Board game publisher Elf Creek Games looks to be in hot water, as fans complain about unfulfilled Kickstarter projects, while receiving no reassurance or other update from the company.
The board game publisher, producer of titles such as Atlantis Rising and Honey Buzz, made regular social media posts up until October 10, and seems to have appeared at industry show Spiel Essen on October 23, where all the best board games are shown off.
However, it hasn’t given an update on any of its ongoing projects since August 30, 2024. As the weeks tick by with no official communication, it’s clear from comments that the community’s mood has soured.
The company has four Kickstarter crowdfunder projects currently in the works, three dedicated to various expansions for Elf Creek Games titles (Merchants of the Dark Road, Honey Buzz, and Atlantis Rising) and one concerning a new game, Paradox Initiative. Some are partially fulfilled, while others still await production. All seem to have slipped well behind their original timelines.
For instance, Honey Buzz: Fall Flavours, an autumnal variant of the worker bee placement game Honey Buzz, was originally supposed to be delivered in November 2022. Two years later, and while North American and EU backers have reportedly had their pledges fulfilled, other parts of the world are still waiting on their copies.
On November 15, the UK distributor Spiral Galaxy Games made a Facebook post announcing it had received the stock and was trying to complete fulfilment by Christmas, but added there were no guarantees.
Meanwhile, the most recent crowdfunder, which bundled Santa’s Workshop Deluxe and the Merchants of the Dark Road expansion Secret Villages into one Kickstarter, was supposed to arrive in December 2024. However, since production had not begun when Elf Creek Games made its last statement on August 30, and since a promised September update providing “a lot more information” on the subject never came, I’m not holding out for a Christmas miracle.
Nor, it seems, are Elf Creek Games’ fans. Backers who helped fund the titles have left comments on Kickstarter asking for their games, their money back, or some substantive communication from Elf Creek, but so far without success.
A little more insight can be gleaned from relatively recent comments left by two of Elf Creek Games’ designers. Paul Salomon, designer of Honey Buzz and former head of development at ECG, announced he had left the company on October 16. However, since then he has repeatedly contacted partner All Play about Honey Buzz: Fall Flavors, providing updates to fans about shipments to the UK.
Last week, Santa’s Workshop designer Keith Ferguson, not an ECG employee, says he had not received an update from the publisher after asking for one several times, and that the people who originally responded to him have now left the business.
While, there are few encouraging signs, without more communication from Elf Creek Games’ founder, Brent Dickman, it’s hard to know exactly what the situation is here. Wargamer has approached Elf Creek Games for comment on the situation, but we’ve yet to receive a reply.
For happier tabletop content, check out our guides to the best couples board games and the best strategy board games.
Source: Wargamer
