Posthuman development team (left to right) Marvin Zammit, Thom Cuschieri, Mark Casha, Fabrizio Calì and David Chircop. Not pictured: Gordon Calleja. Photo: Darrin Zammit-Lupi

When a group of Maltese game developers started an online crowd-funding campaign to fund the development of a new board game, they were cautiously optimistic of raising the $25,000 (€22,960) they needed.

None of them expected, however, that their target would be reached in just 12 hours. Three days later, their campaign has raised $84,000 (€77,113) – and counting.

Posthuman, by local developers Mighty Box Games, is set in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by mutant humans called ‘the Evolved’, with players cast in the role of survivors making their way to a rumoured fortress.

It is designed by Gordon Calleja, head of the Institute of Digital Games at the University of Malta, and David Chircop, with art direction by Mark Casha.

“We started to develop the world in which Posthuman is based about a year and a half ago. Once we had a clear idea for the backbone of our imaginary world, we started work on this specific board game,” said Mighty Box CEO Marvin Zammit.

“It is intended to be the first instalment in the Posthuman world, which is now complete with history, characters and locations. We are already a few months into the development of a digital game, also called Posthuman, which is set in the same world.”

To fund the game’s release, Mighty Box, whose debut game – Will Love Tear Us Apart? – was released to international acclaim in 2013, turned to the crowd-funding website Kickstarter.

Kickstarter is an online platform for independent creative projects to raise funds by encouraging members of the public to donate (or ‘pledge’) small amounts of money towards a target amount, often in exchange for perks like bonus features.

For Posthuman, some 1,200 ‘backers’ pledged $50 each in exchange for a copy of the game, with some donating as much as $395, which entitled them to have their likeness recreated as a character in the game.

€77,113

– the figure raised by the campaign

“Kickstarter is now a well-established platform for funding board games: hundreds of board game projects start there every month. Not all of them are funded, obviously, so it’s still a risk, but we were confident we had a very good product on our hands.”

Mr Zammit said the team spent five months preparing for the Kickstarter campaign, carrying out extensive research into successful campaigns and creating a slick game trailer (with soundtrack by Thom Cuschieri and animation by Fabrizio Calì).

Once the campaign wraps up next month, the team will set to work incorporating changes and features requested by their backers, and then prepare the game for manufacturing.

They are also keen for others to follow in their footsteps. “It’s worked for us, so I can’t see a reason why it wouldn’t work for somebody else, if they do their homework right,” said Mr Zammit.

“Crowd-funding is a very viable option and a real alternative to conventional forms of business funding. It’s also a heck of a lot more exciting.”