 | |
Type of site | Creative crowdfunding |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2012 |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Founder(s) | Maxwell Salzberg and Rosanna Yau |
| URL | https://www.backerkit.com/ |
BackerKit is a crowdfunding platform focusing on creative projects with an emphasis on tabletop games and fantasy books. [1] On ethical grounds, BackerKit bans projects containing art produced by Generative AI. [2] [3]
BackerKit was founded in 2012 by Maxwell Salzberg and Rosanna Yau as a pledge management, payment processing, shipping, audience engagement, and pre-order tool for Kickstarter campaigns. [4] [5] In 2018, Backerkit established The Creative Fund, with the goal of donating one dollar to a wide range of projects on Kickstarter. [6]
In 2022, BackerKit announced its own crowdfunding marketplace in response to criticisms within the tabletop role-playing game industry against Kickstarter's investment in Blockchain. [7] [8] The first major crowdfunding campaign on BackerKit was for Gloomhaven's Grand Festival, which raised over $5 million. [9] [10] Other early successes included Return to Dark Tower ($2 million) [11] [10] and Spirit Island: Nature Incarnate ($1.2 million). [10]
In 2024, the premium edition of Brandon Sanderson's novel Words of Radiance raised $16 million on BackerKit, breaking the platform's record. [12] [13]
An indie role-playing game is a role-playing game published by individuals or small press publishers, in contrast to games published by large corporations. Indie tabletop role-playing game designers participate in various game distribution networks, development communities, and gaming conventions, both in person and online. Indie game designer committees grant annual awards for excellence.
Video game development has typically been funded by large publishing companies or are alternatively paid for mostly by the developers themselves as independent titles. Other funding may come from government incentives or from private funding.
Gloomhaven is a cooperative board game for one to four players designed by Isaac Childres and published by Cephalofair Games in 2017. It is a campaign-based dungeon crawl game including a narrative campaign, 95 unique playable scenarios, and 17 playable classes. Since its introduction the game has been acclaimed by reviewers, and has been described as one of the best board games ever made.
Modiphius Entertainment is a tabletop role-playing game and board game publisher based in Fulham, London that is known for licensed adaptations of established media. Notable titles include Star Trek Adventures, Fallout the Roleplaying Game,Dune: Adventures in the Imperium, Terry Pratchett’s Discworld: Adventures in Ankh-Morpork, and the Mass Effect board game.
Return to Dark Tower is a board game for one to four players, designed and published by Restoration Games. The game is a sequel to the 1981 board game Dark Tower, by Milton Bradley Company. Return to Dark Tower has players cooperate or compete as they rule over kingdoms surrounding the titular Tower, with their chosen "heroes" gathering resources, defeating monsters and enhancing their strength. As the game progresses, the Tower dispenses corruption across the land, which players must cleanse, while also looking to identify the foe inhabiting the Tower, so that they may defeat it, to win the game. Return to Dark Tower features a circular mat that is sectioned into quarters, to represent the kingdoms, with a Bluetooth-powered Tower at the center, which is connected to an app that runs the game.
Spirit Island is a euro-style co-operative strategy board game designed by R. Eric Reuss and published by Greater Than Games in 2017. Digital versions have been released for PC, iOS, and Android.
Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game produced by Magpie Games. It is set in the world of the animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, and takes place in five different time periods. Players take the roles of martial artists, technological experts, or benders – people who can manipulate one of the four classical elements – who fight for balance in the world while also working towards their own goals and struggling with inner balance, represented by opposing ideals held by a character.
Magpie Games is an American tabletop role-playing games publishing company. Their 2021 crowdfunding campaign to fund the publication of Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game raised over five million dollars, breaking the record for Kickstarter's highest earning tabletop role-playing game. Other notable publications include Bluebeard's Bride and a role-playing game adaptation of the board game Root. The publisher has won IndieCade, ENNIE Awards, and Indie Game Developer Network awards.
Visigoths vs. Mall Goths is an urban fantasy tabletop role-playing game with LGBTQ dating sim elements by Lucian Kahn, with art by Robin Eisenberg. The ancient Visigoths have time traveled to 1990s Los Angeles and are battling mall goths for control of the mall. The game's tone is silly and the setting has many puns. The game was inspired by 1990s movies The Craft, Empire Records, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and Clueless.
Apocalypse Keys is a mystery tabletop role-playing game about monsters who decide to save the world, designed by Rae Nedjadi and published by Evil Hat Productions. It uses the Powered by the Apocalypse game engine by Meguey Baker and Vincent Baker. The game is inspired by Hellboy, Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, Men in Black, Penny Dreadful, and Doom Patrol.
Field Guide to Memory is a one-player, narrative, pen-and-paper journaling, indie role-playing game by Shing Yin Khor and Jeeyon Shim about the mentee of a missing cryptozoologist traveling across the United States in search of information about their missing mentor.
Kids on Bikes is a tabletop role-playing game system, and a series of games that use that system. It has won multiple ENNIE Awards.
Brindlewood Bay is a murder mystery tabletop role-playing game about elderly women amateur detectives, inspired by Murder, She Wrote and H. P. Lovecraft. It was designed by Jason Cordova and was published by Gauntlet Publishing after a 2022 Kickstarter campaign raised $477,518 from 7,748 backers.
The Gauntlet is a publisher/producer of tabletop role-playing games and podcasts. Their publications include Trophy RPG and Brindlewood Bay. In addition to game books, they publish a monthly game zine called Codex to encourage experimentation in indie role-playing games and OSR. Their games and podcasts have won multiple ENNIE Awards. As of November 2024, The Gauntlet has raised over one million dollars USD on Kickstarter and BackerKit combined.
Coyote & Crow is a science fantasy tabletop role-playing game by Connor Alexander. The game was designed by a team of Native Americans from more than a dozen tribes. The game is set in an alternate future of the Americas, where thanks to a natural disaster, colonization never happened. Coyote & Crow's setting is the metropolis Cahokia, which is based on the Mississippi River. Coyote & Crow's first expansion book, Ahu Tiiko, focuses on a murder mystery in a forest village.
Koriko: A Magical Year is a single-player, fantasy tabletop role-playing game by Jack Harrison with illustrations by Deb JJ Lee. The game is structured around Tarot card readings and letter writing throughout the four seasons. It was inspired by the film Kiki's Delivery Service. The game was published in 2023 after raising £235,791 on kickstarter. It won two 2024 Silver ENNIE Awards.
The Cosmere Roleplaying Game is an upcoming tabletop role-playing game based on the Cosmere fictional universe created by American author Brandon Sanderson. Manufactured by Brotherwise Games, the game was first announced in November 2023 by Sanderson's publisher Dragonsteel Entertainment. A crowdfunding campaign was then launched on Kickstarter on 6 August 2024, raising a total of $14.7 million and becoming the most-funded tabletop game on the platform.
Sharang Biswas is an Indian American designer/writer of tabletop role-playing games and interactive media, a writer of speculative fiction, an adjunct professor of game studies at NYU Game Center, and a freelance games journalist. His work focuses on LGBTQ and science fiction and fantasy themes. Biswas has won multiple awards for his game writing work as both a solo designer and a collaborator: one IndieCade award, four ENNIE Awards, and two Indie Game Developer Network awards. He was an Artist in Residence at the Museum of the Moving Image.
I'm Sorry Did You Say Street Magic is a city-building tabletop role-playing game created by Caro Asercion in 2019, based on the system in Microscope.
 | This role-playing game related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
