8 Best Kickstarter Board Games That You Should Know Update 04/2024

Best Kickstarter Board Games

Kickstarter has become one of the most important places to get money for and make new board games. Because of the crowdfunding platform, there have been many successful campaigns for board games. It was started in 2009.

These projects, big and small, have been given money by tabletop gamers who are excited about the projects. It’s hard to compare the most successful Kickstarter campaigns for board games because Kickstarter has been around for so long. We’ve put together a list of some of the big names that have convinced a lot of people to donate a lot of money.

Exploding Kittens

Exploding Kittens

Over 200,000 people have pledged almost $8 million to make Exploding Kittens happen. Experience: The box says that it’s “a card game for people who like to play with cats and firework-themed cards, as well as goats.” It’s not going to help you figure out how things will go. Which is a shame, because you’ll need some luck to get through this card game.

It’s like Russian Roulette, but you have to be careful not to draw an exploding kitten card, which will kill you and end the game. A fast-paced card game that anyone can play. The absurd humour is also a big help.

Nemesis

Over 30,000 people donated about $30 million to this sci-fi thriller. That’s less than a fourth of the people who backed Exploding Kittens, but they gave almost four times as much money to the project. Nemesis is a “semi-cooperative SF horror game where you and other crew members desperately fight to stay alive and meet different goals.”

The picture makes it look like a terrifying survival game like the Aliens movie series. So this was always going to be a big hit. Awaken Realms, which is behind the Kickstarter campaign for Nemesis, is already one of the most successful companies on the site.

Rising Sun

Rising Sun

Another big name in Kickstarter is CMON, and they’ve always been bringing good games to the table. More than 30,000 people and more than $4 million were pledged to Rising Suns when it launched its campaign.

Players act as “clans” in a game set in feudal Japan. They must use politics, strength, and honour to rule the land, though. When people play games, they don’t always have to use brute strength to get what they want. If they want to win the game, they need to make the right alliances, strike at the right time, and be in the right place. Check out these miniatures while you’re here:

Dark Souls – The Board Game

Dark Souls is a video game series that is all about pain and giving up things for other people. The video games will make people yell the loudest and cry the happiest. And the players will die as well. It’s a lot.

Despite the harsh conditions of the game and the certainty of death, the series is a huge hit. So, it should come as no surprise that more than 30,000 people gave almost £4 million to the Dark Souls board game. This tabletop game is for people who like the game. It “delivers an experience that captures the very essence of the original video games.”

Joking Hazard

Joking Hazard

People who read the online comic Cyanide & Happiness were very excited when the creators made a card game. Many people helped raise over $3 million. When the campaign started, the goal was to raise $10,000, so it was a pretty good crowd-funding project.

This is how Joking Hazard is described: “A card game where players compete to finish an awful comic strip.” That’s a great way to describe it. The comics are inappropriate, funny, and even NSFW. Party games that make people laugh are a good idea. This is a good one.

Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon

42,000 people want to help. Almost $5 million in grants. I can’t believe how good this game is. In this case, the Grail is tainted. The fall of Avalon is what caused it “An unforgettable, solo or team-based adventure for 1-4 players. Blending Arthurian legends and Celtic mythology with a unique vision, it lets you make a big difference in the game world in a very real way.”

This game has a lot of miniatures that are very detailed, a lot of pieces, and a lot of rules. There is no better place to look for complexity and depth in your tabletop games than here! Awaken Realms has got just the thing, and it’s the massive Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon.

Massive Darkness 2: Hellscape

Massive Darkness 2 Hellscape

Publisher: CMON

Funding page: Kickstarter

The first Massive Darkness was a simple, action-focused dungeon bash. Bountiful loot, a lot of monsters, modular dungeon tiles, a lot of miniatures, and a group of familiar fantasy classes are all in this game. Movement was quick, combat was easy, and every action felt like it was meant to show progress in the game without a lot of complicated dice rolls. Massive Darkness 2: Hellscape builds on that and promises a bigger and better dungeon crawl. This game is called Hellscape.

Against the evil forces of Darkness, as a group of Lightbringers, one to six players go into hell and fight monsters while the fate of the world is at stake. Players will be able to choose from a variety of heroes and classes, and they will earn experience points as they complete tasks and defeat enemies. They will be able to use these points to improve their skills. Small demons and gribbly horrors, as many as they are grotesque, are included to make this dark game setting come to life.

If you want to make a game on Kickstarter, Massive Darkness 2: Hellscape was a huge success. It raised a whopping $3,813,274 by the end of its campaign! Don’t forget about it when it’s out and buy it at full price if you didn’t back its Kickstarter.

Darwin’s Journey

Publisher: Thundergryph

Funding page: Kickstarter

Darwin’s Journey is one of the more original board game Kickstarter themes. It tells the story of the famous naturalist’s journey through the Galapagos Islands, where he made important discoveries and worked on his theory of evolution. Players will get closer to reliving Darwin’s groundbreaking biological discovery as they explore the islands, navigate their shores, collect tropical specimens, and communicate with museums at the cutting edge of science as they progress through the game.

At its heart, Darwin’s Journey is a game where you have to put workers in the right places. Players spread their workers out across different jobs and put them in different places so they can make the most progress in science. But with a new worker-progression system, you’ll need to train your workers in different fields and think about how to expand their knowledge to help you with your research. Chase short-term goals to get early victory points, or put your money on long-term goals for bigger prizes.

The game’s co-designers, Simone Luciani and Nestore Mangone, already made Newton, a board game that tracked the studies of the natural philosopher. Kickstarter raised enough money to make Darwin’s Journey a reality back in January. If you can’t wait to get your hands on a physical copy of the game, check out its digital version on Tabletop Simulator instead.