The Game Makers - An Epic Board Game About Making Games

🎈🎉🥳🍾 ONE MILLION RAISED!
6 months ago – Fri, Oct 03, 2025 at 04:08:30 PM

🎈🎉🥳🍾 PARTY TIME!!!

THANK YOU!! So many people helped bring The Game Makers to life. First and foremost, thank you to the 6,017 backers who pledge $1,041,979! Thank you to the 100s of publishers for lending their games and making The Game Makers truly unique. Thank you to Tim Chuon and company for their stellar videography work. Thank you to all the content creators who shared their thoughts and helped spread the word. Thank you to Renée for the over 2,000 emails she's sent out to bring The Game Makers to life. Thank you to Panda Game Manufacturing who has been an excellent partner in so many ways. Thank you to all the gamers out there for filling the world with smiles and making every game night feel epic.

Now that the campaign is over, everything is done! No. Not really. There's still a ton of work to do (and plenty of emails left for Renée to type). Here are some updates for you.

Time is on Your Side!

We've updated our timeline to give all 6,000 of you a heads up on what's coming. Please note that the timeline here is subject to change. It's a tentative schedule and could be subject to change. Getting The Game Makers to you by next summer is paramount for us. The game is done. All that's left are minor tweaks to component engineering and the solo mode. If an unforeseen issue occurs, we will update you immediately.

One other thing the timeline above doesn't mention is the pledge manager. For this campaign, we will be keeping our pledge manager open for an extended period of time. While we do strongly urge you to complete your survey as soon as possible (they haven't gone out yet), there isn't an immediate rush due to several factors.

Many of you chose to Pledge Over Time. Due to Kickstarter and BackerKit's policies, Pledge Over Time backers will not be able to access the pledge manager until after they've fully paid. There should be 30 days between your three payments, meaning you'll most likely be able to access the pledge manager in December. Again, this will not be an issue as we will be keeping out pledge manager open for an extended period of time.

Keeping the pledge manager open for an extended period of time also gives us all more time to get a better estimate on shipping. In fact, our projected Canadian shipping costs even went down during the campaign. Time is on your side.

Solo Mode Update

Development of our new solo mode is well underway, and we couldn't be more excited! Here is a picture of a recent playtest. Expert players of The Game Makers may think this solo player is heading for a clear victory with 2 maxed out marketing tracks and 12 trees, but they'd be wrong. A quick look suggest the solo player could score in the triple digits!

However, in this scenario, the solo player is about to lose the game! They're one step away from defeat. This scenario isn't easy. None of them are. At least, we trying hard for them not to be. We cannot wait to share more. We're confident you'll love this new solo mode system!

I Speak for the Trees!

Over 6,000 pledges were made to bring The Game Makers to life, which means Panda Game Manufacturing will work with the National Forest Foundation to plant over 6,000 new trees! If you'd like to know more about the good work being done at the National Forest Foundation, feel free to visit their website here.

We at Bézier Games are proud to be working with Panda Game Manufacturing. We've had a long working relationship with them and are thrilled to be working alongside them to bring The Game Makers to life. 

Games! Games! Games!

Last but not least, we wanted to say THANK YOU to all you gamers and completionists out there for your overwhelmingly passionate suggestions on games to include in upcoming Booster Decks. We received HUNDREDS of suggestions. 

We reached out to publishers and some even reached out to us! Renée informs us that her inbox has been overflowing with offers. Sadly, not every game can be in The Game Makers; however, we thought we'd share with you SOME of the board games recently added to The Game Makers! 

We were planning on a beige PowerPoint presentation, but Kevin insisted on slipping on his boogie shoes for something slightly different. Here is Kevin... with something slightly different. Enjoy!

What's Next for Bézier Games?

Now that The Game Makers is partially behind us, some have asked: What's next? Zombies. Zombies are what's next, and they're coming sooner than you think. 

Launching this Halloween week will be our Zombie Princess & Haunted Mouse Kickstarter campaign. We've been developing these games for quite some time and are thrilled to unleash them on you this Halloween season!

Zombie Princess is the sequel to Rebel Princess! The princes were rejected by our rebellious ladies and have come back... as zombies! Grab your tiara and your pumpkin bombs. It's time to hunt zombies in this modern twist on the classic card game Spades.

Haunted Mouseis a ladder-climbing / shedding game designed by YouTuber Jonathan Cox (of Jon Gets Games / Getting Games) and illustrated by famed Japanese artist, Sai Beppu! Can you rid your dreams of ghastly spirits and wake up in time for morning cheese?

FOLLOW THE KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tedalspach/zombie-princess

Have yourselves an EPIC weekend of gaming!

🎲 Play The Game Makers on Board Game Arena!
6 months ago – Tue, Sep 30, 2025 at 01:27:50 PM

Greetings, Gamers & Completionists!

In case you missed it, The Game Makers is currently available to be played on Board Game Arena! It is still in beta; however, our team has been hard at work smoothing out any remaining bugs. As it is in beta mode, anyone with a Board Game Arena account should be able to play The Game Makers!

What's Board Game Arena?

Well, first let's just say that your weekend plans might change drastically as Board Game Arena (commonly referred to as BGA) has been known to devour hours upon hours of your free time - but in the best of ways! 

Board Game Arena is the world's largest free online platform for playing thousands of digital versions of popular board and card games and is accessible via web browser on multiple devices. Unlike other platforms, BGA features automated gameplay that handles rule enforcement and score calculation. 

Want to play The Game Makers online right now?

Follow the link below to play The Game Makers right now!
https://en.boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=thegamemakers

If you need a tutorial, be sure to check out Digital Board Gamer's BGA Tutorial Video on The Game Makers! We've updated the BGA version since then, but their video will still get you through most of the game.

Solo?

Please note that the current solo mode on BGA is not the intended solo mode of The Game Makers, currently being designed by Jay Bernardo with Dávid Turczi. 

The solo mode currently on BGA is designed to allow you to gain a feel for the gameplay and isn't meant for true solo play.

Digital vs Analog?

While we at Bézier Games are proud to present the beta digital version of The Game Makers, every member on the team are all in agreement - it pales in comparison to the physical version of the game. Digital versions of board games can limit your vision forcing your attention and focus on only a fraction of game components at any given time, thus limiting your connection and how you experience the game. The Game Makers is a massive game with a commanding table presence. It was specifically designed to be played in person and is best experienced at the gaming table.

Thank you!

Over 4,000 backers have pledged over $850,000 to help bring The Game Makers to life! Everyone on the Bézier Games and Panda Game Manufacturing teams thank each and every one of you for your overwhelming support! Thank you for being awesome.

✨ Award-Winning Games!
6 months ago – Thu, Sep 25, 2025 at 09:11:22 AM

Greetings, Gamers and Completionists!

The Game Makers may be on its final days of its Kickstarter campaign, but we're just getting started with updates! Over 4,000 backers have pledged over 770k to bring The Game Makers to life!

THANK YOU!

To show our gratitude, we reached out to you early on asking what games you'd like to see in The Game Makers. You did not disappoint. We've received hundreds of suggestions, and Renée has been hard at work reaching out to publishers on behalf of all of you. 

We've been adding quite a few titles: some classics, some hidden gems, some from the 1900s, and some award-winning games. We're thrilled to announce that this year's Spiel des Jahres und Kennerspiel des Jahres winners will be in The Game Makers!

Several publishers have reached out to us as well, so Renée has been living in her inbox for the last few weeks. We plan to announce more titles in the coming days as well as an update on the solo mode development.

Have an EPIC day of gaming!

😺 THE CAT'S OUT OF THE...
6 months ago – Wed, Sep 24, 2025 at 04:32:05 AM

What's in a bag? That which we call a bag by any other bag would bag as bag. Yes, that Shakespearean reference quickly came undone - very much unlike the bags in The Game Makers!

We don't often talk about bags enough in this hobby, but we should. Deck builders became bag builders as gamers quickly realized that shuffling gets tiring. Why shuffle a deck of cards when tossing items into a bag does it faster?

Yes. This update is about bags, and if that ain't your bag baby, then I'm afraid you'll have to suffer through more North American pop culture reference.

We're talking about bags as there are quite a few tiles in The Game Makers - 140 punchboard tiles to be exact. With these 140 punchboard tiles, players will be able to build board games, add machinery to their assembly line, get permanent discounts on contract fulfillment, and gain access to TWEENIEs. 

But those 140 punchboard tiles need not just one home but three.

Apologies for the soda cans, but they're here to demonstrate a point - small bags stink. Even though the 140 punchboard tiles are rather small, the entire team felt that the bags needed to be big enough to not only give the tokens a decent shuffle but big enough to get a full adult human hand in there.

Admittedly, this does look like Jay's fingers are missing. Try to imagine a fist.

It's important to us that each and every component in The Game Makers reflects not only the passion we have towards our hobby and industry but also reflects our gratitude to every gamer and completionist for helping bring this game to life.

This bags are thick but also light in weight. The last thing we wanted was to have the bags rip halfway through your 23rd game. That won't happen with these.

However, the time has come, Team Green and Team Snow, for you to be divided once again. We'd like to hear from you dear gamers and completionists. Which bag is... well, your bag?

Are you on Team Blue? or Team Gray?

Whichever color you choose, we will go with varying shades of that color to help further distinguish the bags from each other. You can see this with the light gray and dark gray on the bags above. 

If you scroll up again, you'll see the bags have "The Game Makers" printed on one side and the types of punchboard tiles on the other. We felt that adding a color variance would further help players locate the bag they needed from a distance. We're looking for that perfect balance between form & function.

Comment below and let us know where you stand: Team Blue or Team Gray? (or Team Grey if you're feeling cheeky)

🌲🌲 A BRIEF WALK AMONG TREES
7 months ago – Wed, Sep 17, 2025 at 03:30:13 PM

Greetings, Gamers & Completionists!

After the overwhelming reaction to our Team Green vs Team Snow debate, we decided to take you on a brief walk through the trees of The Game Makers.

As we mentioned before, we knew from the beginning that we wanted wooden trees but weren't sure what they should look like. Our first attempt were these.

Clean and iconic looking; however, we wanted something... how do we say it... more tree? Our next attempt went BIG!

Now we're cooking! Unfortunately, these big trees were too big. How big? Well, when we put them into the player boards, they were so big that they couldn't fit next to each other. We foolishly forgot to double check this. We pondered what if this could be a mechanic that the trees couldn't be next to each other and that you had to plan ahead. As interesting as of a mechanic that could of been, we decided to simply go smaller.

We admit it. We're picky. And this smaller tree was just a tad bit too small. Something felt off about these trees. At this point in development, going for a tree strategy was bit like shooting the moon in Hearts - difficult to pull off but potentially worth a ton of points. We wanted the trees to be a tad bit more grandiose.

We know what you're thinking. Tree 2 and Tree 4 look the exact same! Some of us thought so too. But Tree 4 was just small enough that they could stand next to each other side by side on a player's factory board. Success! However, Panda Game Manufacturing suggested we try rounding the edges of the tree. We thought we'd give it a try.

When we unwrapped this factory sample, we all agreed that we had found our tree. The base of the tree was a bit thick, but it needs to be that thick in order to be sturdy enough to hold the "trunk" of the tree. We immediately ordered more samples.

Gamers & Completionists, we proudly present to you... your trees!

Both the Game and Completionist pledge will include 30 of these wooden trees. We're proud of how the trees turned out. We believe they're perfect for celebrating your victory over your opponents. While only one member of our team has planted all 15 trees in a single game and only once, we hope you destroy his record and photograph your green victory for posterity. 

This has been a brief walk among trees.

We once again thank you all for your support and plan to share more updates with you as we go through the final stages of development.

Have yourself an epic weekend!