Unstable Games is back on the crowdfunding circuit, and if you were expecting a slow burn, you clearly haven’t been paying attention. Here to Slay Dungeons hit its $100,000 funding goal in under two minutes, and at the time of writing, it’s already sitting comfortably at around $2.1 million with nearly three weeks left on the campaign. At this point, that kind of momentum feels less like a surprise and more like a tradition.
For those unfamiliar, Here to Slay Dungeons is a cooperative spin-off of the original Here to Slay, the 2020 card game that pulled in over $3 million on Kickstarter and built a sizable following thanks to its mix of light strategy, chaos, and aggressively cute artwork. The new game shifts away from that competitive, sabotage-heavy formula and leans fully into co-op dungeon crawling.
This time around, players team up instead of sabotaging each other, choosing heroes, exploring modular dungeons, unlocking abilities, and eventually taking on a boss at the end of a run. It’s a noticeable change in tone, and honestly, probably a smart one. Cooperative board games tend to stick around on tables longer than the ones that quietly end friendships.
The Gamefound campaign itself is structured around multiple core boxes, each with its own heroes, dungeons, and bosses. If you’re the kind of player who likes to go all in, those sets can be mixed and matched, which is likely where a good chunk of that $2.1 million total is coming from. Completionists are a powerful force.
What’s interesting here is how little friction Unstable Games seems to face when launching these campaigns. The studio has carved out a very specific niche: approachable, visually appealing tabletop games that are easy to learn and easy to back. Whether or not every release becomes a long-term staple is always up for debate, but getting people through the door has never been the problem.
From a broader gaming perspective, this is another example of how crowdfunding continues to thrive in the tabletop space while video games have largely moved away from it. Board game fans still seem more than willing to throw money at a good pitch, especially when there’s a track record behind it. With 19 days still on the clock, Here to Slay Dungeons is almost certainly not done climbing. At this rate, the only real question is how high it goes before the campaign wraps.
