Jisogi: Anime Studio Tycoon Board Game

Jisogi is a brand new board game designed and published by Esper Game Studio, with lead artists Eisuke Gou and Senkawa Teien.

Based in Japan, our team has strong connections in the Anime industry, hanging out with producers and artists from many studios. We heard their wild stories about the ups and downs of the business, and that is what inspired us to create this game.

"Jisogi" comes from 自転車操業 - jitenshasōgyō, an expression that refers to barely keeping a business going (an analogy that a bicycle collapses when its wheels cease rotating). 

PLAYTIME: 60 - 90 MINUTES  |  PLAYERS: 1 - 4  |  AGE: 14+
THEMES: Anime; Story writing; Business; Risk assessment; Debt and Interest.

LANGUAGE VERSIONS: ENGLISH or JAPANESE
(You will choose which version of the game you will receive in the pledge manager)

Highlights

Quotes

Announcement corner

A new collab was announced! We are partnering with Susabi Games and bringing the main character from their popular board game Idol Alive to Jisogi. Read more about it here.

We have unveiled our first collab! We will be partnering with the game Re;ACT - The Arts of War, bringing one of their characters as an extra Staff card to our game. Read more about it here.

We are holding a vote in our campaign updates to choose the flavor of all 15 new Script Parts we are adding to the game as a reward for all the support we received!

Game Mechanics

We’ve playtested with board game enthusiasts and anime industry insiders to strike the perfect balance between mechanics and theme. We're proud to say the game engages both groups—easy to pick up for casual players, with plenty of depth for experienced players to develop advanced strategies!

We are also happy to share that our game development (the series of late-stage playtest sessions to make sure all cards and strategies are balanced) will be done by Samba Studio, an amazing team of seasoned game designers led by Fel Barros (God of War, Narcos, Zombicide, Dobro, and many others). We will also develop the SOLO MODE of our game in partnership with them.

Throughout the campaign, we’ll feature content creators playing Jisogi and sharing their impressions. Stay tuned to our updates to catch the game in action!

Rulebook

TTS Mod

Lead & Guest Artists

For this project, we are very proud of our artist selection. We gathered many talented and experienced professionals with many years of experience in the industry. They not only provided us with beautiful art pieces but also shared invaluable insight into the production process of Anime and the real people behind it.

Founders & Art Patron Pledges

Early in our planning, we committed to simplifying your decision-making. Our game has just one version: the Founders Edition. There will be no retail version. Your copy will include every unlocked stretch goal and every component you see here.

However, we were captivated by the artwork created by our artists and didn’t want to miss the chance to do more with it! So, we’ve designed a complementary pledge for those as excited about the art as we are.

This way, you’ll get to enjoy even more of the world we’ve built together! 

One more thing: Shipping is FREE for this add-on. The cost for those acquiring the extra Art Patron Pledge will be the same as the base game.

Stretch Goals

The more copies of JISOGI we print, the cheaper we can get each unit to be. Our plan is simple: use the reduced costs to improve the quality/ amount of what we are delivering to you.  This is our current Stretch goals plan:

Shipping

As per usual, we will charge you for shipping at a later date via our Pledge Manager partner Hive. With more experience under our belt in handling distribution, we were able to offer good value here! Keep in mind that these may vary slightly due to market fluctuations during the delivery phase. We’ll keep you informed of any changes through regular updates.

Project Timeline

The game is nearly complete, but thanks to the promotional efforts of this campaign, we've greatly expanded our reach and received valuable community feedback. From November to January, we’ll collaborate with the game development team Samba Estudios to integrate suggestions and fine-tune the gameplay.

Below is our expected project timeline. While it’s based on our previous productions, international manufacturing and distribution can be unpredictable. We’ll be partnering with reliable factories and logistics companies to do our best to stay on track.

Why Kickstarter?

There are several reasons why we decided to use Kickstarter as our primary platform, but what is in it for you?

1. This is the only guaranteed way you will acquire our games. We have decided to keep our production limited in numbers, to satisfy the demand of our Kickstarter audience. We will not be pursuing a retail mass-production release. The "deluxe" version of the game is the only version of this game we will make. Some shops might acquire a certain supply of our games, but once those are sold, a new batch will not be waiting for their acquisition.
2. The game will have a 15% price increase on our Late Pledge platform. We expect retailers to sell it with a 20-30% mark-up (more if demand is high).
3. Direct sales through Kickstarter allow our newly founded company to retain significantly higher profits compared to retail channels. For an indie publisher like us, this difference is what makes our business viable. Your support enables us to hire more artists, enhance production quality, lower shipping costs, and much more.

EXTRA CREDITS

Kickstarter page design: Solitude

Anime Opening Video: Daren

Voice Actress: Minamo Aoto

3d Model: AKA Virtual

Artists links
Eisuke Gou | Senkawa Teien | Thomas Romain | Kenji Loo | Ivan Inagaki | Yu (Arcadia) | Sushizawa | Pancho Usagi

Esper Game Studio
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