from Hacker News

The wild economy of tabletop board game funding

by slackpad on 7/6/20, 1:40 AM with 109 comments

• by cycomanic on 7/6/20, 8:01 AM

  Board games are an interesting thing because it's one of those global trends that did not originate in the US. Instead it game from Germany but with quite a bit of delay.

  The German version of settlers came out around 1995 IIRC and sparked a big revival of board games (and strategic board games in particular in Germany. Then some time around 2008 or so I had friends in NZ and OZ who used to not play board games tell me about this cool game the wanted to play. I was quite surprised that it was settlers which I had not played since moving overseas in 2004.

  So yeah the whole revival originated in Germany, but took about 10 years to suddenly go global.

• by scj on 7/6/20, 2:35 AM

  With the exception of board games that are related to existing games I already like, I treat Kickstarter as a negative signal for the first year.

  Similar to a video game licensed movie, or a movie licensed video game; even if the title has elements I enjoy, I've been burned enough. Playing it is the only way I'll know I love it.

  I can't even trust data collection on BGG, because typically the first wave of Kickstarter ratings are by people who have boarded the hype train. Followed by a re-alignment when people who are playing friends' copies step in.

  Component quality bias, as well as cost bias are related (and typically compounded by Kickstarter) phenomena.

• by BurritoAlPastor on 7/6/20, 6:13 AM

  Board games are uniquely well-adapted to the crowdfunding format because the game design can be 100% complete and playtested before any art or manufacturing has even started. (Of course, you need some art to sell the Kickstarter.) The upfront capital for developing a board game is about $40 at the art store.

  In the extreme case, some campaigns link to a print-and-play version of the game so you can “try before you buy”. Try to do that with a video game!

• by armagon on 7/6/20, 3:38 AM

  Its strange to me that the article says that board games are booming during the pandemic.

  I haven't been able to have a regular board game night in months :-( I tried online but didn't love it (I suppose I should try it some more); I wish I could see how to do it in person and maintain physical distance, but it looks doubtful.

• by cletus on 7/6/20, 5:30 AM

  So I went through a phase of backing a lot of board game Kickstarters, which probably started with Scythe, a game I missed out on (and bought off the BGG marketplace, at a premium). But I think Scythe is an outlier here.

  I've gotten a number of mediocre games but some good ones (eg 7th Continent, Gloomhaven). In some cases what I bought ended up being cheaper at retail. I have gotten some reprints though, which are of course more of a known quantity.

  I will say though that one nice thing to come out of all of this is "premium pieces". That's why I bought the Scythe Collector's edition. The game remains the same for those unwilling or unable to pay the premium but for people like myself with the ability and inclination to do so, it makes the gaming experience just a little nicer.

  But I rarely back Kickstarters now. I'm glad it exists as a means of bootstrapping games.

• by ARandomerDude on 7/6/20, 1:53 AM

  I'd really like to get into more board games, but so many of them have an occult flavor to them.

  Suggestions? I have Catan, Ticket to Ride, and Carcassonne.