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Kickstarter rival Gamefound throws its doors open to all tabletop game creators

Launches into open beta.

Gamefound has announced that it will allow all tabletop creators to use its site to launch a crowdfunding campaign, as the platform expands into an open beta.

Gamefound officially launched its crowdfunding platform last year, having previously served as a pledge manager for crowdfunding campaigns hosted through other sites, such as Kickstarter.

Founded by Awaken Realms, the tabletop publisher behind games including Nemesis and Tainted Grail, as well as Gamefound’s debut project ISS Vanguard, the platform announced earlier this year that it had formed a partnership with veteran board game publisher Ravensburger to the tune of $4.5 million. Ravensburger has since confirmed its plans to crowdfund “a handful of projects” for the first time.

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CEO Marcin Świerkot said that over 300 creators had used Gamefound to date, having previously revealed that projects made more than $22 million on the site in 2021. In addition to ISS Vanguard, some of the site’s most prominent projects to date include Modiphius’ tabletop adaptation of video game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which saw more than £1.2 million pledged, and the standalone Unbreakable expansion for dice-building RPG Too Many Bones, which raised almost $3.4m.

Gamefound’s newly expanded open beta will see the platform open its doors to any creator approved via a background check. Individual projects will still be verified by Gamefound, but creators will be able to create and launch campaigns directly once approved.

In order to be eligible, creators must be looking to crowdfund “any form” of tabletop game, or related projects such as accessories, miniatures, furniture and “tabletop gadgets”.

“This hopefully will mean more great projects, big and small!” Świerkot said in a blog post detailing the creator requirements. “Creativity is flourishing, and our bigger part is aiding it with technological solutions.”

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Świerkot added that future features were in the works, including additional creator tools and various improvements.

Gamefound previously laid out its ‘vision of crowdfunding’s future’ at the end of last year, announcing plans for tax improvements, infrastructure changes and new ways for creators and backers to communicate and interact, including through gifts.

The company also took the opportunity to take a not-too-subtle dig at Kickstarter’s own controversial plans to move onto the blockchain in 2022 - a decision that has seen several creators move over to Gamefound and other crowdfunding platforms.

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Matt Jarvis

Editor-in-chief

After starting his career writing about music, films and video games for various places, Matt spent many years as a technology, PC and video game journalist before writing about tabletop games as the editor of Tabletop Gaming magazine. He joined Dicebreaker as editor-in-chief in 2019, and has been trying to convince the rest of the team to play Diplomacy since.

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