After designing a table top game over the last two years, Ryan Leininger was amazed to see how quickly his Kickstarter for it took off.
In just five days, he had raised more than $20,000 for his game Tiny Ninjas. He reached his fundraising goal of $8,000 within 10 hours.
Self-contained with a small box, the game uses dice and cards as two ninjas go head-to-head. As the turns progress the ninjas lose health points until one player is out of health points.
Leininger said it was designed to be quick, easy and portable, making it accessible for people aged eight and up. The game is played entirely within the box.
“I’ve always wanted to make a game,” said Leininger. “I’ve been a gamer my whole life and I love creating. It just started two years ago with some cardboard and jotted down notes.”
Because of the games quick success on Kickstarter, Leininger said they have reached “stretch-goals” (targets beyond the projects funding goal) and he is hoping to translate the rules into French, Spanish and German.
Leininger said he grew up on video games, but he and his wife Layla started playing table top games about a year ago and discovered an explosion of the modern board game.
“Ticket to Ride was one of our gateway games,” said Leininger, adding they enjoy playing games like Santorini, which was created in Calgary.
“A lot of these new age games, it’s incredible what you can accomplish with some cardboard and some plastic.”
The Sylvan Lake couple own and operate One Wolf Creative, a company that offers photography, video, audio, graphic design and printing.
Leininger isn’t done with his Kickstarter campaign yet. He’s still hoping for backers so he can reduce his costs while producing more units. The Kickstarter runs until June 22. Leininger said there is a local pickup option on Kickstarter to avoid paying shipping fees.
“This started as a little side project,” said Leininger. “It just started as something fun. I wanted to design a game and now it’s gotten to the point where I’m so invested in it now. I’ve spent probably close to 1,000 hours on this thing. It’s nice to finally see it become a product and people are actually interested in.”
mcrawford@reddeeradvocate.com
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