This is the day you don’t skip at the tabletop gym because you don’t want your lists to look all scrawny and weak. It’s so unattractive when lists are neglected while everything else is robust and muscular…

That’s why we’re going to pump our lists full of Kickstarter convos, board game paraphernalia, and all of the other tabletop-adjacent talk that gets the Internet into a tizzy. Enjoy.

For years now, Kickstarter has been the primary way of discovering and pledging new board games that are coming out.

It’s how we get deluxe-ified boxes, literal pounds worth of miniatures, and a lot of intriguing games, many of which end up being favorites in the community and highly-rated games in their own right.

But now Gamefound is here to offer an alternative. It’s already had games appear on the platform, but the biggest was the recent Awaken Realms’ game ISS Vanguard which served as a flagship campaign for Gamefound. So with that big game sailing away with over $4 million in funding, let’s look at what the new crowdfunding platform has done right and what Kickstarter needs to learn from its new competitor.

Navigation Menu

Many of us get lost in the euphoria of exploring a new game that we want to buy, but if we take a step back and think about how Kickstarter pages are designed, it’s just endless scrolling. Which is pretty obnoxious. Maybe it’s good for the mobile experience, but it’s pretty tedious when there are so many more intuitive ways to move between parts of a campaign.

That’s why the navigation menu on Gamefound is so refreshing to me. It allows you to quickly jump to the area you’re interested in. Maybe for the first time you visit, you’ll want to see everything in order and scroll through the whole campaign, but I frequently return to a Kickstarter page and want to look at a specific area.

This menu solves that problem for me. It creates shortcuts to all the pertinent parts of the game’s page that I would want to look at.

It makes for a better user experience. And the reason why it’s the first thing I mentioned is that it carries through into just about every other part of my exploration with the campaigns.

Stretch Goals

Stretch goals are maybe the biggest part of board game crowdfunding. They are the most visible, tangible element of backer-targeted rewards that incentivize people to jump onto the campaign.

What sets something apart from the retail version? All of the campaign-specific add-ons, bonuses, and extra content that get unlocked over the course of the project’s funding period. Tied to either a funding goal or a timed release, they can really invigorate a campaign.

And, unfortunately, on many Kickstarter campaigns, there are lost amidst the sea of ribbon-oriented pictures and game information. They are thin banners of information that don’t visually support the importance of what they do for board games on the platform.

On Gamefound, though, they have their own section in the sidebar navigation and each stretch goal is separated so that viewers, potential backers, and those that have already joined the campaign can easily jump between them and see their progress if they are not unlocked quite yet.

This design choice elevates the stretch goals to the proper place they hold within the campaign and allows backers to more easily see what’s happening with the ones they want to be unlocked.

Add Ons

Kickstarter games are designed to have lots of extra goodies. Backers are encouraged to check out all of the miniatures, the expansions, and other add-ons that are available because it’s the most cost-effective time to check it out and many times these add-ons never appear at retail.

So the double threat of reduced prices and exclusivity means that backers will want add-ons more often than not.

But it can be pretty obnoxious to get extra things on Kickstarter. As someone who uses the platform, but not extensively or obsessively, it can be difficult to remember what I wanted and what I ordered because of how everything is so compartmentalized. You have the pledges. Then you have some add-ons available when the campaign closes. Then you have the pledge manager. Which comes with the other exclusive content you want to buy. And it’s all so very fragmented.

Gamefound seems to want to change that by including these elements in the main campaign and making them visible and more easily interpreted from the start. Want one of the expansions to ISS Vanguard? Okay, just add it now. Bundle it onto your original pledge. It’s a small tweak but something that makes the process more streamlined.

Board Game-Centric Design

At the end of the day, Kickstarter is bigger than board games. And that’s totally understandable. It’s got other things that drive traffic, funding, and interest.

But Gamefound has a narrow focus that I can appreciate because it makes the entire website more friendly to exploration in the tabletop industry. Kickstarter must include broad, sweeping categories for all of the many crowdfunding campaigns that feature on the platform.

Gamefound only has to focus on games. Which is obvious from the homepage. The biggest campaigns appear on the rotating banner at the top. Exploring different games is as easy as choosing the genre of board game you want to play or support.

Maybe the platform will grow beyond games at some point, but it’s more precise focus allows it to present a much more accessible storefront or website for potential backers.

Company Track Record

This is something that I definitely want to see more of. While new creators or companies won’t be able to demonstrate the history of their success, the company track record that is showcased on the ISS Vanguard does an excellent job of confirming the value of what you’re buying. If the company has successfully funded numerous projects already (some of which are highly-rated and still current favorites in the community), then that can give backers confidence to join on a newer campaign.

While a change like this doesn’t really make an impact on individual campaigns, it shows a thread of continuity between projects. It validates what a company is doing and reassures backers that they are buying into a system that works. It doesn’t matter what you think of Awaken Realms. What matters is that they make profitable and meaningful board game campaigns on these crowdfunding platforms and the games can also become really memorable in terms of the industry.

Now translate that same level of information toward any creator that uses Gamefound and you’ll be able to see what they’ve accomplished, which gives you comfort in knowing how they’ll handle the latest project and how they’ll value and reward any money you add to the effort.

I’m curious what you all think of the new platform? How does Gamefound compare to Kickstarter? Which do you prefer. Let me know in the comments!