Welcome to the first of a pair of articles on crowdfunding: what it is, and what it means to you as someone who buys games. The next part will take a look at why you might be interested in backing a crowdfunded project and what the risks are.
But first… Boardgames are not cheap to produce, so a designer will have to find some way to fund the work. It used to be that a game’s creator would pitch the game to publisher after publisher until one bites and takes on the project. Since publishing companies can handle only so many games before their pipelines are full, this route limits the number of games that exist. However, with crowdfunding, creators can appeal directly to the public, eliminating the publishing company bottleneck. Additionally, the bigger publishing companies are more interested in games with wide audiences, so it’s also quite likely that niche markets can be targeted more readily via crowdfunding.
A crowdfunding platform acts as a place for creators to show their wares, as well as providing mechanisms for accountability and the collection of funds. Designers will post pictures and a description of their game, detailing various levels of reward for backers, and wait for sufficient money to flow in from visitors to that platform—this is known as running a campaign. If the campaign is successful (i.e., has raised sufficient money), it’s time to complete the design then manufacture the game, followed by fulfilment and distribution, and—ultimately—happy customers. The creators will also end up with a larger share of the money from backers than going via the traditional route, since they don’t have to give publishers their cut.
The rest of this article looks at crowdfunding from the viewpoint of potential backers.
Kickstarter is probably the biggest and most well-known platform, but newer Gamefound and BackerKit are where you can also find a lot of boardgames. There are several others, but these three seem to be where most of the action is in the creative product space. You may also have heard of Indiegogo, but that was acquired by Gamefound in the middle of 2025, and as far as I can tell, there’s no distinction between boardgaming projects on both platforms (admittedly, this is based on dipping into a fairly small sample). Somewhat confusingly, people can mix and match platforms, using one for the project campaign, another for managing funds and yet another for fulfilment, but backers don’t have to worry about that that.
Is any one crowdfunding platform better than the rest? From the point of view of backers, not really: a creator may choose one on the basis of perceived audience, cost, or ‘gut feeling,’ and if you’re interested in their game, you have no option but to visit the platform of their choice. Incidentally, Chris from Liege of Games has posted a somewhat grumpy video on YouTube taking a closer look at the different platforms, but coming to more or less the same conclusion. He does make the point that browsing for the stuff you want on crowdfunding sites can be, shall we say, a suboptimal experience—they all really could do with improving the ability to filter out things that aren’t of interest. (E.g., not being a fan of intricate 3d models as I always feel I’d sooner pay for a game rather than the bling, I would prefer not to wade through the STL file projects that appear when I ask Kickstarter for recently posted tabletop games.)
An Example Campaign
I’ve already written about DinoGenics: New Arrivals, and this is one of the few campaigns I’ve thrown money at, so I thought I’d use it as an example of what one looks like. (Since the campaign is currently closed to new backers, I can safely write about it without this looking like a big ad for the game.) The campaign launched on September 17, 2025, and reached its funding goal in about half an hour—not many projects achieve that, not to mention get 10× over-funded! (See part 2 for a caveat regarding goals and over-funding.)
Before the campaign started, there was a preview period (if you look at the project timeline at the bottom of the page, you’ll see the ‘upcoming’ phase at the far left); I can’t comment on what that looked like in this case, since I hadn’t come across DinoGenics then, but it’s a chance for creators to drum up interest and get early feedback about what backers would like to see—and it was undoubtedly important in NinthHaven Games getting their project funded so quickly.
Like most Gamefound projects, the DinoGenics web page contains lots of pretty pictures and a fairly detailed description of the game. Like the best boardgame campaigns, it includes a link to draft rulebooks (though now that the campaign is over, the URL on that page is no longer valid) and more. Some creators have interactive demos, and NinthHaven includes a links to their BoardGameArena implementation, incidentally where you can still find an older version of the rulebook, if you’re interested. Other staples of campaigns such as this are review and playthrough videos.
As I mentioned earlier, campaigns usually present backers with a range of options; this campaign is actually for the latest expansion to the game, but NinthHaven has a pledge level offering the base game plus expansions, of obvious benefit to people coming across the game for the first time. Deluxe components are another common offering, and here you can get metal coins or nicer looking wooden playing pieces—some campaigns go over the top in this regard, but NinthHaven has been fairly restrained. A danger with some projects is falling in love with all the glorious bling and committing much more money than you really ought to.
A campaign isn’t a single-shot operation for the creator; once it opens, they’ll typically publish updates to build up enthusiasm and excitement for the game, in this case, weekly reveals of new dinosaur cards, as well as ‘stretch goals’—various items added to the game based on passing specific funding targets. (To be frank, I found the ones in this project not really all that exciting, but I’m interested in the game, not whether some additional tokens are made of wood.)
Once kicked off, the campaign runs for some defined period while people pledge money—a few weeks or a couple of months, typically. If it meets the creator’s funding goal, the project goes ahead and the money is actually collected; if not, no money is taken, and the creator leaves with their head hung low. Assuming the campaign’s successful, the creator goes off to manufacture the thing for real, and backers wait for their shiny new toy—which can be quite some time in the future. (The DinoGenics campaign ended in October 2025, and shipping is expected to start in March 2026.) Sometimes, the campaign will reopen briefly for ‘late pledges,’ for those who missed the campaign’s initial window. Some creators will continue to post progress updates after the campaign has closed, to let backers know how manufacturing, etc. is proceeding; however, many don’t, which means it’s a long wait until fulfilment, but there’s nothing you, as an impatient backer, can do.
The final part of the campaign page is a bit of waffle about risks. I’ll talk about that in part 2, but the TL;DR version is that any crowdfunded project is a gamble, and it could go belly up with you losing all your money and getting nothing. This doesn’t happen often, but the risk is always there. (I always think these notices are like labels on cigarettes and alcohol—nobody reads them, but the people who write them can claim they warned people.)
Wrap Up
In this article, I’ve outlined what crowdfunding is and the main platforms for boardgame projects. I’ve taken a look at a typical campaign, but haven’t yet said whether you should get involved as a backer or not.
Is crowdfunding a way to squander too much money on games you might not see, or when you receive them, might not actually want? Or is it a way to get great game products no one else will and support designers you really like?
Answers will come in the next instalment.
About the Author
When not playing boardgames or blogging about them, L.N. Hunter keeps himself occupied writing fiction: a comic fantasy novel, The Feather and the Lamp, sits alongside close to 100 short stories in various magazines and anthologies, and on websites and podcasts (see https://linktr.ee/L.N.Hunter for a full list). L.N. occasionally masquerades as a software developer or can be found unwinding in a disorganised home in Carlisle, UK, along with two cats and a soulmate.
