Kickstarted Boardgaming

Touched upon last week, I want to take a brief moment to look at the growing movement around the US and Britain to crowdfund board game ideas.

We already talked about FlickFleet, the dexterity game where players flick dice at each other’s fleet in the hopes of destroying their enemy’s aircrafts. Think Battleships meets Space Invaders meets Yahtzee. Sort of.

While crowdfunding can be an appealing place to try out a new dexterity game, the platform also works for many different types of boardgames. Perhaps the most common form of board game found on crowdfunding sites is the classic table-top RPG.

The quest to be the next D&D

With the popularity and longevity of Dungeons & Dragons, seen by many as the starting point of board game RPG history, it only makes sense for others to want to find their foothold in the industry. And with the growing complexity of Dungeons & Dragons, many new games attempt to sell themselves on their simplicity, their friendliness to beginners.

Take Overlight as an example. While by no means simple – its rule book is about 300 pages – it sells itself as a more colourful RPG with a flexibility of mission length that can cater to any audience.

1001 Odysseys is another RPG, though with a slightly different play style. Here players play through a chapter-based storyline that, while loosely set in stone, allows for some level of variation. Depending on the time available, players can play through one or more chapters of the story. Like Overlight, 1001 Odysseys also sells itself on its bright colours.

A look at Kick Agency’s 7 Best Upcoming Kickstarter Boardgames shows just how common table-top RPGs are with crowdfunding sites.

Cards? Anyone?

Or perhaps you’re more for the traditional card game variation. The famous Cards Against Humanity is perhaps the most well-known crowdfunded card game. Another is Exploding Kittens, the most backed kickstarter campaign ever according to producthype.co. It came out in 2015 and is a Russian Roulette-style card game where players draw cards and try to avoid the Exploding Kitten.

Throw Throw Burrito is another by the creators of Exploring Kittens. Part card game, part dodgeball, Throw Throw Burrito came out earlier this year with a kickstarter campaign of over 50,000 followers donating more than $2.5 million.

Not every campaign receives immense backing, but many do go on to have varying degrees of success. Producthype.co, mentioned above, last month compiled a list of the 35 best kickstarted games of 2019 and it only scratches the surface. If you’re looking for a more comprehensive list, BoardGameGeek last year published a detailed list of the top funded board games by category. It’s a bit of a handful, but it does give a good breakdown.