“A lot of luck and many contacts”: How small Swiss publisher Treecer successfully pitched Microsoft to create the Zoo Tycoon board game
Plus: Spiel des Jahres bans Daybreak co-designer Matteo Menapace for wearing pro-Palestine watermelon sticker
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Welcome to the latest BoardGameWire newsletter! This week’s stories include how small board game publisher Treecer managed to pitch software giant Microsoft to get the Zoo Tycoon licence, Daybreak co-designer Matteo Menapace’s ban from the Spiel des Jahres, and how FunForge might have solved its financial woes after struggling under the weight of a pair of pandemic-hit Kickstarter campaigns - plus the regular roundup of designer-focused advice and insights and the latest job openings in the industry.
This newsletter also heralds BoardGameWire entering its summer break, so I can take care of my two children across the school summer holidays. Last year, due to a couple of other unexpected life events, that spanned mid-July to mid-September, but thanks to the site’s success - and hugely important financial backing from newsletter subscribers - I’m delighted to say that this year we’ll be back from September 1 to dive back into digging out all the professional board game news fit to print. And whereas last year the whole site had to be paused for that time, better financial support from readers this year means I’m hoping to put out a few stories over August anyway, in and around camping trips and (hopefully) some board games and other fun with the kids.
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Mike Didymus-True - Editor
“A lot of luck and many contacts”: How small Swiss publisher Treecer tackled pitching Microsoft to create the Zoo Tycoon board game
Approaching large companies to use their IP in board games can be a daunting task - and they don't come much bigger than $3tn computing giant Microsoft. That didn't put off two-person Swiss board game publisher Treecer, though, whose successful pitch ended up with more than 5,000 backers committing about $600,000 to the Zoo Tycoon: The Board Game Kickstarter. Treecer co-founder Marc Dür took time out from managing the crowdfund for the game's New Shores expansion - which has raised almost $500,000 itself so far - to tell BoardGameWire how his company went about securing the licence, how their approach to crowdfunding has changed over the years, and lessons they learned from the original Zoo Tycoon campaign.
Spiel des Jahres bans Daybreak co-designer Matteo Menapace for wearing pro-Palestine watermelon sticker at 2024 awards
The organisers of the Spiel des Jahres - widely considered the biggest award in board gaming - have banned one of this year's prize-winning designers from future events after he wore a watermelon sticker to show his support of Palestine at this year's award ceremony. Matteo Menapace was awarded this year’s Kennerspiel des Jahres prize for more complex games on Sunday alongside co-designer Matt Leacock, for their work on climate action-focused game Daybreak – known in Germany as e-mission.
But his decision to wear a watermelon sticker, in the shape of Palestine before it was partitioned to create the state of Israel in the late 1940s, has led to a ban by the Spiel des Jahres association, which said the symbol denies the existence of the Jewish state.
Financially troubled FunForge nears deal to get years-delayed Monumental Kickstarter into the hands of backers
Financially-troubled French board game publisher FunForge is understood to be within weeks of signing a contract which will give it the funding to get its heavily-delayed Monumental Kickstarter to backers within the next two months. More than 4,200 people pledged a combined €467,000 in 2020 for a reprint of the Matthew Dunstan-designed strategy game and a new expansion, African Empires, with expectations it would arrive by April 2021.
FunForge has not provided an official update to backers for nearly eight months, when it posted to the Kickstarter page that “the shipment for Monumental is about to begin”. Company CEO Philippe Nouhra has now told BoardGameWire, “Fortunately, we found a solution, through an important contract that should be signed in the weeks to come, to solve most of our financial issues and therefore to be able to deliver almost all of the remaining games.”
Runaway inflation sees Africa’s longest-running board games convention return to Kickstarter in search of funding
Africa’s longest-running board games convention has returned to Kickstarter after two years of self-financing, as soaring inflation in its home country of Nigeria weighs heavily on the event’s finances. The African Boardgames Convention has grown rapidly over the past seven years, with organisers hoping to draw in 3,000 people for this year’s event – well up from the 750 recorded in 2022 and about 1,000 who attended in November last year.
AB Con raised more than $23,700 through its last Kickstarter campaign in 2021, before becoming self-funding across the last two years – but co-host and crowdfund organiser Oluwafemi Olusanya told BoardGameWire the worsening state of Nigeria’s economy had created a major financial challenge for the event.
Kickstarter’s new head of games is ex-Exploding Kittens, Greater than Games sales specialist Maggie Clayton
Kickstarter has named Exploding Kittens Inc’s senior sales manager Maggie Clayton as its new head of games, as the crowdfunding giant continues its battle against tabletop-focused competitors Gamefound and BackerKit. Clayton spent almost three years at Exploding Kittens as senior sales manager and North American sales manager, following a four-year stint working in sales and marketing at tabletop publishers Greater Than Games.
She replaces Jon Ritter-Roderick, who will lead creator strategy on the new Kickstarter Performance team after two years as head of games – one of the crowdfunding heavyweight’s biggest categories.
Sky Team crowned Spiel des Jahres winner for 2024, Daybreak takes Kennerspiel prize
Sky Team has won the coveted Spiel des Jahres for 2024, pipping fellow nominees Captain Flip and In the Footsteps of Darwin to the German game of the year prize. The co-op design from Luc Remond and Scorpion Masque is the first two-player-only game to win the prize in the Spiel des Jahres’ 45-year history. Targi was nominated for the prize in 2012, seven years after the only other two-player-only nominee, Jambo.
Sky Team’s win means the Spiel des Jahres has been won by a co-operative game design in four out of the past six years, following successes for Just One in 2019, MicroMacro: Crime City in 2021 and Dorfromantik: The Board Game last year (this excellent stat was spotted by Eric Martin at BoardGameGeek, not me – thanks Eric!).
Board Game Revolution’s huge Facebook community names Hegemony as its latest Game of the Year
Economic class warfare simulator Hegemony: Lead Your Class to Victory has triumphed in this year’s Meeple’s Choice awards, which are voted on by members of Board Game Revolution’s hefty Facebook groups. Voters from BGR’s 30,000-member promotions-focused Facebook page and separate 82,000 member ‘community’ page ensured Hegemony added to its BoardGameGeek Golden Geek Awards wins in May, beating out competition from second-placed Voidfall and third-placed Earth.
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Other news:
After record Warhammer 40k sales, GW plans global expansion - Wargamer
Oink Games hires Massimo Alessio Zeppetelli as director of inventor relations, growth and marketing - Mojo Nation
Hasbro will need more than video game execs before “going all in” on digital play - Rascal News
Berlin Brettspiel Con scores record 16,000 attendance - Brettspiel News
LongPack brings in Andre Kieren as North American sales director - ICv2
Design Zone
Veteran designer Geoff Engelstein writes about building the Goldilocks Zone, or Sweet Spot, into your board game designs
A dive deep into getting your board game to stand out on Kickstarter and other crowdfunding platforms from podcast CrowdFundingNews
Hiromasa Matsuo has published a documentary featuring interviews with board game designers in Japan (paid - first 10 minutes are free here)
Designer Diary: Biomos by Gricha German - BoardGameGeek
The Tabletop Design Blog looks at the semantics of hit points vs victory points, and being unneccesarily verbose in game explanations
Designer Diary: Cities by Steve Finn - BoardGameGeek
Part three of a discussion about the ‘life cycle’ of resources in a board game
Designer Diary: River of Gold by Keith Piggott - BoardGameGeek
Jobs of the Week
US - Artist Resource Manager (Contract), Lorcana - Ravensburger North America
US - Graphic Designers and UI designers, Lorcana - Ravensburger North America
US - Senior Games Buyer - Target
US - Senior Commercialization Manager - Wizards Play Network - Wizards of the Coast
US - Buyer, Supply Chain Team - Wizards of the Coast
US - Social Media Manager - Dolphin Hat Games
US - Sales Lead - Left Justified Studio & Prolific Games
Denmark - Game Community Manager, Content Partnerships - Lego
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