GAMA unveils 10-year plan to become “epicenter” of global tabletop gaming industry, renames itself after almost 50 years
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Welcome to the latest BoardGameWire newsletter!
Our lead story this week looks at how GAMA, the US-based hobby games trade organisation, is looking to go global and become the “epicentre” of tabletop gaming with the unveiling of its first ever 10-year plan.
We also have news of workers at crowdfunding giant Kickstarter launching a strike today after months of talks with union members stalled over proposals for a minimum salary and protections for its long-running four-day work week programme.
And Glass Cannon Unplugged CEO Jakub Wiśniewski told BoardGameWire how an intensive pre-launch community-building campaign has already powered Don’t Starve: The Board Game to what looks like might become the biggest Kickstarter raise of 2025.
If you keep scrolling, we also have all the other major happenings from across the board game industry, our regular round-up of board game design-focused writing and podcasts, and all the latest tabletop gaming job openings.
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Have a great week!
Mike Didymus-True - Editor
GAMA unveils 10-year plan to become “epicenter” of global tabletop gaming industry, renames itself after almost 50 years
Hobby games trade organisation GAMA has set its sights on becoming the “epicentre” of global tabletop gaming in the unveiling of its first-ever 10-year plan – which comes alongside the association renaming itself for the first time in its almost 50-year history.
US-based GAMA has revealed an array of plans spread across the next decade, including boosting its membership within both hobby games and the mass market, expanding itself into a global organisation, shifting its finances away from the current heavy reliance on the annual GAMA Expo and Origins shows, and leading the conversation on sustainability within the industry.
Kickstarter workers set to strike today over minimum salary proposals, four-day work week protection
Crowdfunding giant Kickstarter is facing a worker strike today after months of talks with union members stalled over proposals for a minimum salary and protections for its long-running four-day work week programme.
Workers will begin the strike at 8am on October 2, after 85% of the Kickstarter United union voted to authorise the industrial action unless a contract agreement could be reached in the interim.
“Flashy ads don’t convert nearly as well as genuine conversation”: Don’t Starve: The Board Game guns for biggest Kickstarter tabletop raise of the year after topping $1m within hours of launch
An intensive pre-launch community-building campaign has already powered Don’t Starve: The Board Game to one of the biggest Kickstarter raises of 2025, with about $1.5m pledged less than 24 hours after the project’s launch.
Don’t Starve – an adaptation of the Tim Burton-esque survival video game of the same name – managed to rack up more than 60,000 followers for its Kickstarter campaign ahead of its launch yesterday, after publisher Glass Cannon Unplugged leaned hard on engaging with the video game’s existing fans, company co-founder and CEO Jakub Wiśniewski told BoardGameWire.
“There’s no shortage of creativity in Vietnam. What we lack are bridges”: Vietnam’s blossoming board game design scene goes global via first Road to Essen competition
A new competition designed to showcase Vietnam’s burgeoning local board game design scene at the world’s biggest board game fair, Spiel Essen, has unveiled its first winner from almost 150 entries.
Thinh LeHuu’s design July, inspired by the seventh lunar month and its ‘Hungry Ghost’ festival in Vietnamese culture, won over a Road to Essen judging panel that included Cascadia designer Randy Flynn with its “clever gameplay, polished design and cultural message”.
French competition which has celebrated unpublished board game designs for almost 50 years unveils 2025 winners
A venerable French competition which aims to highlight the most original unpublished board game designs has revealed its latest cohort of winners.
1001 Lives by Guillaume Achaz, Archéo III by Aymeric Duperray and Xavier Violeau, Black Flag by Thomas Paradis and Trashing Bird de David Exertier were all named as winners in the 44th Concours de Boulogne-Billancourt – after the jury whittled down 126 entrants to four prize winners.
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Other news:
Design Zone
Pam Walls discusses increasing the replayability of one of her board game prototypes
Matthew Dunstan reveals how to design a print and play game the Postmark Games way
Critter Kitchen designer Alex Cutler chats to the Going Analog podcast about what makes a game a good product
Designer Diary: Expanding Magic Number Eleven by Bonghwan Ju - BoardGameGeek
Skeleton Code Machine explores how simple dice mechanisms can be used to create deep decision spaces in strategy games such as Rumble Nation
Board game designer Chris Backe provides the data-driven designer’s guide to pitching and getting published via Ellie Dix’s The Dark Imp blog
Designer Diary: Red Carpet by Eloi Pujadas - BoardGameGeek
The Decision Space podcast looks at deckbuilders through the lens of classic title Dominion
Joe Slack from The Board Game Design Course on why reviewing your digital and physical proofs thoroughly is so important (and what can happen if you don’t)
The Game Design Unboxed podcast talks with game designer Serena Fadlun about creating games that increase human happiness
LaunchBoom director of games Victor Shiu discusses the realities of crowdfunding, independent publishing, and his hummingbird game Hover with the My Favourite Game podcast
Charlie, Trevor, and Ananda from the Tabletop Takeaway podcast talk about route-building games
Peter C Hayward and AJ Brandon talk about design problems around end-game scoring
Designer Diary: Map Masters by Ian Bach - BoardGameGeek
The Garphill Games crew look at the game design elements of Uwe Rosenberg’s A Feast for Odin
Job Watch
US - Assistant Director of Marketing, Lifestyle Games, Asmodee
US - Senior Director of Product Lifecycle Management, Asmodee
Netherlands - Social Media Specialist, Asmodee
All these jobs are from the very excellent Tabletop Game Jobs Facebook Group - head there to take a look at all the latest listings
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