Welcome to Crowdfunding Carnival for December! Con season is well and truly over, with PAX Unplugged wrapping before Thanksgiving. That, combined with the upcoming holidays, has caused Kickstarter to slow…turns out game designers need a vacation too! We don’t have ten campaigns to look at this month, but there are still a number of interesting games on the horizon which are worth examination.
Continue reading Crowdfunding Carnival: December, 2025Tag Archives: Gamefound
Crowdfunding Carnival: November, 2025
Welcome to Crowdfunding Carnival for November! There are a ton of campaigns out there this month; my initial pass easily got to 20 even after I realized that there were a lot and started filtering more aggressively. We’ve definitely got more designers putting in the juice, but there are some other interesting developments going on.
First, Gamefound has come roaring onto the scene again. While the provider got some recognition during the Kickstarter blockchain kerfluffle, their network was pretty weak until recently. First, over the summer Gamefound acquired Indiegogo (not the other way around). Second, Gamefound is currently in the midst of RPG Party, an event that started in mid-October to help promote and drive engagement with RPG campaigns specifically. Chaosium and Magpie got on board with RPG Party, so between their involvement and the recent access to the Indiegogo mailing list, Gamefound has jumped from also-ran to contender seemingly overnight.
But let’s move onto the games. This month features campaigns from all three major crowdfunding providers, meaning the space is starting to heat up a bit. Competition is a good thing, and supporting competitors to Kickstarter is a great idea when Kickstarter United is still on strike.
Continue reading Crowdfunding Carnival: November, 2025Crowdfunding Carnival: August, 2025
Welcome to the Crowdfunding Carnival for August! We’re still a little bit in the post-GenCon hangover, but there are definitely a lot of things to talk about and games to look into.
Before getting into the games, this seemed like the right place to reiterate the news that Gamefound has acquired Indiegogo, mixing Gamefound’s newer tech stack with Indiegogo’s massive subscriber base. Gamefound has been very successful in board games, though they haven’t broken into RPGs to the same degree. Still, these two companies joining forces means we will likely have a third viable crowdfunding platform after Kickstarter and Backerkit in terms of network effects and value for project developers. Will we see more RPG projects from Gamefound in this list? Possibly. The site still trails in terms of reach and backer-facing quality of life features, like requiring disclosures for projects that use AI art. Still, more competition is generally better in the space, and I look forward to seeing the newest iteration of Gamefound roll out.
And with that, on to the games! We’ve got horror, we’ve got dragons, and yes, we’ve got another attempt at writing a tabletop roguelike. Onward!
Continue reading Crowdfunding Carnival: August, 2025
Weekend Update: 7/26/2025
Welcome to the Cannibal Halfling Weekend Update! Start your weekend with a chunk of RPG news from the past week. We have the week’s top sellers, industry news stories, something from the archives, and discussions from elsewhere online.
Continue reading Weekend Update: 7/26/2025Crowdfunding Carnival: July, 2023
Welcome to Crowdfunding Carnival for July! When the majors are away, the indies shall play, and that’s exactly what’s happening right now. The Free Leagues and Kobolds of the world are toiling over their GenCon booths, but we still have some fabulous campaigns going on just under the con circuit radar. For those collectors out there fear not, there’s one big league campaign going on and it includes five alternate covers for the main book. And if you want to take a look back, this month’s retrospective includes a great underdog story and a less-great story of a five year old campaign that was fulfilled only a couple of months ago. For all that and more, read on; your wallet will not thank you.
Continue reading Crowdfunding Carnival: July, 2023Crowdfunding Carnival: April, 2023
Welcome to the Crowdfunding Carnival! It’s April, which means two things. First, we’re done with ZineQuest for real; there are no more event stragglers (though an odd zine will pop up from time to time) and we’re back to “normal” campaigns. Second, April is my birthday month. Readers, I’m feeling old, I’m feeling it in my bones. Looking at campaigns this month has gotten me all crotchety. I will admit, I’m turning 36 and that’s not actually old; I’d still be ‘the kid’ in many gaming groups I’ve played with in the past. What has happened, though, is that in advance of my birthday a lot of the Kickstarter campaigns have got me complaining. Nothing makes you feel older than complaining about stuff you have no control over.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, there aren’t that many interesting campaigns live right now in the wake of ZineQuest. There are plenty of 5e filler modules, which I don’t care about, and a lot of model files for semi-pornographic minis, which is weird and a bit disconcerting. In my usual market, though, new original RPGs, there are only a few of interest and weirdly a bumper crop of ones I can’t bring myself to be interested in or write about. It’s made me realize it may be another good time to go over the crowdfunding market, and ways that the crowdfunding market could be more useful for project backers.
Continue reading Crowdfunding Carnival: April, 2023Weekend Update: 8/13/2022
Welcome to the Cannibal Halfling Weekend Update! Start your weekend with a chunk of RPG news from the past week. We have the week’s top sellers, industry news stories, and discussions from elsewhere online.
Continue reading Weekend Update: 8/13/2022
Crowdfunding Carnival: August, 2022
Welcome to the Crowdfunding Carnival for August! You know what time it is, it’s…well, you might not know what time it is, because while yes, it’s ZineQuest, 2022 is both the first and last year ZineQuest will take place in August. It’s ultimately a little confusing, which may be why Kickstarter moved next year’s ZineQuest back to February before this one even happened! Nevertheless, it’s happening, and there are a lot of zines to go through, just like every year.
Because it’s August it’s GenCon, which means that usually crowdfunding channels are a bit quiet as many designers and publishers look to the con for promotion. This does seem to be true this year, though there are major campaigns on each of the competing platforms which are worth a look.
The big news under the carnival tent, though, is ZineQuest. It is day three as of this writing, and the initial flood of projects looking to start strong on August first are already out in the world. How are things going?
Continue reading Crowdfunding Carnival: August, 2022Crowdfunding Carnival: July, 2022
It’s July! The weather is hot, and the RPG crowdfunding is…at least a little air conditioned. It’s the month before GenCon, and that means all the big design houses have their sights elsewhere, at least for the most part. Even so, there are plenty of games around and even some worth throwing money towards!
Speaking of GenCon. The biggest crowdfunding-related news in the last month was Kickstarter’s announcement that ZineQuest 2023 would be held in February, even though ZineQuest 2022, moved to August at the beginning of this year, hasn’t even happened yet. I don’t exactly know why this announcement was made so early; if it has any effect it’s probably to take the wind out of the sails of the event that’s scheduled for next month. It is possible that pre-launch metrics aren’t looking pretty, or that the GenCon co-marketing opportunities that were purportedly the reason for the time switch in the first place didn’t materialize. No matter the reason, we’ll be here next month covering ZineQuest 2022, just like we have for the last few years.
Continue reading Crowdfunding Carnival: July, 2022
Crowdfunding Carnival: June, 2022
Welcome to the Crowdfunding Carnival for the month of June in this two thousand and twenty secondth year! Not to worry, Aaron is fine – just lost on a bike somewhere in the continental US, definitely not my fault. While he’s away I’ve snuck in and nicked his top hat and baton and gone looking for some tabletop roleplaying game crowdfunding attractions that are worth your time and possibly your money. There are chaotic cafes, regency scandals, vibrant seas, divine tales, monster-collecting kids, meta games, and exigent exalts along with a few observations from my unusual perspective up on this stage. So, without further ado, on with the show!
Cannibal Halfling Gaming 