“Our ambition for 2025 is to be number one in tabletop”: Gamefound closes gap on Kickstarter again as crowdfunding giant’s 2024 dollars raised remains flat
Plus: End looms for Mythic Games as company gives up trying to deliver $1.3m Monsterpocalypse Kickstarter, hands files over to IP holder Privateer Press
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Welcome to the latest BoardGameWire newsletter!
Kickstarter has dominated the crowdfunding scene in tabletop gaming since the concept became a reality - but its pledge manager-turned-rival Gamefound continues its push to take the throne. CEO Marcin Świerkot told BoardGameWire he had set an “extremely ambitious and yet achievable goal” to outperform Kickstarter in tabletop game funding in 2025, after his company saw project funding on the site soar 49% in 2024 to more than $85m. With pledge money included, that remains short of the $220m just revealed by Kickstarter as its 2024 fundraising total - but while Gamefound has been growing at a significant rate since the Covid-19 pandemic, Kickstarter’s tabletop crowdfunding totals have been headed in the other direction.
We also cover the latest development from financially-stricken board game publisher Mythic Games, which has quit trying to complete its $1.3m Kickstarter for kaiju-battling game Monsterpocalypse – one of its last remaining projects after several years of failing to fulfil a string of big-money crowdfunding campaigns. Monsterpocalypse’s 6,300 backers join thousands of other supporters of Mythic Kickstarters since 2020 who have either failed to receive their games, been asked for hundreds more dollars to get their orders shipped, or seen the IP for the game they backed sold off to other publishers without being delivered their pledge.
And ahead of Asmodee’s big split from The Embracer Group tomorrow, which will see the board game giant become an independent (albeit still publicly listed) business for the first time in more than a decade, we have news of its powerful final quarter of 2024, driven by a strong showing from its games based on third party IPs in the Star Wars, Lego and The Lord of the Rings universes. Asmodee said growth of games published by its own studios was expected to hit a hefty 29% for the final three months of last year.
A reminder: I’ll be heading to the GAMA Expo trade show for the first time at the end of February, so if you’re heading along too and want to meet up, discuss our coverage, pitch some potential news or just play a game together, please do let me know! I am, as ever, available at mike@boardgamewire.com.
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy this week’s newsletter!
Mike Didymus-True - Editor
“Our ambition for 2025 is to be number one in tabletop”: Gamefound closes gap on Kickstarter again as crowdfunding giant’s 2024 dollars raised remains flat
Tabletop game crowdfunding platform Gamefound has moved a step closer to its hugely ambitious goal of overtaking industry giant Kickstarter in the category this year, with new data seeming to show the latter’s tabletop funding total falling for the third year in a row. Gamefound CEO Marcin Świerkot told BoardGameWire he had set an “extremely ambitious and yet achievable goal” to outperform Kickstarter in tabletop game funding in 2025, after his company saw project funding on the site soar 49% in 2024 to more than $85m.
Coupled with dollars raised through Gamefound’s late pledge and pledge manager operations, the site’s total dollars raised from backers last year reached about $156m. That remains short of the $220m raised in Kickstarter’s tabletop category this year – but while Gamefound has been growing at a significant rate since the Covid-19 pandemic, Kickstarter’s tabletop crowdfunding totals have been headed in the other direction.
End looms for Mythic Games as company gives up trying to deliver $1.3m Monsterpocalypse Kickstarter, hands files over to IP holder Privateer Press
Financially-stricken board game publisher Mythic Games has quit trying to complete its $1.3m Kickstarter for kaiju-battling game Monsterpocalypse – one of its last remaining projects after several years of failing to fulfil a string of big-money crowdfunding campaigns.
Monsterpocalypse’s 6,300 backers join thousands of other supporters of Mythic Kickstarters since 2020 who have either failed to receive their games, been asked for hundreds more dollars to get their orders shipped, or seen the IP for the game they backed sold off to other publishers without being delivered their pledge.
Star Wars, LEGO, Lord of the Rings games drive 29% quarterly growth for Asmodee studios, as company prepares to split from Embracer tomorrow
Tabletop gaming giant Asmodee scored a powerful final quarter of 2024 thanks to a strong showing from its games based on third party IPs in the Star Wars, Lego and The Lord of the Rings universes – showcasing the publisher’s strength ahead of its imminent spin off from owner Embracer Group tomorrow.
Asmodee said growth of games published by its own studios was expected to hit 29% for the final three months of last year, largely driven by titles including LEGO Monkey Palace, Star Wars: Unlimited and The Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-earth.
Board gaming’s biggest TikTok creators face uncertain future after Trump gives threatened app 75-day stay of execution
Board game-focused TikTok video creators attracting millions of views each year are preparing for an uncertain future on the site, which recently went dark for almost 24 hours amid a ban by the US government over national security fears. TikTok, which has almost 2 billion users globally, shut down in the US on January 18 to comply with a ‘divest or ban’ law, leaving tabletop-focused creators in limbo about the future of their accounts – some of which boast hundreds of thousands of followers.
Ares Games teams with Armenian board game publisher Red Cat – successor to Russia’s Lifestyle Boardgames – for English versions of two games, hopes for more in future
War of the Ring publisher Ares Games is bringing two games from Armenian publisher Red Cat Games – the successor studio to Russia’s Lifestyle Boardgames – to the English language market amid a busy year for the Italy-based business. Ares will publish two-player 3D apartment block builder Balconia and casual word association game Perfect Mismatch this year, after being impressed by the titles at the Nuremberg Toy Fair last year.
Harmonies, Splendor: Duel romp to wins in this year’s BoardGameArena awards, Darwin’s Journey sees off stiff challenge from Terraforming Mars
BoardGameArena, Asmodee’s online board gaming platform which passed 10 million registered users last summer, has unveiled the winners of its annual contest for the most popular games added to the service in 2024. The competition pitted four different titles against each other in five separate categories, which could be voted on by any BGA user who had played every game in a particular category at least once.
Asmodee title Splendor: Duel stormed to a win in the Best 2-Player game category with more than 63% of the vote, with the Altered trading card game finishing second on 20.2% and Pocket Cats third on 14.6%.
This year’s nominees for France’s biggest board gaming award highlights breadth of country’s publishers
The variety of France’s board game publishing industry has been underscored by the newly-announced nominees of this year’s As d’Or, the country’s highest-profile board game prize.
Captain Flip, designed by Paolo Mori and Remo Conzadori, Maxime Rambourg’s deckbuilder For A Crown, and Odin from design trio Yohan Goh, Hope Hwang and Gary Kim are battling it out for this year’s general Game of the Year prize, which is focused on the best games accessible to the greatest number of people.
Grail Games follows Matagot tie-up with ‘rebirth’ of Maple Games to publish heavier titles
Australian board game publisher Grail Games has teamed up with the new incarnation of Canada’s Maple Games as an outlet for its heavier titles. Maple has been renamed Frost Bite Games under the partnership, which sees Grail founder David Harding join forces with former Maple studio head Billy Chandler.
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Other news:
DayBreak, Link City, RPG author Avery Alder win 2025 Lizzie Magie awards
Thunder Alley, Dark Domains co-designer Carla Horger passes away
The Lord of the Rings - Duel for Middle-earth wins DuAli 2025 award - Spielbox
KTCB signs deal to bring Origame titles to North American markets - ICv2
Design Zone
Game designer Pam Walls presents a tutorial for using prototyping tool Dextrous
This year’s Board Game Design Virtual Summit is taking place online, for free, until February 10
Joe Wiggins from Allplay and Nick Murray from Bitewing Games are joined by designer Robert Hovakimyan to talk board game development
Board game designer Matthew Dunstan discusses five mistakes he made when starting out in game design
Designer Diary: Hurt Party: A Game of Bad Apologies by Ami Baio - BoardGameGeek
Designer Diary: The Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game by Bryan Bornmueller - BoardGameGeek
Skeleton Code Machine looks at combat in Burning Banners and its use of critical hits
Ellie Dix from The Dark Imp takes a look at the importance of your personal brand as a designer
Joe Slack from The Board Game Design Course digs in to how to make a great word game
Chris Backe from Entro Games talks self-publishing versus pitching to publishers, the dynamics of working with publishers, and the creative process behind developing a game on the My Favourite Games podcast
The Tabletop Takeaway podcast investigates what encourages people to share their thought processes, and how to prevent players from getting stuck
Job Watch
US - PR & Communications Internship (Part Time) - Asmodee North America
US - Narrative Manager - Wizards of the Coast
US - Print Production Specialist - Wizards of the Coast
Canada - Print and Web Graphic Designer - No Loading Games
UK - Sales Support Co-ordinator - Asmodee UK
UK - Quality Assurance Assistant - Asmodee UK
UK - Marketing Associate, Miniature Wargames - SteamForged Games
All these jobs are from the very excellent Tabletop Game Jobs Facebook Group - head there to take a look at all the latest listings
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here is the last sentence "The service remains unmatched in terms of competitors, although several small-scale online gaming platforms such as TableTopia, Yucata, Rally The Troops and 18xx.games."
it is incomplete. I asked ChatGPT and it agrees, saying "I'm noting that the sentence seems incomplete due to the dependent clause "although several small-scale online gaming platforms such as TableTopia, Yucata, Rally The Troops and 18xx.games," which doesn't form a complete thought."
article on BGA, doesn't quite end right, I think last sentence needs finished.