Recent online comments by Kingdom Builder designer Donald X. Vaccarino have raised questions regarding Queen Games' ability to deliver on its latest Kingdom Builder expansion currently being offered on Kickstarter.

Published in 2011, Kingdom Builder is a territory building board game where players create their own kingdoms by building settlements with the goal being to earn the most gold by the end of the game.  The game won the 2012 Spiel des Jahres (see “'Kingdom Builder' Wins Spiel des Jahres”), and was recently featured on the third season of TableTop. Vaccarino  is also designer for Dominion, Greed, and Temporum, among other games.

On Friday, Vaccarino posted a reply on reddit and BoardGameGeek forums posts announcing Queen’s Kingdom Builder Expansion 3: Marshlands Kickstarter. “The contract expires if they haven't published the expansion by June 30 2015, and given that they haven't paid me yet for 2014, I'm not feeling inclined to give them more time. But I mean, who knows, maybe they will quickly get a German copy on a store shelf somewhere."

Backers immediately began sending questions and comments to Queen on the Kickstarter comments page, to which Jo Humburg from Queen Games responded, “The issue is being dealt with. We have been talking with Donald and we believe we are coming to a resolution to what is not truly a problem until June 30th contractually. As it is Friday and there for [sic] Friday night in Germany. We can not say anything officially until Monday. This is an agreement with all parties involved.”

Vaccarino’s last reddit update on Friday indicated possible resolution, “That post, or maybe the crosspost to the kickstarter, appears to have motivated them; they are very apologetic and in fact have offered to pay me an advance on next year's royalties.”

Another Queen Games representative, “Nikki QG-US,” added on Monday “Now I know it is Monday and we have said nothing official. We are still in contacted [sic] with Donald X.  He has not disagreed to the running of this [Kickstarter]. Be assured if he wants it stopped, we at Queen Games will oblige him and discontinue this Kickstarter immediately.”

No update has been posted by either Queen Games or Vaccarino since then.

ICv2 contacted Queen Games for comment but did receive a reply in time for this article.