You're pledging to donate if the project hits its minimum goal and gets approved. If not, your funds will be returned.
$100,000 left to reach the funding goal.
Metagame is a conference for designers, players, and appreciators of games of any form. It consists of talks by guest speakers, gameplay demos and sessions, networking events, and freeform conference time.
The original goal of Metagame is to create a unique, kind of weird experience that blends together thinking about game design and game playing. The goal is to have challenges at all layers of the convention; last year we had a megagame and a metagame being played by the attendees at the same time alongside individual bespoke smaller scale games. Ideas are sourced from a wide variety of experts in game design, usually attendees as well, and are implemented by staff and volunteers.
Metagame is a passion project with a goal of affordable and accessible participation. Donations and sponsorship enable us to keep ticket prices low and pay major team contributors for their work.
The Arbor team, Ricki Heicklen, Brian Smiley, and Metagame Chief of Staff Ben Karcher. Our track record consists of producing Metagame 2025 and Metagame 2026.
The most likely causes of failure are underfunding or a lack of sufficient supporting team workforce. In the most likely case, we have a smaller con and lose money; in the unlikely case that we massively undersell and are undersponsored, the conference could be cancelled, to the disappointment of our prospective attendees and a financial loss for Arbor.
No money has been raised yet for Metagame 2027. For Metagame 2026 we raised $6,500 on Manifund, and more from ticket sales and non-donation sponsors.