Publishing lessons

A few years ago, Kickstarter was the standout crowdfunding platform for board game creators. Of course there were other options, all of which had their own approach to crowdfunding, but when it came to board games they were far behind.

Now that is changing with new players making headway into the board game crowdfunding space, and leading the charge is gamefound.

In 2022 Kickstarter raised 236.4 million dollars and gamefound raised an impressive 28.3 million dollars. While that may not seem like much, raising over 10% of what your 13 year old competitor raised in your first public year is very good going, especially when you consider gamefound only opened to the general public part way into that year.

There are many pros and cons to both platforms and today I’d like to highlight 3 big benefits of using gamefound.

EU VAT handling

VAT is a type of tax paid in the EU and as a crowdfunding creator, you are legally required to pay this tax. Luckily, in recent times the European Union has shifted the obligation of VAT handling in online marketplaces to make the platform responsible for collecting and paying this tax.

gamefound is the first crowdfunding platform to adopt these new laws and as of now, by using gamefound as a crowdfunding platform they will collect and manage your EU vat for you. This removes a lot of complications and helps ensure you’re not hit by any unexpected tax bills after your project has funded.

Instalment payments

Up until now crowdfunding has required backers to pay the full cost of their order in one payment, typically the day the project funds.

gamefound recently introduced an instalment feature that has no fees or interest rates associated to it, meaning backers still pay the same amount, but can pay over a longer period. This not only provides backers with more options, but naturally increases the number of backers at higher tiers as people can spread the cost over longer periods.

I believe this is a really great feature as it provides backers with options, giving them better control over their finances.

Marketing services

When people ask me what the hardest part of running my first crowdfunding campaign was, I always say the same thing – Getting enough people to know about my game.

You can create the most beautiful, amazing to play game in the world but if you don’t make people aware of it you aren’t going to fund. Most crowdfunding platforms put the responsibility of marketing entirely on you and require you to do all the work.

gamefound still needs you to build and bring your own audience, but they offer an entire suite of marketing services that can run alongside your campaign. When it comes to advertising they have a lot of experience and access to things first time creators don’t have, and this service can make a huge difference to your projects chances.

Both Kickstarter and gamefound have a lot to offer creators looking to crowdfund their next project and I’m really excited to see what other new features and services we see from these platforms in 2023.