia as a primary strategic market;
3) maintain a streamlined operational structure with reduced headcount and a smaller office footprint in line with the Group’s current scale of operations; and
4) maintain a debt-free position following the full repayment of bank borrowings, significantly reducing the Group’s financial liabilities and improving its financial resilience.
“We remain committed to becoming a quality developer and publisher of tabletop games and believe the strategic refocus toward Asia and selective game development will position the Group more sustainably for the future.”
CMON said it had reduced its revenue exposure to the US to about 21.4% of its total across 2025, compared to around 42% for the previous year, through what it described as a “deliberate strategic pivot toward Asia”.
The report showed CMON’s combined North and South America revenue fell more than 86% last year to about $2.1m, from around $15.7m in 2024.
European revenue also fell more than 81% year-on-year, from about $12.7m to around $2.4m. Asia revenue fell too, but much less sharply, down about 33% in 2025 from $8m to around $5.3m.
CMON said in the report, “Notwithstanding this reduced exposure, tariff-related uncertainties may continue to affect future export sales, revenue and gross margin performance in the US market.
“The Group intends to maintain its current reduced focus on the US market until the trade environment stabilises and market conditions improve.”
CMON also revealed the scale of its staffing cuts in the latest report, with headcount falling from 81 at the start of 2025 to just 41 at the beginning of this year.
The report said total staff costs had fallen in that time from about $4m to around $2.8m, including pay for its directors and their pension fund contributions, but it did not provide a breakdown of those numbers.
Heute gibt es eine Folge in der wir ein wenig von Hölzchen auf Stöckchen kommen und dennoch über viele interessante Dinge reden! Hört rein und lasst Euch diesmal ein wenig überraschen, was so auf Euch zukommt.
Welcome to this week’s batch of crowdfunding campaigns. We have a variety of offerings here, so we hope you will find something that catches your eye. Also, if you want to chat with the BGQ team, join our Discord Server where we talk about games, movies, sports, and other fun stuff. Or, if Facebook is […]
Ursprünglich ein Kickstarter-Projekt von Paverson Games, das Ende 2025 mit etwas Verzögerung ausgeliefert wurde. Ich hatte die Chance, dieses optisch schöne Eurogame in der Deluxe-Version mit Glockenspiel-Würfelturm mitspielen zu können. Meine anfängliche Begeisterung schlug allerdings im Laufe meiner Erstpartie in Langeweile um und das hatte ganz speziell eigen verursachte Gründe.
Auf der Brettspielfreizeit in Bad Holzhausen wurde Luthier begeistert gespielt. Von vielen, oft und häufig. Zunächst dachte ich, dass es hier um ein religiöses Thema geht, das nur ein wenig merkwürdig ausgesprochen wird. Mit dem Kirchenreformer und seinen Thesen hat das alles aber mal so gar nichts zu tun. Habe ich dann auch schnell gemerkt. Zumal dieser klimpernde Glockenspiel-Würfelturm mir die richtige Richtung hätte weisen können.
Es geht um die Handwerkskunst des Instrumentenbaus. Als Luthier, was französisch für Lautenmacher ist, wurden diejenigen im 18. Jahrhundert bezeichnet, die handgefertigte Instrumente bauten und reparierten. So eine Handarbeit war schließlich kostbar und nicht jeder konnte sich so ein Instrument leisten. Genau an dem Punkt kommen die Mäzene ins Spiel, die mit ihrem Ruhm und Reichtum uns als Luthier unterstützen, damit die größten Musiker der damaligen Zeitgeschichte die edelsten Instrumente nach den Symphonien der herausragendsten Komponisten erklingen lassen konnten – zum eigenen Ansehen als eben solche Komponisten und als Liebhaber der schönen Künste.
Bei dem Werk der Autoren Dave Beck und Abe Burson dreht sich also doch mal wieder alles nur ums schnöde Geld. Denn ohne ausreichende finanzielle Unterstützung kommen wir als Instrumentenbauer nicht weit. Deshalb werben wir um die Gunst diverser Mäzenen, die allerdings recht fordernd sind und bei Laune gehalten werden wollen. Ohne zeitige Gegenleistung, wie ein fertiges oder repariertes Instrument oder eine Konzertaufführung, war es das mit der Unterstützung und unseren Siegpunkten. Hinter dem schönen Thema steckt ein knallhartes Wirtschaftsspiel mit viel Optimierungspotential. Auf seinen spielerischen Kern heruntergebrochen, sammeln wir Rohstoffe, erwerben Baupläne für Instrumente und bauen daraus in zwei Bearbeitungsschritten ein entsprechendes Instrument. Die Mäzene sind dabei unsere Auftraggeber, die befriedigt werden wollen.
Um das alles bewerkstelligen zu können, haben wir unterschiedlich gestufte Arbeiter, die wir durch Lehrlinge ergänzen können. Damit bieten wir verdeckt auf einzelne Einsetzbereiche. Unsere lieben Mitspieler sehen zwar, dass wir dort aktiv werden wollen, allerdings nicht, wie viel Arbeitereinsatz wir dafür veranschlagt haben. Ein mit Lehrlingen aufgestockter Turm an Holzscheiben könnte allerdings eine Ahnung geben, dass es uns dort wirklich ernst ist.
Nach dem Einsetzen kommt das Aufdecken und wo wir agieren wollen, bestimmen wir in Spielerreihenfolge reihum. Blöd, wenn wir uns erst Baupläne besorgen sollen, bevor wir wissen, ob wir überhaupt den dazu passenden neuen Mäzen anwerben können. Mit dem Dilemma müssen wir leben und so ergibt sich ein Spannungsbogen, was möglich sein wird und wo wir situativ umplanen müssen. Spätestens bei der Konzertaufführung ordnen wir uns aber dem Zufall von einem Würfelpaar unter. Kunst lässt sich eben nicht perfekt vorausbestimmen, aber fehlendes Können im Moment durch Inspiration ausgleichen. Noch so eine Ressource, die wir uns besorgen sollten.
So ergab sich für mich zunächst ein thematisch schön eingekleidetes Eurogame. Zudem flott gespielt, weil wir gemeinsam vorplanen und dann reihum unsere Arbeiter einsetzen. Da auch unsere Mitspieler bestimmen, wo agiert, weil ausgewertet wird, war ich ständig an dem Geschehen auf dem zentralen Spielbrett interessiert. Alles fügte sich harmonisch zusammen. Eventuell zu harmonisch? Zumindest in der ersten Spielhälfte. Da wäre mein Fazit noch euphorisch ausgefallen und ich sah mich schon auf der Suche nach dem Spiel, das erst wieder im Sommer 2026 als lokalisierte Deluxe-Version fernab des überteuerten Zweitmarktes erhältlich sein wird. Soweit so gut – bis dahin.
Zwei Spielfehler, die wir leider erst nach der Partie enttarnten, sorgten bei mir in Folge für Beliebigkeit bis Langeweile. Zu Spielbeginn hatte ich die Auswahl, wer ich als Instrumentenbauer sein wollte. Meine Wahl fiel auf einen tüchtigen Geschäftsmann, der mit viel Anfangskapital ausgestattet war. Das sollte mir den nötigen Freiraum geben, so dachte ich mir. Als ersten Mäzen kam mir zudem jemand gerade recht, der mich zusätzlich mit Geld entlohnte. So schwamm ich anfangs im Geld, konnte viele Bauprojekte verwirklichen und nutzte sogar den Markt, um dort mit den Warenpreisen zu spekulieren. Das machte mir Spaß.
Ich kaufte mir Inspiration ein, was so gar nicht möglich gewesen wäre, da nur als Zahlungsmittel bei Marktgeschäften wie Geld nutzbar und konnte damit falsch gespielt jedem Zufall bei den Konzertaufführungen trotzen. So kletterte ich die Fortschrittsleisten im Spiel empor, die ihre thematischen Bezeichnungen wie auch sonst alles im Spiel haben, die mir allerdings entfallen sind, und konnte meine Konzertwürfel aufwerten. Und dabei entstand der zweite Spielfehler, weil wir nahmen weitere Würfel dazu, anstatt diese Weißen gegen besserer schwarze Würfel auszutauschen. Damit fiel das Spiel für mich in sich zusammen, denn in der Folge gab es keinerlei Herausforderungen mehr. Im wiederholten und nun völlig spannungsfreien Ablauf machte sich bei mir Langeweile breit.
Deshalb muss ich bei meinem Fazit die zweite Spielhälfte ignorieren, in der sich die Auswirkungen der Spielfehler potenzierten. Unter dieser Sichtweise, auf die schönen Spielstunden beschränkt, bleibt Luthier ein wirklich gutes bis sehr gutes Eurogame mit einem stimmigen und gefälligen Thema in meiner Erinnerung. Allerdings auch ein Spiel, bei dem das Thema viele schon längst bekannte Mechanismen verdeckt und überlackiert. Denn unter der Hülle bleibt es doch ein Spiel, bei dem wir Ressourcen sammeln, Aufträge erfüllen und Leisten hochklettern, um möglichst viele Siegpunkte durch optimierte Züge zu erspielen. Wenn Ihr Euch daran noch nicht satt gespielt habt und zudem dem Thema Musikinstrumentenbau zugeneigt seid, dann spielt Luthier unbedingt mal mit und dann hoffentlich auch regelgerecht.
Unabhängig von unseren zwei Spielfehlern fand ich den Markt in Luthier besonders und erwähnenswert. Dort können wir beliebig Rohstoffe verkaufen und von dem Geld kaufen, sodass ich niemals das Problem hatte, unpassende Ressourcen für den Instrumentenbau zu haben. Ausreichend Geld und Lagerplatz vorausgesetzt. Somit war der Markt für mich ein sanftes Kissen, das viele langfristige Planungen unnötig machte. Einfach ab auf den Markt, bevor ich meine Instrumente baue oder feinschleife und alle Probleme lösen sich schon. Das war mir dann doch zu verzeihend und ich hätte den Markt gerne eingeschränkter gesehen. Aber da werde ich ebenso mal in der Online-Anleitung nachblättern, ob sich das alles wirklich so darstellt wie mitgespielt.
Kurze Regel-Recherche, die mit einem „leider ja“ endet. Der Markt kann vieles kompensieren, hilft allerdings auch, dass man seine Planungen nicht übertreiben muss. In Folge ist mir damit Luthier dann doch eine Spur zu gefällig und rundgeschliffen. Denn zwischen Erfolg, der mich durchaus zufrieden stellt und wirklich gutem Spiel, bei dem ich begeisternd jubeln möchte, da lagen mir zu wenige Nuancen.
Ist die Reihenfolge bei den Aktionen wirklich so wichtig, wie uns der Bietmechanismus vorgibt? Oder gibt es trotzdem immer noch ausreichend viele Alternativen, die sich ebenso lohnen? Oder sollte Luthier bevorzugt in Vollbesetzung statt nur mit drei Spielern erlebt werden, damit es mehr Konkurrenz auf dem Spielplan gibt? Mit Blick auf die Mäzene der Mitspieler konnte ich stets gut erkennen, ob die mit mir in direkter Konkurrenz standen oder ganz eigene und andere Pläne verfolgten. Zu selten war die Aktionsreihenfolge wirklich entscheidend.
Mal sehen, was die Zukunft und eine Folgepartie so bringen, denn eine zweite Chance werde ich Luthier trotzdem geben, weil es mir anfangs eine schöne Spielzeit beschert hat. Etwas, das ein Spiel auch erst einmal schaffen muss. Deshalb längst noch nicht abgeschrieben, sofern sich die Gelegenheit einer Revanche in neuer Spielrunde ergibt.
Mindclash Games bringt mit Voidfall: Resurgence die erste große Erweiterung für das 4X-Strategiespiel Voidfall auf Kickstarter. Die Kampagne startete am 17. März 2026 und läuft noch bis zum 2. April. Neben der Erweiterung umfasst das Projekt auch einen Reprint der begehrten Galactic Box des Grundspiels. Das Finanzierungsziel von 100.000 Euro war innerhalb kürzester Zeit erreicht.
Psionik, neue Häuser und erweiterte Spielmodi
Im Zentrum von Voidfall: Resurgence steht eine neue Psionik-Mechanik, die das bestehende Spielsystem um eine zusätzliche strategische Ebene ergänzt. Jedes Haus erhält Zugang zu einem Psionic Agenda-Deck mit wiederverwendbaren Fähigkeiten, die neue Spezialisierungen und Spielstile ermöglichen. Hinzu kommen einmalig einsetzbare Psionic Combat Tokens, mit denen sich vernichtende psionische Angriffe starten oder Barrieren in entscheidenden Gefechten errichten lassen. Sogenannte Psionic Vanguards können in Schlüsselsektoren eingesetzt werden und bieten riskante, aber lohnende Manöver.
Die Erweiterung fügt dem Spiel sechs neue asymmetrische Häuser hinzu, von denen drei speziell auf die neuen Psionik-Mechaniken zugeschnitten sind. Zwölf neue Technologien bringen zusätzliche Flottentypen, Installationen und Gilden ins Spiel. Neue Szenarien und Sektoren sorgen für Abwechslung, während der kooperative Modus und der Solo-Modus ebenfalls überarbeitet wurden. Unter anderem wurde eine von der Community entwickelte Kampagne für ein bis zwei Spielende integriert.
Voidfall: Resurgence richtet sich an 1 bis 4 Spielende ab 14 Jahren. Die Spielzeit variiert je nach Szenario zwischen 90 und 240 Minuten. Designer Nigel Buckle, Dávid Turczi und Marcel Dragomir zeichnen erneut verantwortlich. Die Illustrationen stammen wieder von Ian O'Toole, dessen markanter Stil bereits das Grundspiel prägte.
Kickstarter-Kampagne und Verfügbarkeit
Die Kampagne bietet mehrere Pledge-Stufen für unterschiedliche Einstiegspunkte. Die Resurgence Expansion in der Deluxe Edition kostet 75 Euro und ist auf Englisch sowie als „Wiederauferstehung Erweiterung" auf Deutsch verfügbar. Wer neu bei Voidfall einsteigt, greift zum Gameplay All-In Pledge für 270 Euro, der die Galactic Box, die Resurgence Expansion in der Deluxe Edition und die Last Novarch Campaign Expansion enthält. Auch dieses Paket gibt es in englischer und deutscher Fassung. Für Unentschlossene steht ein Pledge Manager Access für 10 Euro bereit, über den sich der Betrag später im Pledge Manager auf Gamefound einlösen lässt.
Zusätzliche Add-ons wie ein Metal Structure Set, ein Playmat und ein Plastic Double-Layered Ship Pack ergänzen das Angebot. Besitzer der Retail-Version können über ein Galactic Upgrade Pack auf die Premium-Komponenten aufrüsten. Die Auslieferung aller Pledges ist für Juni 2027 geplant.
Die Galactic Box wird im Rahmen der Kampagne ebenfalls neu aufgelegt und bietet Nachzüglern die Gelegenheit, die Premium-Version des Grundspiels mit Miniaturen und optimierter Aufbewahrung zu erwerben. Zur Kickstarter-Kampagne von Voidfall: Resurgence geht es hier.
Welcome to this week’s batch of crowdfunding campaigns. We have a variety of offerings here, so we hope you will find something that catches your eye. Also, if you want to chat with the BGQ team, join our Discord Server where we talk about games, movies, sports, and other fun stuff. Or, if Facebook is […]
Ungefähr ein Jahrhundert, bevor Konrad Zuse die erste programmierbare Rechenmaschine konstruierte, entwickelte Ada Lovelace das erste Computerprogramm der Welt. Für die Umsetzung fehlte ihr in der viktorianischen Ära jedoch ein entscheidender Teil: ein Penis.In einer Zeit, in der das Y-Chromosom die Grundvoraussetzung für wissenschaftliche Anerkennung war, ignorierte ihr Freund Charles Babbage…
Publisher Equinox scrapped the crowdfund for Altered’s Roots of Corruption expansion yesterday after raising more than €420,000, having launched the campaign last week with a €50,000 target – a figure it described on the project page as a “technical necessity” in order to use Gamefound’s stretch goal system.
Equinox said in an update yesterday that it had also collected €680,000 through retailer pre-orders for the expansion – but added that the €1.1m total was “far too far” from the €2m the company required “to guarantee the future of the game”.
The statement said, “It would be dishonest to tell you that we can still turn the tide by Friday evening. We must face reality: the numbers simply aren’t there.
“It is with a heavy heart that we have decided to cancel the Roots of Corruption campaign. As we committed to doing, all backers – both players and retailers – will be reimbursed in full. This is the cornerstone of our responsibility toward you, and it is the most obvious decision to make.
“This campaign does not only mark the end of a crowdfunding project; unfortunately, it also marks the end of the Altered adventure.”
Altered shattered the crowdfunding record for a TCG on Kickstarter through its debut campaign in 2023, pulling in more than €6.2m (about $7.1m) from about 15,000 backers.
Altered aimed to stand out from high-profile competitors such as Magic: The Gathering through its focus on exploration and bringing heroes together, rather than battles between characters and monsters, as well as innovations such as a print-on-demand and a digital marketplace for cards.
That digital marketplace also made it difficult for retailers to offer the TCG staple of being able to buy, sell and trade single cards, and the game’s powerful early momentum waned as the title struggled to go toe-to-toe with offerings based on hugely popular IPs.
Equinox returned to crowdfunding for Altered’s fifth expansion, Seeds of Unity, in October last year – but faced similar problems to the most recent crowdfund in reaching its necessary totals.
That campaign hit the €50,000 goal set by Equinox in less than nine minutes, but an update from the publisher two weeks later revealed that the actual amount needed to create the game was €2.5m – a figure which if it did not reach, “the adventure will come to an end, and both backers and retailers will of course be refunded”.
Noting the €50,000 crowdfunding goal for that project, and the message on the Gamefound page describing it as more than 1,000% funded, Equinox made no mention of it being a technical necessity for the stretch goal system.
It said at the time, “The funding goal displayed on Gamefound is symbolic, as it usually is in crowdfunding campaigns.
“It’s chosen to help build early momentum but doesn’t reflect our actual needs. Setting the bar too high sometimes makes a project feel out of reach, while a more accessible goal helps get the collective energy moving right from the start.”
That campaign ultimately collected almost €900,000 after being extended for several days, with another €1.4m coming through retailer pre-orders.
Equinox said at the conclusion of that campaign, “While we haven’t reached the objective of €2.5m mentioned initially, we’re not that far off our goal, and with some adjustments on our part (which includes reviewing some budgets and determining new production processes) we believe we can cover that difference.”
Equinox had come under fire from some Altered players for launching its Roots of Corruption campaign before Seeds of Unity had been fully delivered to backers.
The company said in an update to Seeds of Unity backers that while it aimed for a four-month cycle per set, production delays meant that it “no longer [had] the flexibility to push dates back”.
Uncertain Future
Equinox founder Régis Bonnessée acknowledged in the latest update announcing the end of Altered that players would inevitably have questions about the future of their digital collections, the game’s availability on Board Game Arena and “the legacy of this universe”.
He said, “We are not going to leave you in a vacuum. We simply need some time to digest this moment, to properly close this chapter, and to provide you with clear and respectful answers. Thank you for every card played, for every smile exchanged, and for everything you put of yourselves into this adventure. It was an honor to imagine it with you.”
Bonnessée added, “I have experienced the end of projects before – cycles that come to a close. But today feels different. Tonight, we feel a profound sadness as we reflect on what Altered has become for all of us.
“Tonight, we are thinking of you – our players, our community, our ambassadors. To everyone who accompanied us, supported us, and sometimes challenged us. Altered managed to create something rare: a sincere, kind, and committed community.
“We say this because we met you time and again. You often surprised us. We are sad tonight because we realize what this game represented for many of you. And because we also realize all that we failed to achieve.
“We are thinking of the game stores. To those who believed in the game before it was a certainty, who championed it to their customers, and who ordered stock on a gamble. Running a game store is an act of faith in itself; betting on an independent French TCG with an original universe and no established license to lean on… that deserves to be acknowledged. Thank you to them.
“We are thinking of our artists. Altered is a universe, a visual identity—something recognizable at a single glance. This world did not exist until they drew it. Thank you to them for giving substance to all of this.
“We are thinking of our partners—those we call such for lack of a better word, because “partner” describes a contract but not the relationship. For their advice, for what they taught us by their side, for the moments they believed in the project even more than we perhaps deserved. We grew together, and that cannot be erased.
“And of course, on a personal level, my thoughts are with the team. To the women and men who continued to believe, even when the headwind became exhausting. To their resilience in the face of invisible obstacles, to their total dedication. They have been extraordinary. I know that word can feel worn out, but here, it takes on its full meaning. Thank you to them for allowing this universe to exist, if only for a time.”
MingYang Lu’s puzzle fighter-style board game Re;MATCH has had a storming start to its Kickstarter campaign, picking up almost $250,000 from over 1,250 backers with half of the month-long crowdfund still to go. In this sponsored interview, Lu talks about why his design looks to derive fun from game mastery rather than discovery, the importance of conventions for small publishers, and why AI art “cheapens creativity”.
Hi Ming!A big part of your design philosophy for Re;MATCH is centred around the difference between ‘mastery’ and ‘discovery’. Can you give an overview of what you mean by those terms?
Yeah! So I’ve developed this personal philosophy about the different types of fun designers can incorporate into hobby board games, and I currently feel there are two main types.
First is Discovery, which is the fun you get from being presented with new information to respond to. This could mean seeing new cards revealed in a shop for an engine or deck builder game, or encountering a new enemy or event card in a miniatures game.
Second is Mastery, which is instead the fun derived from realizing new combos or optimizations with the options you already have. This could involve learning the optimal strategies in a roll-and-write game, or realizing the political intricacies between the factions in Root.
I don’t think these two types of fun are mutually exclusive. In video games, particularly single player ones, both are almost mandatory for a great experience.
Can you give us an overview of Re;MATCH, its design and mechanisms, and how that sets it towards either mastery or discovery?
Happily! Re;MATCH a 1 vs 1 competitive fighting game inspired by Puzzle Fighting games. Players take turns pulling connected and matching marbles from a tray of marbles, and the color and number of marbles you pull will resolve a corresponding attack on your character’s move list.
In the same vein as my first game, Re;ACT, it is a skill expression game that focuses primarily on mastery type fun. All of your abilities are shown upfront, and you must figure out how to use these options to win. There are no event decks to shake things up mid game, and no new options to consider as you play. The fun in Re;MATCH is more about seeing the floor of possibilities open up as you start to understand the system and the characters.
This is pretty standard for fighting video games though. In those games, after selecting your character, you can immediately pause to see the massive list of your abilities and combos, and it’s up to you to learn how to use them to win.
Re;MATCH being demonstrated at PAX Unplugged in December 2025
How do you think mastery relates to complexity? And what are the design challenges for a game like Re;MATCH, in terms of getting that balance right?
Mastery and complexity are not directly related in my mind. Most abstract games provide fun exclusively through mastery. From Chess to Hive, the complexity might be low, but the potential for skill expression is high, leading to repeated plays being the source of joy in the game.
How do you see mastery vs discovery-style titles doing in the current board game hobby landscape, especially when it comes to crowdfunding campaigns and online marketing?
I’ve noticed that in recent years, hobby game releases – games that aren’t party games and generally cost $30 or more – tend to focus on discovery rather than mastery. With so many games being sold on vibes and people posting their opinions or reviews after just a few or even only one playthrough, it’s more important than ever to make sure that first game experience is as smooth and perfect as possible.
Games that front load too much information typically don’t have a smooth first game experience, so you want to slowly drip out the options a player can take. Giving a player a deck of cards with a ton of variety and telling them not to worry about what’s inside that deck upfront is a great way to do this, as you’ll discover new and cool options every single time you draw a different card. However, such randomness can make one group’s first game wildly different from another’s. So this wide variety of cards that feel different actually needs to produce very consistently similar outputs, ensuring that most first games deliver as optimal of an experience as possible.
I think this meta has produced a lot of games that feel incredibly satisfying on your first playthrough, constantly offering new options to explore or challenges to overcome, but don’t really hold that spark after repeated playthroughs.
Of course there are games that successfully offer lots of both types of fun, and I think those are the games that we remember. All of the most replayable deck building games are great examples of games that offer both!
I’ve already seen this game shared on social media, especially from people spotting it at Pax Unplugged last year – and I think part of that is its use of bright colours, those attention-grabbing marbles and that it generally doesn’t look like most of the other board games out there. Was that an intentional decision, in terms of potential marketing, or is this just how you wanted the game to be?
The artstyle was certainly intentional. The hardest part of selling games, or anything really, is getting people to even notice it in the first place. For Re;ACT, featuring very large acrylic standees with bases that can hold tokens was driven by what would make people stop and look when passing by the game at a convention.
Re;MATCH, however, is a really old design. When I first came up with the very first iteration of Re;MATCH, I was inspired by my favorite game at the time, Battlecon, with its very asymmetric characters and fully open information, brain-burning game play, and the idea of using marbles as a component due to the popularity of Potion Explosion and Gizmos at the time.
But after learning many lessons with Re;ACT, I realized that Re;MATCH needed a much more colorful and eye catching art style to match the energy of the marble tower.
The game board for Re;MATCH character The DJ
How did you find artists PsyOptima and machimile, and what was your process in terms of getting to the final artwork? Did you have strong ideas early on, and how much were you guided by those artists / were they guided by you as the process progressed?
Both of them were actually artists on my previous fan projects! Just between Anna’s Roundtable, Genshin Tarot, and Star Rail Tarot, I’ve commissioned over 400 artists. My vision for Re;MATCH was a much bolder and funkier aesthetic compared to Re;ACT, and both of these artists were perfect for that.
Having worked with so many artists over the years, I’ve also grown pretty comfortable acting as an art director for my teams. I’m certainly no drawer, but I’ve learned how to communicate effectively to guide my team towards my visions.
You’ve been very frank online in your opinions about AI generated imagery being used within the board game industry. Why do you think some publishers are leaning into it, despite the well-publicised concerns around copyright, ethics and the environmental impact?
I’ve become increasingly frustrated about the use of genAI to replace or supplement artists in games. To me, the issue is very existential. I am not surprised that already massively successful publishers are leaning into using AI art. There have always been companies trying to squeeze profit out of any artistic medium, from movies to books and beyond. But AI slop feels different from just disingenuous cash grabs. Environmental impacts and stolen work is one part of it, but the idea of letting AI produce the art we consume really cheapens creativity as a whole.
The joy of creativity is so fundamental to life, and the spark of inspiration passed from one person to the next is so vital for human progress. If people continue to consume these things, be it AI art in games, AI written screenplays, or AI generated music, I fear that the very light of human existence will dim.
What would you say to smaller publishers and solo operators who believe they can only bring their projects to completion by leaning on AI generators?
I can see the argument from new designers who want to make games but feel like AI is the most effective way to make their games ready for sale, either because they can’t find a publisher or they can’t afford to pay for art. To these people I would ask: Why do you want to make games? Why do you play games yourself?
I think games can be art, just like novels, music, and movies can be art. The reason I enjoy any of these things is intrinsically tied to the shared human experience I feel when consuming them. A board game’s only component other than rules are its visuals, so I believe the human intentionality behind how the game looks is just as important as how it plays. The artists who want to paint are just as passionate as the designers who want to make good games, so don’t cut them out of the process! There are tons of affordable artists on VGen, and you can always just pick up a pen and make simple drawings yourself! “The enemy of art is the absence of limitations,” so let the limitations of your budget or your art skills be part of your creative process. Just look at how Stardew Valley or Undertale were made!
In aiming for the mastery experience, does that mean you’re not too concerned about expanding this game? Because it looks to me to be ripe for expansions, especially in terms of new fighter characters. How does that fit into your mastery and discoverability theory?
I definitely want to keep adding more characters to both Re;ACT and Re;MATCH! In fact, receiving new characters and discovering their interactions with existing ones is the main source of discovery type fun in these games. This is similar to TCGs, where every new set front loads you with a ton of new options to tinker with.
But the cost of a new character for these games is much higher than just adding more variance to a deck of cards or more enemies in a miniatures game. Not only does each character require a ton of assets, but every new character is exponentially more difficult to balance and integrate successfully into the game. This is why I’ve made additional characters our primary stretch goal targets back during Re;ACT and now Re;MATCH!
Re;MATCH designer MingYang Lu
Can you give us a little background about your time in the board game industry – where did you start out, and how did you get to here?
Sure! I guess I first started experimenting with making card games like many other kids: my friend (Eric Zeringue, who still helps me with game design today) and I designed our very own very bad TCG. In college, I took things a bit more seriously by designing my own pretty bad deck builder based on isekai anime, and then I designed a not so bad fan game based on the indie video game Crawl (one of my favorite indie games of all time).
I then just kept making fan games, and eventually, I made one for Fire Emblem and posted it on Reddit. This one kind of blew up, and Kotaku even wrote an article covering it. I then just kept making print and play fan games and posting them online. I did one for Code Geass, Darling in the FranXX, and Persona 5, among several others that never saw the light of day.
Right around the time I designed the Darling in the FranXX game, I also designed the very first version of Re;MATCH. I brought it to a prototyping convention, posted it to YouTube, entered it into a design competition, and eventually signed it to the publisher Penguin and Panda, who renamed it Sento. After that, I met Chris Lin, who had his very own design for TCG that I enjoyed the core of. While Sento progressed with Penguin and Panda, I started working with Chris to completely redesign his TCG into a board game instead of a TCG, which eventually became Re;ACT.
After Covid hit, it became clear that Penguin and Panda wouldn’t be able to publish Sento, so I focused entirely on Re;ACT, brought it to several conventions, obtained my US citizenship, funded it on Kickstarter, and then quit my job to pursue board games full time.
You’ve run several Kickstarter campaigns before, for Re;ACT – The Arts of War in 2024 as well as several for dice and standee collections and other accessories. What were your big lessons learned through those campaigns, and how are they applicable to running the campaign for Re;MATCH?
Honestly, I’m still figuring things out myself [laughs]. But I will say that the most important thing for me is to always be authentic and only make things I would want to buy myself. Doing something purely to make money is a slippery slope, and I constantly remind myself that if I wanted to just make money, I would’ve stayed at my comfortable 9 to 5 desk job.
But if someone asked me for some more practical advice, specific to running a board game Kickstarter, I would say to just get your game in front of as many eyes as possible beforehand. Bring it to conventions, post playthroughs, and do whatever you can to make it eye-catching. Obviously the game needs to be good for people to stick around, but no one will know if it’s a good game if they don’t sit down to try it first! For Re;ACT, I brought it to Pax Unplugged, Gen Con, and ProtoATL two years in a row before we launched. Re;MATCH moved a bit faster, with me taking it to Pax East, Origins, Gen Con, and Pax Unplugged all in the same year.
An early version of Re;MATCH being demonstrated at the ProtoATL convention in 2018
That’s a lot of conventions! I think there’s a feeling among smaller publishers that it’s a big financial hit to attend multiple cons a year, and it can be hard to stand out against the competition on show floors. What advice would you give for attending conventions as a small publisher yourself?
Definitely agreed that cons are expensive, and I started small as well! In 2023, I attended Gen Con by myself and just offered ticketed event demos. Two of the people who played my games loved them so much that they ended up helping me teach demos at Gen Con in 2024 and 2025! Hosting events at Gen Con is free (outside the cost of travel), and in 2023 I stayed together with over 20 other indie designers and publishers in a big Airbnb to save on cost.
Another cheap option is prototyping and protospiel conventions. I attend ProtoATL nearly every single year, and its by far one of my favorite weekends every year. Many of the early prototype photos of Re;MATCH come from ProtoATL! The badges are very cheap, and you get your prototype ripped apart and rebuilt so many times that you make more progress in three days than you would have in three months. You also make so many meaningful connections with other designers and publishers, who are often avid supporters of games themselves!
I recommend exhibiting at a consumer convention only after gaining experience pitching games to strangers. Prototyping cons and hosting events lets you practice with a captive audience, but working at the booths of established publishers is a great way to practice pitching to passing customers. (I’m always hiring as well!) Another great opportunity is the Indie Games Night Market, which New Mill Industries has hosted at Pax Unplugged for the last two years. This event gives indie designers a single table to sell a small print run (think five to 50 copies) of their game, often with homemade elements.
Once you are ready, Pax Unplugged is by far the best choice as an indie publisher to exhibit at. Unlike Gen Con, Pax really cares about indies (see Indie Games Night Market), has a strong culture of inclusivity, and doesn’t allow AI grifters into their show! Standing out at a convention is definitely very hard though, and I’m still figuring that step out for myself. My booths are pretty basic looking still, but working with really great artists has worked out very well for me, so I’d recommend that as well!
I saw that you’re providing access to the full game on Tabletop Simulator for free. How important do you think that will be for discoverability, and how do you think that balances against the chance some people will just use the digital version and not back the physical campaign?
Super important. Personally speaking for board game Kickstarters, if I don’t see a playable demo, I am very unlikely to pledge. Even if I don’t have the time to personally try it, not allowing backers to try the game before they buy signals to me that the publisher lacks confidence in the game. A good game should make players want to buy it after playing it, end of story.
Not to mention the benefit of getting so many more eyes on your game to tell you what is bad about your game before you hit the irreversible button to start printing! For me, there are absolutely no downsides to having the game fully playable for free digitally during a Kickstarter, and I try really hard to ensure it’s available long before that as well.
What are your ideal goals for this campaign – what does a success look like for you, and how do you ideally see the rest of the year panning out?
For me, I’d like to surpass the number of backers I had on Re;ACT and POND as a minimum. Re;ACT had 1,730 backers, and POND had 1,900 backers. If Re;MATCH hits at least 2,200 backers, that will indicate a consistent growth trajectory for me as a publisher, so that is my real goal.
After Re;MATCH, I’ll be working on Season 2 of Re;ACT, along with several unannounced secret projects I’ve been working on for quite some time now, so please look forward to them!
Welcome to this week’s batch of crowdfunding campaigns. We have a variety of offerings here, so we hope you will find something that catches your eye. Also, if you want to chat with the BGQ team, join our Discord Server where we talk about games, movies, sports, and other fun stuff. Or, if Facebook is […]
OffDutyNinja, the tabletop marketing specialist which has worked on $25m of crowdfunding campaigns since its 2018 launch, has been acquired by industry peer Game Brands.
The combined company will operate under the OffDutyNinja name, with Game Brands adding its web design, search engine and answer engine optimisation, and blog content creation offerings to ODN’s marketing and crowdfunding services.
ODN’s work over the years has included crowdfunding and marketing support for companies such as Roxley Games, Indie Boards & Cards and Stronghold Games, Devir North America and Allplay, while the more than 100 campaigns it has worked with include the $2.2m More Terraforming Mars! Kickstarter and Marvel Dice Throne X-Men, which raised over $4.2m.
The acquisition follows a period of ODN quietly closing down its operations, Game Brands founder Ryan Eichenwald told BoardGameWire, with company founder Kira Peavley having shifted to a full-time director of operations role at Brass: Birmingham publisher Roxley Games over the past couple of years.
Eichenwald becomes CEO of Off Duty Ninja, with former CEO Peavley staying on in an advisory capacity for the next year to help ease the transition.
Peavley told BoardGameWire, “It came down to timing, and the timing was right. I had reached a point where I was ready for my next chapter, and when the opportunity with Ryan and Game Brands came together, it just made sense.
OffDutyNinja founder Kira Peavley || Photo Credit: OffDutyNinja
“The clients, the team, the work they have all built deserve to keep going and growing, and this deal makes that possible. It felt like the right ending to my chapter and the right beginning for theirs. It has been quite emotional but also quite positive.”
Speaking of ODN’s growth and the changes in board game crowdfunding and marketing over the years, Peavley said, “OffDutyNinja launched October 31, 2018, originally as a media management consultancy. That lasted about five minutes, honestly, because clients needed more and I was able to offer it.
“Very quickly it evolved into a full digital marketing agency for tabletop games, helping publishers with their everyday marketing needs as well as crowdfunding. The scope grew, and then ebbed, and then grew again.
“Covid hit hard and when publishers/creators are having to make difficult decisions about whether they can afford to keep their doors open and keep making games, marketing support understandably moves down the priority list.
“Tariffs have brought that same energy back in a different way. Through all of it we just tried to stay flexible and meet clients where they were.
“The other challenge has been the shift in how Kickstarter works. Ten years ago you could launch with no budget and no existing audience and still find success because the platform itself was driving discovery.
“That window has been closing for tabletop for a while now, and it has fundamentally changed what creators need to consider before launching a crowdfunding project.”
She continued, “That discovery shift really gets to the heart of the biggest challenge we see now. The audience has to exist before you launch. Full stop.
“The campaigns that succeed are the ones where the publisher has spent months, sometimes a full year, building a community that is genuinely excited to back on day one. The first 24 to 48 hours drive the algorithm, and the algorithm doesn’t care about your campaign if you don’t come in with momentum already built.
“The biggest obstacle to that? Time. Creators sometimes wait way too long to get started. We’d sometimes hear from people who reached out only a month or two before their planned launch date, or in some cases after they had already gone live.
“At that point every job gets harder: the audience building is rushed, the creative is rushed, and the campaign pays for it. The earlier you start, the better every single piece of it gets.
“The other big thing is expectation calibration. There are a lot of headline funding numbers out there from mega-campaigns that skew what success looks like.
“For most publishers, especially indie and first-time creators, a realistic and fully funded campaign that delivers well is worth so much more than swinging for a number you can’t hit.”
When asked about her take on ODN’s biggest successes in the crowdfunding space, Peavley said, “Honestly, it’s hard to point to a single success.
“People probably want to hear about the big IP projects, and those are genuinely exciting. Getting to work on something like Power Rangers: Heroes of the Grid across multiple campaigns, or Marvel Dice Throne, or Lord of the Rings, or Terraforming Mars is a thrill for obvious reasons.
Marvel Dice Throne: X-Men || Kickstarter image
“But the truth is every project we worked on was a big success to us, from a first-time creator finding their footing to a major publisher launching their next big title. The scale is completely different but the care that goes into it is exactly the same.
“And that’s really the point. A tremendous amount of love, heart, and work goes into every campaign, and that’s not just from our side. It’s from the client, the designers, the artists, the playtesters, the partners, the backers, the community.
“Tabletop is a real group effort, and when all of those pieces come together the way they’re supposed to, that’s the success. Every single time. That never got old.”
Crowdfunding Future
Game Brands launched three years ago as Board Burst, before renaming itself to Digital Wizard. That company consisted of Game Brands, which focused on digital marketing and web support for the board, tabletop, and video game industries, and Opmasis, which provided the same services for realtors, personal injury lawyers and contractors.
Eichenwald told BoardGameWire that Opmasis would be closing its doors following the ODN acquisition. He said the new company would also cease reaching out to potential video game clients “for at least the time being” – although added that it would still accept video game clients if they request its services.
Game Brands’ previous experience in the tabletop industry includes working with Steve Jackson Games “to help them wrangle their website”, backend work for Restoration Games which Eichenwald said doubled the company’s website traffic, and providing website design assistance for Gamelyn Games prior to its acquisition by Tabletop Tycoon (now Tycoon Games).
Eichenwald said, “ODN’s number of clients is currently at 11, including the combined client bases of both companies. ODN has started moving in a very crowdfunding-heavy direction over the last few months, and I’m very excited to continue that work.
New OffDutyNinja CEO Ryan Eichenwald
“ODN’s crowdfunding team is second-to-none, and I’m looking forward to being able to help new games reach audiences in much more concrete, measurable ways than ever before.
“ODN has also had a very board and card game-focused history, but the addition of the Game Brands team – and Brad Bound especially – gives us deep roots in the TTRPG space as well that we’re eager to bring to ODN’s experienced team.”
The ODN team will also include CFO Chris Ortega and backer experience manager Carissa Yaffe, in addition to lead graphic designer Kevin Haemmerle. Editorial manager Anais Torres was already in the process of leaving ODN prior to the sale, but is currently helping with the company’s transition, Peavley added.
Asked to give her predictions for how tabletop crowdfunding might change over the next year or so, Peavley said, “I think we’re going to continue seeing Gamefound grow, and I’m genuinely hopeful that the increased competition will push Kickstarter to make some positive changes. A little pressure never hurts.
“I personally love what the BackerKit crowdfunding platform is doing and I hope to see it pick up more momentum in our space. The platform landscape is more interesting right now than it’s been in a long time, which is good for creators and backers both.”
Eichenwald, who attended the GAMA Expo trade show as part of ODN at the end of last month, said, “One of the big things that came up was just how many people were looking for crowdfunding support, especially after the economic shocks from last year.
“A lot of the newer games seemed to be small-box or app-enabled, and I got a sense of excitement this year that hadn’t been there the year previous – which makes sense, given that GAMA 2025 was overshadowed by the first round of tariffs.”
Elf Creek Games has begun fulfilling a wave of overdue crowdfunding campaigns after returning to profitability under the leadership of Genius Games founder John Coveyou.
The publisher said it has broken a three-year run of losses since bringing in Coveyou to restructure the company last July, with the profits allowing it to get Santa’s Workshop into the hands of backers, as well as starting to pay some of the backlog of royalties it owes designers.
Elf Creek raised $1.6m through eight Kickstarter campaigns following its launch in 2017, scoring significant successes for games including Merchants of the Dark Road and Honey Buzz.
But the publisher entered years of turmoil after being hit with a $226,000 freight bill for shipping Merchants of the Dark Road in 2022 – more than four-times its initial $50,000 estimate – when global freight costs soared in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Rather than hold back fulfillment until prices fell, Elf Creek ploughed on in delivering the game at the vastly inflated cost, relying on the entirety of the game’s profits, credit, and forecasts for future sales – a decision from which company founder Brent Dickman admitted in 2024 the business had “never fully recovered”.
The announcement of Coveyou’s appointment last summer ended almost a year of silence from Elf Creek about the status of its undelivered crowdfunding projects – although company founder Brent Dickman confirmed to BoardGameWire in December 2024 that he was “actively looking for a home and way forward for all of our games, including our unpublished Kickstarter projects, and will make official statements when I am able”.
Genius Games founder and Elf Creek Games executive director John Coveyou
Coveyou founded Genius Games in 2013 following a career as an engineer, a science and chemistry teacher and a spell in the US Army. That company specialises in science-themed games with an educational bent, with its best known releases including 2019’s Ecosystem and 2021 release Genotype: A Mendelian Genetics Game (2021)
He is also the founder and director of accounting and tax firm Simple Financials, which Elf Creek said last year specialises in “helping small businesses recover from crises like ours”.
Elf Creek revealed at the end of February this year that it posted a 12.3% profit as a percentage of gross revenue in 2025, following losses of 8.8% in 2024, 33.25% in 2023 and 11.6% in 2022.
The detailed announcement from Coveyou and Dickman expounded on the extensive financial and operational changes the company had undertaken since the Genuis Games founder’s arrival.
It said, “Turning a business around isn’t about discovering a new or a secret playbook. It’s about returning to the fundamentals that every healthy business runs on. These are the things that, somewhere along the way, were deprioritized, deferred, or lost amid growth and day-to-day stressors.
“Most business crises are not sudden events; they are the outcome of the slow accumulation of small decisions that move a business away from the basics.
“None of this changes the impact on backers and partners who have been waiting, or the seriousness of outstanding obligations. The goal has been to restore operational stability so commitments can be met consistently and transparently.”
Those measures were listed by the company as:
Stop all non-essential spending immediately. Every expense was reviewed and non-essential spending was cut. Software subscriptions, agencies, marketing, new projects—anything that wasn’t directly tied to generating income or keeping the business operating was put on hold.
Gain visibility and control over cash flow and operations. A weekly cash and operations dashboard and tracking system was built so the team could see cash and inventory coming in, cash and inventory going out, and exactly where the business stood, in order to make proactive decisions instead of reactive ones.
Get to accurate financials. If the books are wrong, the decisions are wrong. The bookkeeping and accounting were caught up, reorganized for better insights, and reconciled back to the bank statements. Every decision going forward was then based on reality and insights instead of assumptions.
Prioritize and accelerate cash inflows. Core revenue channels were identified and reinforced, keeping the right inventory in stock, continuing to reconnect with key customers, and making sure the parts of the business generating cash had what they needed to keep doing so.
Generate cash from what’s already there. We made a focused effort to collect on outstanding invoices, liquidate dead or excess inventory, and find new ways to monetize existing IP or underutilized resources – with ongoing work still in progress.
Gain additional runway by renegotiating obligations. Many companies struggle under the weight of debt and accumulated obligations. The weight of this can be debilitating, and resolving it is often one of the most difficult steps. Keeping a company running is essential, because a shutdown stops repayment and harms all parties. We restructured debt, worked out new payment plans with vendors, and negotiated revised terms to ensure the company stayed viable and can continue paying back everything owed.
Focus on a few key priorities. Identify a few major “game changers” that will have the greatest impact, then stay focused while avoiding distractions. With the business more stable, we concentrated available time and energy on three key priorities: fulfillment of Santa’s Workshop, getting base games back in stock, and rebuilding critical sales channels to keep revenue flowing and support ongoing obligations.
The company added that it had also paid all outstanding 2025 designer royalties across the Elf Creek Games product line, and was making “steady payments” toward remaining balances from 2024 and earlier.
It said, “Our business exists because of the games we publish. And those games exist because of the designers who create them. Without great products, we simply don’t have a company.”
BoardGameWire reported last December that Paul Salomon, the designer of Elf Creek’s Honey Buzz and Stonemaier Games title Stamp Swap, had left the publisher in September 2024 while owed “an enormous and life changing amount of money”.
Speaking in the wake of Elf Creek’s new announcement, he told BoardGameWire, “I finally received a statement of all of the royalties that I am owed, which hadn’t happened in several years.
“Looking at it now, ‘life-changing’ may have been a bit hyperbolic, but it is definitely making a big difference in the financial reality for my family. I have in fact been paid all of my 2025 royalties! Amazing.
“And in fact, I have been receiving steady and substantial payments on back royalties. Again fantastic.
“Finally, I renegotiated my contract so that Elf Creek can continue to print and sell Honey Buzz products. I am really happy with how that worked out and there’s no question that John Coveyou has done an amazing job as executive director.”
Honey Buzz: Deluxe Edition
Elf Creek said that now fulfillment of Santa’s Workshop is complete in the US, and expected to be delivered worldwide in April, it would be prioritising small-batch fulfillment of Atlantis Rising Monstrosities, production of The Paradox Initiative, finalization and production of Secret Villages, and reprints of base games for Honey Buzz, Atlantis Rising, Merchants of the Dark Road, and Santa’s Workshop.
The company announcement said, “The hardest parts are mostly behind us, but there is still a long road ahead. We are hopeful that the future holds more opportunity than heartache.
“Our focus now is on executing the next phase responsibly and bringing the right people around the table to support long-term stability and reliable fulfillment.
“We’re looking to build a board of advisors, including those who have been in the trenches and understand what it takes to run and grow a business, as well as individuals who can contribute expertise, resources, or connections. If you have experience, resources, or a network that could help, we’d welcome a conversation.
“We’re open to exploring strategic partnerships, outside investment, or proposals that support operational stability and our next phase of growth. If there’s a business, brand, or operator out there who sees the value in what Elf Creek can become, the door is open.”
Welcome to this week’s batch of crowdfunding campaigns. We have a variety of offerings here, so we hope you will find something that catches your eye. Also, if you want to chat with the BGQ team, join our Discord Server where we talk about games, movies, sports, and other fun stuff. Or, if Facebook is […]
Welcome to this week’s batch of crowdfunding campaigns. We have a variety of offerings here, so we hope you will find something that catches your eye. Also, if you want to chat with the BGQ team, join our Discord Server where we talk about games, movies, sports, and other fun stuff. Or, if Facebook is […]
Board game, TCG and comics distribution major Universal Distribution has agreed an exclusive deal with Dice Throne to become the sole distributor of the company’s products in the US and Canada.
Dice Throne games and add-on packs have previously been distributed by companies including Universal and ACD Distribution, as well as Alliance Game Distributors, which Universal acquired in May last year.
The dice and card-focused combat game has become a crowdfunding heavyweight following its original $180,000 Kickstarter project from Mind Bottling Games in 2018, going on to raise almost $13m across a string of subsequent campaigns.
Universal said the exclusive distribution deal “marks a significant step in supporting Dice Throne’s expanding presence in retail stores, especially as the brand continues to grow its Organized Play program and introduce new product formats designed to increase accessibility and drive community engagement”.
Dice Throne’s Organized Play program is designed to help stores build consistent communities and host recurring events, with kits on offer including promo items, prize support and products needed to run casual or competitive play.
The publisher has also recently introduced a new single hero pack format, with the aim of offering a lower entry point for new players and flexibility for collectors and Organized Play participants.
Dice Throne CEO Casey Sershon, who took on the top role at the company at the start of last year, said, “We are excited to partner with Universal Distribution as our exclusive distributor in the US and Canada.
“Their expertise and strong retail network will help bring Dice Throne to even more players across North America.”
Cardboard Alchemy has taken the next step in its rapid expansion by shifting to distribute its own games into retail, powered by the evergreen success of its dragon-themed design Flamecraft.
More than 400,000 copies of the worker placement game have now been sold, company co-founder Peter Vaughan told BoardGameWire, creating an early smash hit which has underpinned Cardboard Alchemy’s growth since the game’s $2m Kickstarter campaign five years ago.
Vaughan said Flamecraft “and the fans that love it” had been a “game changer” for the company, allowing it to quickly expand from its original two-person team of Vaughan and fellow co-founder Brad Brooks, and paving the way for subsequent successful releases such as Andromeda’s Edge and Critter Kitchen.
He said, “We knew soon after the first crowdfunding campaign that this game would be an evergreen game in our line. At that point, we committed to making more promos, an expansion, merchandise that our fans wanted, and have started work on a standalone sequel game, FlameBound.”
The publisher has decided to make the two-player travel-friendly title its first to be self-released and distributed into retail, ending a five-year partnership with Lucky Duck Games and its worldwide localization and licensing division GPN.
Flamecraft Duals || Kickstarter image
The new system sees it enter a partner programme with publisher Allplay, in which Cardboard Alchemy will handle and manage its own retail sales, distribution, conventions and localization, with the latter providing global warehouses, pledge management and e-commerce services.
Vaughan said, “We are excited that retailers can get access to our games and other publishers’ games in one hub, for optimum savings”, adding: “The biggest challenges so far are the ramp up of logistics, operations and sales responsibilities.
“This can be a tough task for a mostly creative team, but we have the players in place and have taken our time to implement this stage.
“We know there will be many things to learn along the way for our small company, but we feel our great games will continue to thrive in retail environments.”
Part of Cardboard Alchemy’s expansion to direct retail has included the recent hire of Patrick Fitzgibbon as hobby retail manager, following seven years of sales at companies including Genius Games, Elf Creek Games, Greater than Games and, most recently, Quartermaster Logistics.
The team also includes Nicole Cutler, who joined the business as director of operations at the end of 2024 after several years working on production and logistics at Arcane Wonders and Pandasaurus Games.
Cutler said that demand for Flamecraft Duals had “far exceeded even our expectations” ahead of its official January 28 release date, with the company moving forward with a third print run of the game before it was even available in wider retail.
That confidence was partly inspired by Cardboard Alchemy’s picking up a big early win in the mass market, with the company agreeing a deal with retail giant Barnes & Noble to get the game on its shelves from early last month.
Vaughan told BoardGameWire, “It is a thrill to see our third title in Barnes & Noble. There has been such a growing diversity of games carried by this strong player in the mass market space.
“Flamecraft and Critter Kitchen are on the shelves at B&N and it seemed a natural fit to add Flamecraft Duals to the party.
“We are honored that Barnes & Noble would commit so early to Flamecraft Duals, and place it prominently in their stores to start the year.”
For global distribution, Vaughan said, “Cardboard Alchemy localized our games previously via the Global Publishing Network, a part of Lucky Duck Games.
“We are thankful for that network, as it has placed Flamecraft in 25-plus languages, Critter Kitchen in a ‘baker’s dozen’ of regions and Andromeda’s Edge in 11 languages so far.
“We now look to work with these publishers directly and invite more partnerships worldwide to distribute our titles.”
Those partners will include existing Cardboard Alchemy collaborator CrowD Games, which previously localised Flamecraft into Russian via GPN, and will now do so for Andromeda’s Edge, Critter Kitchen and Flamecraft Duals.
Manny Vega design Flamecraft, published by Cardboard Alchemy
Like many overnight successes, Cardboard Alchemy’s was actually multiple years in the making. The company was launched by Vaughan and Brooks in 2020 after years of collaboration between the pair across Vaughan’s indie design and development studio Squirmy Beast and Dwellings of Eldervale publisher Breaking Games.
Squirmy Beast partnered with Breaking Games to publish Letter Tycoon in 2015 – with Vaughan providing some of the artwork – and a year later Vaughan joined Breaking as director of development, overseeing games including Brooks’ Rise of Tribes.
Cardboard Alchemy’s first Kickstarter, for Mission Catastrophe in 2020, raised just over $100,000, before the success of the Flamecraft campaign a year later catapulted the company into ongoing success.
The publisher’s next planned Kickstarter will see it crank up the complexity compared to its Flamecraft titles, with the launch of a campaign for Brooks’ co-design Whisperwood, a bag-building heavy strategy game, later this spring.
That game has been co-designed by Asking for Trobils designers Erin McDonald and Cardboard Alchemy developer Christian Strain, the latter of whom also co-designed the solo mode for Critter Kitchen.
Vaughan said, “We’ll be planning over-the-top production (as usual), bringing everything we know about game production to date to the forefront of crowdfunding.”
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