Why I Love Crowfunding

I don’t think it’s any secret that our next new game is The Few and Cursed (based on the comic by Felipe Cagno and Fabiano Neves), but what I think it more interesting is how this game even came to be designed.  It wouldn’t have been possible without Kickstarter and it shows off the power of crowdfunding and working directly with fans.

During the 1st Maximum Apocalypse campaign, a backer messaged me on Kickstarter about the Few and Cursed comic #3.  I actually had forgotten their name but luckily KS messages are searchable so I was able to find it:

Have you seen the Few and Cursed comic series which have its 3. volume on kickstarter right now?
Why I am asking this, is because I think you could be interested about it…And I was thinking maybe you could do something neat together with Felipe to your game and vise versa to the comic. The themes fits together well, so maybe the main character Redhead could be some sort of card in the game, and maybe some of the survivors could pop up in the future volumes of Few and Cursed.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/174083906/the-few-and-cursed-3
PS. This will be my first co-op focused boardgame, can’t wait for it. 🙂
Best regards,

Anssi Kuoppa

This is how I first learned about the Few and Cursed comic book series.  I checked out the campaign and I liked what I saw, but before I got my act together, Felipe sent me a KS message:

One of my backers sent me your way suggesting we should collaborate somehow. Perhaps doing a little bit of cross-promotion swapping project updates to our backers or even discuss possible business opportunities, I’d love to produce games out of two of my IPs.
I really wanted to connect and go from there.
Thanks!

Felipe

Obviously I responded and this is how the Redhead made her way in as a promo card into the first game.  It all started because Anssi who took the initiative to contact both of us.  A cool outcome for sure and something that would have never been possible without crowdfunding or the internet (I’m still waiting on the Maximum Apocalypse cameos in comics though).  What Anssi didn’t anticipate was how well Felipe and I would hit it off.It wasn’t long before Felipe emailed me about designing a board game based on his comic book.  There was some negotiating and a lot of back and forth but I think that’s expected when you’ve only ever met the person online.  I think we finally signed something in the Fall of 2017 and the important thing is that we worked out an agreement that was a true collaboration where I focused on the game design and Felipe focused on the world building, art direction, etc.  As with any collaboration I think we both ended up contributing a lot to many aspects of the game (along many other artists, graphic designers and more).So I started work on the Few and Cursed near the end of 2017… I took it to Unpub in March 2017 to playtest it publicly for the first time (always nerve wracking).  It’s been playtested a bunch since then (GMG, GenCon, Metatopia, etc).  I still cringe when I look back at that first public iteration, but luckily the feedback scores were quite good even back then. I like to think that it’s come a long way though.

The really special moment for me in this story though is when Felipe came all the way from Brazil to PAX East in Boston to meet in person and playtest the game.  To say we hit it off is a bit of an understatement and Felipe ended up staying and helping out in our booth for the entire convention.  We hardcore geeked out over Marvel (comic books, collectible cards and movies). The meeting was really serendipitous – at least for me.  It alleviated all my fears about this agreement I had with someone I met online and was truly inspirational.  It was a major catalyst for the collaboration.

I’m really proud of the Few and Cursed but it only exists because of Kickstarter and some lucky circumstances.  It was Luck that Felipe and I were both running Kickstarters at the same time and it was even more lucky that we had a backer who found both our projects and messaged us.  I think it was even luckier that Felipe and I got along well enough to collaborate together.  Whether it’s fate or just a tremendous string of amazing circumstances – the fact that something like this can happen is exactly why I love crowdfunding.Anyways, I’m really excited for the Few and Cursed (and hope you are just a little bit as well).  It will definitely be our biggest game yet and it wouldn’t have been possible without the help and collaboration from Felipe and his team.  While the game is not coming out until June,  Felipe does have another Kickstarter going on right now (less than 24 hours left) for a comic book he wrote called The Lost Kids: Seeking Samarkand. 

The series is a love letter to Goonies, the 80s cartoon Dungeons & Dragons and all-time favorite game series Final Fantasy.  When a group of five teenagers is mysteriously transported to a world filled with magic, steampunk tech and airships their only clue to return home is to find a mythical lost city – the city of Samarkand.The Lost Kids ends tonight and is looking to unlock another Stretch Goal at $40K. If any of you are comic or graphic novel fans, I’m sure he would appreciate any help in his final push. The Lost Kids features gorgeous art and every pledge comes loaded with collectibles.