The Game Makers, a board game that's all about designing board games, launched on Kickstarter on September 2. Publisher Bezier Games, known best for its Ultimate Werewolf series, Suburbia, and Castles of Mad King Ludwig, is working in conjunction with a staggering number of other creators to bring the project to life.
The Game Makers offers a tour of the wonderful world of board game manufacturing. Bezier certainly isn't the first publisher to tackle this topic - Tabletop Inc successfully crowdfunded a worker placement game about board game production back in 2024. However, The Game Makers has one ace up its sleeve that is truly unique.
The hook is that all of the games players will be developing the best board games from real life, hence the colossal cohort of collaborators. Stonemaier Games (Scythe), Days of Wonder (Ticket to Ride), and Repos Production (Seven Wonders) are all participating - and that's only scratching the surface of the 130+ publishers involved.
The Game Makers is a worker placement game for one to six players where everyone take turns simultaneously. Every player has a factory board that they will gradually upgrade as the game progresses, as well a display case where they will show off their completed projects. There's also a warehouse, which sits at the center of the table, that players will use to collect resources.
At the start of each turn, everyone moves their forklifts around the warehouse collecting components like dice, tiles, and cards. These components can either be used in the production of a new board game, or to upgrade their factory. For example, tiles can be used either to put together games, or they can be spent to raise the player's position on the marketing track which provides bonus points once the game wraps up.
Players earn victory points by releasing as many board games as possible, earning set bonuses for making multiple titles that share a genre. There's a balancing act between using components to upgrade the factory, which makes actions more efficient and can unlock scoring bonuses, or using them to get board games released.
The game has a massive scope, and a massive price tag to match. The basic Gamer Pledge costs $149 (£111), while going all-in will set you back $199 (£148). According to the Kickstarter page, the pricier pledge offers two additional booster decks, plus a 'blinged out component pack'.
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