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A new Empire Builder map after a 17-year gap doesn’t happen quietly, and that’s exactly why I wanted this conversation. I’m joined by Trella Bromley and Jeff Jackson from Darwin’s Toys, the team reviving the legendary Empire Builder series with Empire Builder Ireland on Kickstarter. We start with the joy of train gaming culture at RailCon and the Train Gamers Association, then jump straight into what makes Empire Builder such a sticky, replayable route building board game system. Trella shares the personal story behind reacquiring the rights after Darwin Bromley’s passing and what it means to carry a designer’s legacy forward with care. Jeff lays out how titles many people know such as Eurorails, Iron Dragon, and Martian Rails connect to the same design DNA, and why the relaunch branding matters for new players. We also get specific about modernization: faster play, cleaner usability, and those mini-maps on cards that help occasional players feel confident instead of lost. Then we go behind the scenes on the Kickstarter reality. We talk about the graphic and marketing workload, why crowdfunding now requires serious up-front investment, and what surprised them most while running the campaign themselves. We also hit a timely topic: AI in board game design, not as a replacement for creativity, but as a tool for distance grids, cost math, and payout verification so development time goes into playtesting and balance. If you love train board games, tabletop strategy, or you’re planning your own board game Kickstarter, you’ll get practical lessons and a lot of heart from this one. Subscribe for more creator deep dives, share the episode with a fellow rail gamer, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

You’ve probably heard plenty of arguments about AI already. We take a different path: I bring my AI companion, Claude, onto Funding the Dream and let you hear how we actually work together when nobody’s selling a product and nobody’s reading a script. The goal is practical and specific: running a solo Traveler campaign and using AI for tabletop RPG worldbuilding, scenario iteration, and creative companionship without pretending the hard questions don’t exist. We talk through the nuts and bolts that made the campaign feel real: a persistent “memory” built from hundreds of project files, long running NPC arcs, and a hidden antagonist whose motives I choose not to spoil for myself. Then we get into the make-or-break issue for any AI game master: fairness. Claude admits the default instinct to smooth outcomes and protect the player, so we show the fix that restored tension and trust. I roll the dice. Claude owns the consequences. No fudging, no plot armor, and yes, character death is on the table. From there we zoom out to what this means for game designers and RPG publishers who are wary of AI because of public backlash. We argue that a solo AI experience can work like digital print and play, a low friction way for players to taste a game before buying, and a way to create more players, not fewer. We also draw a bright line between design craft and plagiarism: learn how other systems solve problems, then adapt with intention. If you’re curious about solo RPG play, Traveler, AI assisted game mastering, tabletop storytelling, and ethical AI in game design, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a designer friend, and leave a review telling us: where do you think AI genuinely helps the tabletop RPG hobby?

Kickstarter for board games used to reward scrappy creators with a prototype and a promise. Now it often rewards publishers who look like they’re already finished. After 14 years, I sit down again with AJ Porfirio, founder of Van Ryder Games, to map that shift from the inside, from his first $10K campaign to Final Girl Series 4 pushing $1.5M with thousands of backers. We talk about how AJ got started designing a solo board game simply because he didn’t have people to play with, and how tools like TheGameCrafter and early crowdfunding made experimentation possible. Then we get honest about what’s changed: higher production expectations, heavier marketing, and the reality that you may need real capital before you ever launch. We also dig into Final Girl’s growth, what it means to be “completionist-friendly,” and why AJ is calling Series 4 the end of Era One before moving to a more flexible Era Two model that gives the team more creative freedom. To close, we tackle AI beyond the usual artwork debate: AI in game design, playtesting, rules support, and even AI as a potential companion that helps players learn and explore a system. AJ shares why he’s skeptical today, what would need to change, and how publishers might think about monetization and control if AI becomes part of play. Subscribe to Funding the Dream, share this conversation with a creator or backer who lives on Kickstarter, and leave a review with your take: is crowdfunding getting harder, better, or just different?

A roll that matched twice—once on-screen and once at the table—sparked a wild idea: what if your physical dice could post their results straight to your virtual game? We sit down with Scott Strong of Order of the Dice to explore the Vision Dice Tower, a computer vision device that reads your real rolls and syncs them into platforms like Roll20. No more arguing with streaky RNG, no more losing the tactile thrill of a toss, just the satisfying clatter of dice backed by trusted results in your online session. Scott walks us through the journey from aha moment to pre-beta prototype: a sensor-triggered snapshot, a model that recognizes die type and face value with about 99.5% accuracy on standard dice, and a clean pipeline that posts outcomes to your character sheet. We talk about why pseudorandom generators can erode confidence, how physical rolls restore fairness, and what it takes to design hardware that 3D prints today and scales to injection molding tomorrow. Along the way, we dig into smart Kickstarter strategy—setting a realistic goal to cover manufacturing, using guerrilla outreach to build the first crowd, and stacking stretch goals that actually matter to players. The roadmap is where things get exciting: support for more VTTs beyond Roll20, better recognition for ornate dice, app refinements that log and audit rolls, and future formats that fit different tables. The bigger vision reaches beyond dice—bridging tactile moments from the physical table into the virtual space so remote friends keep the feel, the rhythm, and the trust that make game night magic. If you love the weight of a D20 but need the reach of online play, this conversation shows how both worlds finally meet. If this resonates, tap follow, share with your party, and leave a quick review. Your feedback helps us bring more creators and breakthrough tools to the table.

A lot of people think the golden age of tabletop is behind us. We don’t. Richard sits down with longtime friend and convention owner Aldo Ghiazzi and Goodman Games founder Joe Goodman to get real about what it takes to succeed right now—when 800 new game projects launch monthly and attention is the rarest component on your bill of materials. We trade floor-sleeping origin stories for hard-won systems: making every convention cash flow positive, measuring success beyond likes, and using the “three-channel” strategy to stabilize growth across crowdfunding, retail, and direct sales. Joe breaks down why great products still convert in 20 minutes, how a hands-on booth approach can double sales, and what he learned moving from Apple and Gap to a full-time game company. Aldo maps the fractured marketplace—Amazon, mass, cons, PDFs, bundles, social—and why seven impressions still matter more than any one ad. Then we wade into tariffs, nearshoring, and the uncomfortable math behind printing domestically. You’ll hear exactly why card-driven designs are spiking, what U.S. printers can and can’t deliver, and how creative logistics are reshaping costs. We talk mentors, apprenticeships, and the pragmatic path for first-time creators: booth work, store ops, and relentless playtesting before pressing “launch.” The thread through it all is scrappiness redefined—not being cheap, but being precise with unit economics, timelines, and where you show up. If you’re building a game, a booth plan, or a business that lasts the next ten years, this conversation gives you a map and a mindset. Subscribe, share with a creator who needs it, and leave a review telling us your smartest scrappy tactic—we might feature it next time.

In this episode of the podcast, Salvador Briggman interviews Chris O'Neal from Brotherwise Games on his most recent Kickstarter for Overlord: a Boss Monster Adventure. You'll learn about what goes into building a successful board game company, how to get funded on Kickstarter in 2020, along with some tips and tricks the team has picked up along the way. Links Mentioned on The Show Become a guest on the podacastOverlord: a Boss Monster AdventureBrotherwise GamesWant to become a podcast sponsor? Email: [email protected]

Bobby Fiorentino launched the Kickstarter project "This Game Is A Disaster!" and raised  $8,420. He came on the show to share how he was able to do this, along with advice that he has for beginning board game entrepreneurs. Links  Become a guest: http://fundingthedreamonkickstarter.com/Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/boardgameclub/this-game-is-a-disasterCoaching w/ Sal: https://www.crowdcrux.com/coachingThe Board Game Club FBBoard Game Club FB Group

On this episode of the Funding the Dream on Kickstarter podcast, Salvador Briggman talks with James Takenaka, who has over 25 years of experience in the collectible and tabletop games industry. Apply to Be on the Show: Funding the Dream on Kickstarter James started selling at collectibles shows in 1990 and then was a co-owner of the Comix and Cardz Etc. hobby store. In 2001 he co-founded Hero Factory Inc. to produce licensed trading cards and served as a consultant for Bandai America Inc. in the collectible card game market. From 2007-2012 James served as Bandai’s Games Division Sales & Marketing Manager, working with hobby game distributors, overseeing their Organized Play Network and co-creating the Star Trek DBG. James joined  Hit Point Sales in March 2012. https://www.hitpointsales.com/about-us

On this episode, you'll learn an effective Kickstarter community-building strategy from Gamedec, a project that attracted 4,911 backers. In this game, you are a detective who solves crimes inside virtual worlds. Use your wits to gather info from your witnesses and suspects, getting to the bottom of deceptive schemes. The game continually adapts to your decisions and never judges. Salvador Briggman is the new host of the Funding the Dream on Kickstarter podcast. Links and Resources Mentioned:  Become a guest on Funding the Dream on KickstarterGamedec Kickstarter Campaign

After eight years and more than 330 episodes, it is time to say good-bye on Funding the Dream. The podcast has been a fantastic way for me to meet some incredible people. It has also been a means for me giving back to a community that I believe in. In this last episode, I share a little behind the decision and how we got so far. Thank you to everyone over the years who have been so supportive and contributed their knowledge and experience to help those who listen. Hopefully, you've been inspired. I know I have. Thanks for listening, Take Care.

Salvador Briggman has been teaching people about crowdfunding for a long time. He is an author on crowdfunding, he produces a Youtube channel, as well as hosting the successul podcast, DeMystifying Crowdfunding. He joins as a guest on Funding the Dream to break down the basic elements of being successful before you launch your campaign. He provides excellent advice and is well worth listening and taking notes. Here's a link to Demystifying Crowdfunding

With more than 10 successful projects on Kickstarter, you can't always anticipate the sudden failure of a project. But what you can do, is learn and adapt. Brian Henk is the guest and co-founder of Pull the Plug games. You may also know him as the creator of the hit game, Good Cop/Bad Cop. He shares how a string of successes on Kickstarter suddenly became a short string of failures and how the experience taught him to pivot his expectations, adapt to his new understanding, and to launch again. It is always beneficial when guests open up about what went wrong. If you were to lose $40,000 on your next Kickstarter project and fail to fund, you would want to share that knowledge so others can avoid a similar fate. Brian does just that, teaching listeners what went wrong and how he adapted to the situation. His newest Kickstarter is called The ZORRO Dice Game. You can find it here

How do you choose a manufacturing partner in China for your Kickstarter project? You ask Josh Fairbairn. Josh delivers specific advice to help those looking to work with Chinese manufactures for the first time.  His first piece of advice? Don't make a decision based on pricing. There are other, much more important qualifications rather than pricing. He qualifies this with an understanding that when you are creating a few thousand units, a few cents of savings is not going to help your project be successful, it will actually contribute to its failure. You will end up creating a bad product and have a bad experience. Instead, you must focus on four main areas to evaluate a manufacturer: Communication, Communication, Communication - Language, Culture, Distance, and Time Zones means the opportunity for misunderstandings are high. Become proficient with WeChat and watch your initial communications carefully for indications on problems that may arise in the future.Process - How they make the product and how they work with you to bring it to market are criticalQuality - This is where price focus can hurt you. Be sure to look for good quality in the early prototypes...if there is a problem with the prototype there will be a problem with the final productQuality Control - After you have signed off on everything, keep the communication going to ensure that the quality stays high through the entire manufacturing process.Josh shares other excellent pieces of wisdom and advice. If you are doing business in China I strongly recommend you reach out and connect. You can find Josh on Linkedin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuafairbairn/ And his website is https://www.morphomfg.com/

Jessica Kelly has successfully crowdfunded $22,500 for her company, THR3EFOLD,  and has grown her company to be a leader in the ethical fashion space. Using crowdfunding to first scope her business with a trip to India, then using crowdfunding on iFundWomen.com, she stepped out on her own as a social entrepreneur four years ago and launched Thr3eFold. She has spent a decade helping hundreds of fashion & lifestyle brands grow their business through marketing, sales, and PR.  She discusses the power of using iFundwomen to crowdfund her business ideas rather a traditional platform like Kickstarter.  Storyblaster, a previous guest on the podcast, was also instrumental in helping her tell her story to a new audience. www.Thr3efold.com www.ifundwomen.com www.storyblaster.com

Guest, Leesa McGregor, is the author of the book, A New Alphabet for Humanity, which is on Kickstarter. It is a beautifully illustrated children's book featuring 26 empowering alphabet words designed to nurture emotional intelligence, activate the potential of our children and create a brighter future for humanity. A New Alphabet for Humanity teaches children the power of positive words so they can build empathy and compassion, unlock their imagination, and feel empowered to live their dreams. Leesa shares her passion for shaping the world through social good and shares her insights into how she began to journey to publish this book. She also introduces us to GenM, a website to hire interns for a three-month project. Many Kickstarter project owners could take advantage of this service. You can find a link to GenM.com here  Her Kickstarter campaign is here: A New Alphabet for Humanity