A Conversation with Kickstarter and Crowdfunding Tabletop Roundup

Geek Dad

3 days ago

Earlier this week I got to chat with Asher McClennahan, the head of games at Kickstarter. I was curious to hear how tariffs had affected things like the number of projects launching or being backed, and also whether some of the 'tried-and-true' advice about launching projects is actually true.
As far as tariffs go, McClennahan said that there definitely were some publishers who held off on launching projects earlier this year in favor of waiting to see what things would be like later, but the number of games projects launching is still pretty steady. Kickstarter did add a tariff calculator so that project creators could set things up to charge for tariffs later, taking out a little bit of the unknown, and while we don't know what will happen with China tariffs after the 90-day pause, he expects we may see another boom in project launches this fall from all of the publishers who postponed things earlier.
And while anecdotally a lot of people said they were hesitant to back projects when tariffs were so high, the numbers show that folks are still backing things about as much as usual. That makes sense to me: the publishers and backers most affected by the high tariffs earlier this year were from the projects that funded last year and were in the process of delivering now—for those, it was generally too late to turn that ship around. For projects launching now, I think the expectation for a lot of backers is that things may be resolved by the time these games hit the water—fingers crossed that they're right!
One of the things I've heard from publishers is about ideal windows to launch projects, both in terms of the time of the year and the day of the week. McClennahan said there's a lot of anecdotal advice about avoiding January as a launch date—it's right after the holidays, after all—but he said the numbers don't necessarily support that. Projects that launch in January (and there are still a good number of them) seem to do just as well overall as in other parts of the year. Another launch tradition is that tabletop games generally launch projects on Tuesdays—probably 90% of the Kickstarter games I review launch on Tuesdays, so I asked if there's any data to support that theory. McClennahan told me that the vast majority of games launch on Tuesdays, so it has become a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy: there simply aren't enough game projects that launch on other days of the week to have enough data to say for sure whether other days might even be viable.
The good news for tabletop game creators is that people are still out there backing games, and something like 70% of all game projects hit their funding goals. (From my own small sample size, I also know that a lot of creators who didn't fund the first time have found success after making some changes and relaunching later.) Another piece of good news is that it's not just huge projects that are hitting their goals, though those are the ones we tend to hear about the most. Smaller, more niche projects are also getting funded all the time; McClennahan said that Kickstarter's recommendation features seem to work, and backers are able to find the projects that they're interested in.
Of course, Kickstarter isn't the only game in town—Backerkit and Gamefound have both had a lot of success in attracting backers and raising funds, and they offer different types of features for both project creators and backers. But it does seem like Kickstarter's first-mover advantage is still pretty strong, and fans of crowdfunded tabletop games haven't stopped looking for games there.
With that, I've got a few crowdfunding projects to highlight today—mostly games that I haven't gotten to play yet myself, but things that caught my attention and looked like they could be fun.
New to crowdfunding? Check out our crowdfunding primer. My head has been destroyed, but my right arm has a spirit overlay that increases its damage. (Prototype shown) Photo: Jonathan H. Liu Mechromancers by Witchway Games
There's only about a week left to go in this campaign for a 2-player card battle game. You play as 'mechromancers,' building spirit-powered robots and pitting them against your rival. You use deck-building to build up more powerful attacks and defensive capabilities, but you can also power up the parts of your robot with Soul Overlays (transparent cards that boost the part in various ways). When a part loses all its health, the mechanical part is destroyed but the spirit remains, giving you more spirit points for abilities and upgrades … but if all four parts are destroyed, you lose.
I did get to try a prototype of the game, and I liked the various ways you can build up your bot: will you go strong on offense or shield up? Or maybe you try to get some more card draws so you're ready for whatever your opponent throws at you? The artwork has a cartoon feel, and the transparent overlays are a nice touch too. There aren't any ways to repair damage and the game ramps up as parts get destroyed, so each fight is pretty quick and then you can reset and try again!
Paperback Adventures Volume 2 from Tim Fowers
Paperback Adventures is a deck-building, word-making, rogue-like game where you spell words to battle monsters and eventually face off against various bosses. I reviewed the first volume back in 2021 when it was on Kickstarter, and Tim Fowers now has a second volume launching on Gamefound. It adds one new character, Iron Knee (each character has their own unique deck and abilities), and also introduces the Binding Nexus that lets up to 4 people play together. The original was for 1 or 2 players, though the 2-player mode still felt mostly like two people playing a solo game next to each other. I'm curious to see how Binding Nexus mixes things up!
Clash of Clans: The Epic Raid from Maestro Games
The mobile game Clash of Clans already made the jump to a graphic novel series (I just wrote about the latest book earlier this week), and now it's also going to be a tabletop game! Alas, I haven't gotten a chance to try this one at all, but it's designed by Eric Lang and Ken Gruhl, and includes both elements of building up your town and army and sending raids to your opponents' towns. There's a ton of optional add-ons so it's definitely not a cheap game, but looks like it could be fun!
Pet Names from Pink Tiger Games
This is the eighth game from Pink Tiger Games, a company started by my friend Ami Baio with games that are all about conversations and being kind. Pet Names gives you a bunch of cards to mix and match to create cute nicknames for your friends, scoring points if you can come up with the favorite of the round. The game also comes with a little plush fox bag to carry the cards!
Trouble on the Tempus from Minor Disaster Games
This campaign only has about a day left to go—if only you could time travel to give yourself more time to think! In the game, that's exactly what you get to do: you're on a spaceship trying to repair the Hyperdrive, dealing with a series of disasters. But if things get too hairy, you can time travel back to the beginning and try again … except now there's a new paradox in the disaster deck. I'm a sucker for time travel stories, and I really like the way this one handles the concept: all the disaster cards will be in the same order, so if your team can remember the order of the disasters, you should be able to plan for them. But if you time travel too much, you'll tear time itself apart.
Casual Game Insider
It's hard to believe that Casual Game Insider is preparing for their fourteenth year! I remember when they first launched, there wasn't a common industry term for quick, accessible games, but now I talk about casual games all the time. The quarterly magazine is switching to digital-only this year, and includes spotlights on some cool games, interviews with various folks in the game industry, and everything from tips on hosting a game night to attending your first gaming convention. Each issue also has a free game included—though I guess with the digital magazine you'll need to print it out yourself. Liked it? Take a second to support GeekDad and GeekMom on Patreon!