List Your Game on BoardGameJoin

Anyone who holds the rights to a game: a game designer (an individual or a circle), a publisher, or both. If the artwork rights belong to someone else, we ask for their agreement too. We’ll confirm the name for the contract — circle, individual, or company — when you get in touch.

BoardGameJoin also aims to grow the fan base of tabletop games. Play online with friends who live far away, and play the physical game when people gather. People play the same game in both settings. When the physical edition is in stock, we help those who try it digitally find where to buy it.

1. Play online with friendsAn invite link is all it takes to play in the browser with friends far away. With a tutorial and a CPU opponent, people who don’t know the rules can learn on their own.
2. Like it, then pick up the physical gameWhen the physical edition is in stock, we put links to its sales page on the game page and the results screen.
3. Bring it to a family gathering or a night outSomeone who learned the rules online now sits around the physical game and teaches the people with them.

Links to the physical edition

• When the physical edition is in stock, we put purchase links on the game page and the results screen.
• We make a page for each rights holder, bringing together your physical games, upcoming events, and a link to your official site.
• We report clicks on those links in your monthly statement and in the rights holder dashboard.
• Put a QR code on the rulebook or box, and buyers can get straight to the online version. We prepare the QR code.

One survey found that 86.4% of buyers had played the game before buying it (Asmodee, "US Buyer Profile 2020").

You can discuss listing any number of backlist titles with us together, rather than making a separate inquiry for each game. We discuss timing based on what each game needs and our development schedule, and publish each one only after your review and approval. Our usual guideline is 3 to 6 weeks from first contact to launch.

Your monthly statements include play counts for each game. These figures can also help inform a decision about reprinting.

When the physical edition is in stock, we link to its sales page. If your game is out of print and no longer has a sales page, please get in touch to discuss it.

So that it’s no burden even if you make board games alongside another job, we handle the work a digital version needs, both before and after launch. What we ask of you comes down to three things: share the rules and print files, have a look at the finished version, and receive your statements. You can share the files you sent to the printer as they are (PDF, AI, PSD, or whatever format you used). There is no need to prepare new versions. We handle resizing and other adjustments for the screen. If those files are missing or have been lost, please get in touch with photos of the physical game or any materials you still have.

We keep improving the game after launch, based on what players tell us. The feedback we receive and where each item stands are public on the “Feedback & status” page.

1. The rights to your game stay yoursWe don’t claim any rights to your game. All we keep is the program we wrote for the digital version (not your artwork, logos, or other materials). When the listing ends, we stop offering the game.
2. It’s non-exclusiveIt doesn’t stop you from offering the game to other services or building your own digital version. Any app or online version you already run can carry on as it is.
3. What we use: the game’s name and screens, to introduce the siteWhen we introduce BoardGameJoin, we may use the game’s name and screens of the game on our site.
4. Nothing goes live, and no rules change, without your approvalYou have a look at the alpha version, and we publish only after you approve it. The same goes for later changes to the rules, the game’s name, or the credits. We review screens and tutorials and fix bugs on our own as we go, without changing the rules, so these won’t take up your time.
5. If someone else holds the artwork rightsYou can share the files you sent to the printer as they are. We handle resizing and other adjustments for the screen. If the artwork rights belong to someone else, we ask for their agreement too. If the print files are missing, lost, or include parts you cannot share, please get in touch with photos of the physical game or any materials you still have. We discuss any redrawing needed game by game.
6. If the listing ends, we take the game downWithin two weeks of your notice, we stop new games from being started, and take the game down once any games in progress finish.

Example: for one member on the 480-yen monthly plan, after consumption tax (44 yen) and payment processing fees (about 17 yen), the funding pool is about 419 yen. If, among paid games, that member played only yours that month, you receive about 293 yen.

Example: say membership fees for a month come to 1,000,000 yen, and after payment processing fees that’s 960,000 yen. If 60% of that came from paying members who played that month, the funding pool is 576,000 yen. If your game’s player-minutes (players in a game × minutes actually played) made up 5% of the total, your game’s share is 28,800 yen, and you receive 70% of that — 20,160 yen. These numbers are just for illustration.

You can also choose not to receive the revenue share. Just let us know if your employer’s rules make it hard to accept, or if the amount is small enough that the paperwork isn’t worth it. Choosing this changes nothing about the listing terms or how we handle your game. The share you don’t receive goes toward the costs of running the site. You can switch to receiving it later by letting us know, effective from the following month.

We’ll give you a rough idea of the expected revenue when we meet to talk.

We don’t place your game on a shared system — one screen and one set of parts, shared by every game. We design the system and the screens for each game, so even games that use the same cards or the same board get a look and a feel of their own.

This describes a difference in approach, not in quality. Placing a game on a shared system has its own strengths: it can go live sooner, and you can adjust it yourself. We build each game separately because we want someone who doesn’t know the rules to be able to sit down and play.

1. Streams and let’s-plays spread the wordIt runs in the browser, and anyone invited can join without signing up. Streaming and let’s-play videos are welcome, monetization included. A party stays open while you switch from game to game, so on a channel that plays a range of games, yours can be one of them. Viewers can join with an invite code too.
2. It builds a fanbaseRanked play, seasons, and leaderboards give players a reason to keep coming back. The game page carries an official badge and a note introducing the rights holder.
3. You get to see how it’s playedGames played, number of players, average playtime, win-rate skew, drop-out rate, which optional rules get chosen, and tutorial completion — all visible any time in your dashboard. We share this as aggregated data with names and personal information removed. Game records (move histories, for example) are shared the same way, but only for players who gave consent. Use it for balance tuning, revised editions, or your next game.

Tips for making the most of it

• The game page and tutorial open without signing up, so you can link to them directly from social media or your own site.
• Leaderboards and seasons let you run a tournament over a set period. You could pair an online qualifier with an in-store final, for example.
• Since it runs in the browser, it’s an easy game for streamers to pick up. Our streaming guidelines and assets are gathered on the “Streaming & assets” page, and streams are free to monetize.
• If you’d like to put an invite code in the box so buyers of the physical edition can play online too, let us know.

1. Get in touch5 minutes (by email). Just hearing more is fine too
2. A call, if neededAbout 30 minutes online. In the Kanto area, we can also visit you. We’ll ask about your game and timing
3. Review the termsAbout a week
4. DevelopmentWe handle it. You can share your current rulebook and the files you sent to the printer as they are. We also handle resizing and other adjustments for the screen
5. Alpha reviewOnly you can play it, so you can check it matches the rules
6. BetaA limited release by invite link. We fix anything that needs fixing
7. LaunchWe announce it on our own channels and social media. It helps to spread further if you announce it too

As a guide, it takes 3 to 6 weeks from first contact to launch. This varies with our engineers’ availability and what the game needs.

What to share with us

• The rules (your current rulebook is fine)
• Print files for the game’s artwork and logo (PDF, AI, PSD, or whatever format you sent to the printer, as they are; we handle resizing and other adjustments for the screen; if the artwork rights belong to someone else, their agreement too). If the print files are missing or have been lost, please get in touch with photos of the physical game or any materials you still have. We discuss any redrawing needed game by game
• A short description (one to three lines)
• The URL of the sales page for the physical edition (if in stock)
• Your bank details

Four requirements

As a guide, we implement games at our own cost for teams and companies that have sold more than 100 copies in total across all their games. How many copies a single game has sold doesn’t matter. If you haven’t reached that yet, please get in touch anyway. We hope to build and feature many games, and we’d like to talk each one through with you, taking our development schedule into account.

Self-reported sales figures (the total across all your games) are fine. It helps if you can include evidence of a reprint (edition number or announcement), a sales page, or shipping records. The number you give us goes into the contract. The 100-copy guideline may change over time.

How your game is published

We decide the following based on the nature of the game and how it gets played. We’ll explain before we decide.

• Whether it’s free, or a game only paying members can start
• Whether to show ads
• Whether it takes part in ranked play
• Which languages to publish in

For games published for free, the revenue share comes from ad revenue; for games for paying members, it comes from membership fees. Ads are planned to start during fiscal year 2027. Until then, there is no revenue share for games published for free. The official rules are the default, and we’ll ask you to have a look before adding any optional rules.

Terms at a glance

We’re a company based in Kichijoji, Tokyo. Besides meeting online, we can visit you to explain in person if you’re in the Kanto area. If you’d like to come to our Kichijoji office, we can usually meet on most weekdays. We also decide things like how to read the rules and which optional rules to include together with you, game by game.

Just hearing more is fine too. Besides meeting online, we can visit you to explain in person if you’re in the Kanto area.