Today, March 8, is the release day of Wingspan. For some, it’s cause to celebrate. This is the first published game designed by Elizabeth Hargrave, and it was the first board game illustrated by Natalia Rojas and Ana Maria Martinez Jaramillo (acclaimed board game artist Beth Sobel also contributed). It’s the first Automa (solo mode) […]
Last year and the year before, inspired by Steve Jackson Games, I released stakeholder reports for Stonemaier Games. It’s time for this year’s report. A “stakeholder” in Stonemaier Games is anyone who has an impact on our company and a stake in our success, whether it’s employees, contractors, fans, retailers, distributors, volunteers, artists, designers, backers, […]
Today I have a few videos to share from my Dice Tower crowdfunding series. These short videos summarize the key points from my blog about community, service, and hooks. You can find the previous videos on this website or mixed in with my game design videos on YouTube. What ideas in these videos do you agree or disagree […]
[Edit: Please note that our Champion discount has changed. Check out the most recent description of Champion benefits at this link.] One year ago, I started a little experiment called “Stonemaier Champion.” The idea was to give people the opportunity to contribute $12 annually to support the 100+ blog posts and 100+ YouTube videos (now […]
When I started designing games in elementary school–and even when I started publishing games in 2012–I never imagined that strangers would use my games to propose to their future spouses. But they have. Several of them. I love engagement stories, so even though I haven’t been engaged myself, I’ve been honored to play a small […]
There’s a chocolate company I really love called Lake Champlain. Their truffles are huge and delicious, but they’re really expensive, so I typically wait until the day after certain holidays to buy a few boxes at a discount (a business practice I avoid for Stonemaier Games). When I was checking out, this banner appeared at […]
I love beautiful products. In the world of board games, a huge part what draws me into a game and continues to immerse me is the game’s art. It’s for that reason that a huge part of the budget for every Stonemaier game is for the art, graphic design, and (if applicable), 3D sculpting/modeling. It’s […]
I have a few quick links, videos, and Kickstarter innovations that I’ve been saving up, so I’ve consolidated them on today’s post with some commentary from me. The Fallon Effect I’ve heard a theory about the success of The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon that made me think of Kickstarter creators. The theory attributes the success of […]
In my job before running Stonemaier Games, one of my responsibilities was to run a big fundraising event for a nonprofit. As many of these events do, it included a silent auction and an event chairperson. I would work very closely with the chairperson for 6+ months leading up to the event. One year, we […]
After shipping very few direct orders in 2017, we sold several thousand units directly to consumers in 2018. This has required me to revisit the concept of fulfillment and shipping, so I though I’d update the methods I last discussed in 2016. The Basics In general, this is the 2-step process that many Kickstarter creators […]
