Race for the Crown Retrospective

Today I want to take a step back and reflect on the process of creating Race for the Crown. Part of this is to give everyone who’s been involved some context, and part of it is to share lessons learned with other creators who may be thinking about launching their own game. If you’ve never produced a board game before, hopefully this will be useful.

How It Started

The idea first took shape after my family and I attended a gaming convention where my son and I played a massive 20+ player session of Circus Maximus. On the drive home, we did what we always do, talked about what we liked, what we didn’t, and how we’d design it differently.

We wanted more customization, more abilities, and cleaner gameplay without relying on endless charts. And because I’m a fan of fantasy settings, the theme naturally shifted in that direction. By the time we got home, the foundation of Race for the Crown was in place. I have a personal flaw: if I have five spare minutes, I’ll start a new project. So we dove in—designing, prototyping, and playtesting at conventions over the next two years.

Our first mistake (and one I’d still make again) was designing something so complex. The gameplay is simple but the game itself featured  a lot of miniatures and a dual-dial that wasn’t exactly easy to produce. They say your first game should be simple—we knew that, ignored it, and built what we wanted anyway.

The Launch

We launched the game twice. The first Kickstarter in 2023 failed.

Instead of giving up, we reached out to our mailing list and asked why people hadn’t backed. The feedback was invaluable, and here are a few key lessons for anyone considering Kickstarter:

1. The Kickstarter mailing list matters more than your own. We had 4,000+ on our personal list, but conversions were poor. On the second launch, we had fewer than half that on Kickstarter’s list—and those converted much better.
2. You need third-party voices. Videos of other people talking about your game—reviewers, influencers, or even players at conventions—build credibility. They don’t need to be expensive, but you need several.
3. Don’t underestimate premium rewards. I thought almost nobody would buy our oversized “King Sized” edition. We sold 30+ in the first campaign alone, printed 50, sold more and will likely sell out soon. There’s always a group of players who want all the toys—just make sure you can deliver without bankrupting yourself.

After the first failure, we nearly shelved the project. But the game was good—we believed in it. So we invested more, rebuilt our marketing, and relaunched.

Tariffs

Then came tariffs.

We finished funding right before the presidential election—timed intentionally. Weeks later, a sudden 145% tariff on Chinese manufacturing nearly crushed us. U.S. manufacturers weren’t an option (2–3x the cost, much higher minimum orders, and limited ability to handle all plastic components we needed). Other countries had similar hurdles.

We had no choice but to cut our order, which raised per-unit costs significantly. Then tariffs dropped to 30%—but too late for us to adjust. In the end, our cost per unit ultimately doubled between the two. We passed some of that to backers, but it only covered about 30% of the increase. The rest came out of our margins.