Board game manufacturing major Panda has agreed a deal to give its customers access to tabletop-focused project management platform Boardssey, with Panda CEO Michael Lee citing organisation as “the critical factor separating successful game creators from struggling ones”.

Panda said that despite a maturing industry, in which self-publishing had moved from niche to mainstream and with first-time creators potentially able to launch six-figure crowdfunds, most creators still rely on generic software never designed for game development workflows.

The deal is a significant win for Boardssey, which was launched last year by Luis Francisco Baroni Coutinho – the co-founder of Brazilian board game publisher Grok Games – alongside growth consultant Anca Bujor and veteran software engineer Rey David Cuevas.

Bujor said the tie-up could help solve problems designers commonly face when the times comes to manufacture their games, including scattered information across multiple pieces of software, confusion over version tracking, and issues with professional presentation.

A statement from Panda said that what began several months ago as industry dialogue between the pair evolved into formal partnership after both teams observed the same market shift – board game creation rapidly professionalising, while infrastructure remained fragmented.

Panda CEO Lee said he witnessed first-hand at Gen Con in August how Panda customers responded to the Boardssey tools, after inviting the company to showcase the platform at the Panda booth.

Lee said, “After nearly 20 years of working alongside tabletop game creators, we’ve seen that the most successful teams are those that pair creative passion with strong organization.

“Boardssey stands out as the first project management platform designed specifically for the tabletop games industry. Its creators are gamers themselves, deeply attuned to the needs of publishers, and continuously innovating with clever features that game publishers and designers will certainly appreciate.

“We’re thrilled to partner with Boardssey and provide our customers with early access to a tool that helps them plan smarter, collaborate better, and bring their games to life more efficiently.”

Bujor added, “Boardssey’s 400-plus creators across 40-plus countries have already proven the model. This partnership scales that access through one of the industry’s most trusted manufacturers.”

Panda and Boardssey are hosting a joint webinar on December 4 titled ‘From chaos to manufacturing: why organized designers get games made faster’.

Panda has manufactured more than 70 million board games from China since it was launched in 2007, for companies ranging from Asmodee, Stonemaier and Leder Games to first-time creators launching their projects on Kickstarter or Gamefound.

Earlier this year BoardGameWire revealed that Panda had agreed a tie-up with Brazilian print and packaging company Kawagraf, offering board game publishers the chance to circumvent the hugely volatile US tariff situation with China and instead take advantage of Brazil’s 10% US tariff rate.

That plan was upended just a month later, however, when Trump threatened Brazil with a 50% tariff beginning on August 1 unless the country scrapped the “witch hunt” trial of former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, accused of being part of a coup that attempted to overturn the result of the presidential election he lost in 2022.

Panda told BoardGameWire in July that it plans to stick with its new Brazilian production operation despite the surprise tariffs, saying at the time, “With the growing South American market, we are confident we will have enough business volume to sustain the business.”

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