A local start-up took to the internet in an attempt to raise $27,000 (€24,270) to produce a board game for international distribution: it ended up raising over 12 times as much. John Cordina talks to Mighty Box Games CEO Marvin Zammit about its admittedly unexpected success.

Mighty Box Games had no experience in developing board games before working on their Posthuman project, although CEO Marvin Zammit notes that they were always on its agenda.

The six persons making up the development studio, after all, share an interest in board games, although their previous projects had all been digital games.

Their most notable effort so far has been Will Love Tear Us Apart; a free browser game based on the lyrics and theme of Joy Division song Love Will Tear Us Apart.

The game’s unique concept and distinctive aesthetic attracted critical acclaim and award nominations, and helped put the young start-up – which started at the end of 2011, and which still operates from the University of Malta’s TAKEOFF business incubator – on the map.

It also helped encourage the team to go ahead with its next project: Posthuman.

Posthuman

The Posthuman world designed by Mighty Box is a dystopia where the planet is being reclaimed by nature, while post-human mutants are working to eradicate the last humans remaining.

Mr Zammit reveals that the team set out to develop a digital game as well as a board game based on the Posthuman world, and that the digital game was originally set to be launched first.

Mighty Box ultimately decided on the other way round, and as a result the Posthuman board game ended up on Kickstarter, a funding platform for creative projects, last March. Backers could pledge just enough to reserve a copy of the game or claim various rewards for higher pledges, including one backer whose likeness will be used in a character which will be included in the game.

The board game is intended for 1-4 players – and up to six players with the expansion the successful fundraiser made possible – who start off as humans on a journey towards a fortified town, but who may turn mutant along the way. Human players win on their own if they reach their destination, while mutant players win if no human is left, with the exception of the last one to turn.

The game was designed by Mighty Box’s game designer Gordon Calleja. Mark Casha handled graphic design, and while his colleague Fabrizio Cali also provided additional art, the work of artists Arjuna Susini, Nel Pace and Chris Jensen was also used.

The promotional video used to promote the Kickstarter campaign was scripted by Mr Calleja, with Mr Cali taking care of the visuals, Thom Cuschieri handling audio and David Chircop doing the voice-over.

Mr Zammit explains that he is typically the team’s programmer, so his input in the board game was limited to overseeing its developed.

‘$60,000 if we’re lucky’

Asked what the team’s expectations were, Mr Zammit states that it was optimistic, and that it expected its fundraising target to be met and even surpassed for various reasons.

One reason is its agreement with US-based distributor Mr. B Games, who had a number of successful Kickstarter campaigns under its belt and who helped persuade its own fans to start backing the project as soon as it went live.

David Chircop – a game designer himself, as it happens – was brought on board to handle the campaign, thus helping the team engage with prospective backers. And obviously, the team did have faith in what it had come up with.

So when it launched its campaign on 26 March, Mighty Box was hopeful it would manage to raise “somewhere around $40-50,000, maybe $60,000 if we were lucky,” according to Mr Zammit.

But the campaign ended up shattering all expectations: the funding goal was reached in just 13 hours, and the $60,000 Mr Zammit was hoping for were raised on the second day. The amounts pledged kept climbing and climbing, and By the time the campaign closed on 27 April, the project ended up raising $346,071 (€311,022) through 5,323 backers.

Asked to explain why, he felt, the campaign was so successful, Mr Zammit argues that in part, this boils down to the team’s openness about what they were doing.

“We did not just tell people ‘look, we have this board game and it works, trust us.’ We went to great lengths to show that it really works,” he explains.

The rules of the game were made public – though they may have to be upgraded to account for the additional features that have been included since – and the game was also sent to internationally-renowned reviewers, who gave the project the thumbs-up.

 “This is our first board game; we have no proven track record that we can do a good board game, so showing everything we have done was quite crucial,” Mr Zammit notes.

It also spoke to multiple publishers before reaching a “very good deal” with Sean Brown of Mr. B Games, itself a relatively small publisher, although one with a track record of successful products.

“Admittedly none of them were as successful on Kickstarter as this turned out to be,” Mr Zammit notes, chuckling. “It’s been a huge success, even for him.”

More copies, more features, better quality

Mighty Box was originally planning to produce 1,000 copies of the board game, but with over 5,000 backers, this is no longer an option. Mr Zammit estimates that the print run will need to be at least 7,000, although the team is still deciding on the exact quantity.

But the increased funds have not only paved the way for a greater print run; they have also helped the team add a lot more to the game itself, not least because a much larger volume of production brings costs down.

The Kickstarter platform allows for “stretch goals,” funding targets set beyond the original goal, through which additional features to the project can be proposed.

In the end, Mighty Box ended up setting – and reaching – more stretch goals then they imagined they would have, ending up devising new features as the fundraiser was ongoing.

“We were working practically 24 hours a day during the campaign because people were suggesting things that they would like to see in the game and we wanted to make these suggestions a reality,” Mr Zammit explains.

“But we were also thinking of improvements ourselves, and now that we’ve got the volume, we can go ahead with them.”

As mentioned above, the fundraiser paved the way for an expansion, dubbed the Defiant Expansion, which caters for two additional players and adds new features, although even the core game itself received various upgrades. It also allowed for the use of higher-quality materials.

The way ahead

Mighty Box is presently talking to prospective manufacturers, and is hoping to start production next month. The aim is to start shipping copies of Posthuman in October.

The team is also continuing its work on the digital Posthuman game, and is planning to launch another Kickstarter for that project. The board game’s success, of course, is set to provide a boost to the next fundraiser.

“There are people who like the world we’ve created,” Mr Zammit observes.

Mr Zammit notes that the TAKEOFF incubator has provided invaluable help to the team, allowing it to focus on its work and less on the other hassles inherent to managing a business.

“But now, obviously, our aim is to grow our business, he adds.

Mr Zammit explains that the company is presently keener on working on digital games for the time being, but is also set to produce more board games in the future.

“People now associate our name with a successful board game; it would be silly of us not to keep doing them. A good reputation with a client base is worth building on,” he concludes.