Yesterday, I got a copy of FlickFleet (yes, it’s one word in case you were searching BGG unsuccessfully). It’s a dexterity game of flicking spaceships to move, and flicking dice to shoot your foes. Fast, fun, and well-regarded (7.9 on BGG). This deluxe copy is packed with stuff and I’m looking forward to getting it on the table.

But that’s not why I’m here.

I won this at a convention. Jackson and his team at Eurydice Games often run a competition at conventions, where you get to test your skill at the game by blowing up asteroids. They’re a polite sort of target that doesn’t return fire, and make a good thing to practice on. Anyway, best score on the day wins a copy of the game. I got lucky.

But that’s not why I’m here either.

Eurydice are currently running a Gamefound campaign for one of their growing line of print and play games. I’ve played that too, and it’s a fine example of the genre.

But even that’s not why I’m here.

The reason I’m here is to point out the type of campaign they’re running. It’s a new (to me, at least) type of GF campaign where they only need one backer to successfully fund. This means that it charges your card as soon as you pledge rather than waiting till the campaign ends (because it knows that it’s funded, so why wait?). It’s an interesting development. Several folk I’ve talked to about it have had the same immediate reaction as I did: you can get to most of the same place by just setting your goal at a single pound/dollar/ningi. I’m told that there are benefits to getting the info early from the viewpoint of the creator. Time will tell if this format becomes popular. 

In its early days, I’m sure I recall KS having different types of campaigns you could run, though that seems to have fallen by the wayside. So the idea of different forms of campaign isn’t new. This “Express crowdfunding” is essentially a preorder button. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad one, or maybe just a thing (certainly being “just a preorder system” been a criticism of crowdfunding in the past). Whatever you think of it, it is a development, and something that you might be interested in knowing if you didn’t before.