No, this is not an April fools joke, though the timing is uncanny. If you’re reading this, odds are you know us from our games (Rival Restaurants and/or Illiterati) so a pivot into the sticker business may seem unusual. Perhaps this is what customers felt like when Yamaha added motorcycles to their existing line-up of pianos, or when the Michelin tire company got into restaurant reviews. But the truth is this is something we’ve discussed internally for years, and a series of (un)fortunate circumstances have reprioritized this for us.
Our Mission Statement
Gap Closer Games was thoughtfully formed in 2019 with one purpose: to "close the gap" between tabletop enthusiasts and novices with fun and exciting games that blend uncommon themes and mechanics. Right there in our name, the purpose for launching our company was to “close the gap” between people, and board games were the most appropriate avenue. Bringing people together, making memories and sharing laughs has always been in our DNA, and it was never our intent to stop at board games. Stickers, interestingly enough, though seemingly small and trivial, are a great way for people to declare boldly who they are and what they love whilst quietly inviting people into their lives. We’ve started countless conversations with strangers simply by observing a sticker on a Yeti and sharing our appreciation. Thus, as we consider our venture into stickers, we hope we can continue our mission of bringing people together, and create opportunities for strangers to become friends.
Tariffs - A Sticky Situation
But why now? As we’ve discussed in previous posts, the newly imposed tariffs on goods from China to the US (increasing from 0% to 10% and now 20%) has forced us to reevaluate our business model and hedge against future uncertainties. While we are still planning to make board games for years to come (we have an expansion for Illiterati in playtesting, and a new game in development), launching this “division” will help us absorb these new costs without having to go back and charge our backers anything extra. Many of you have asked for ways to give us extra funds, and while we appreciate the gesture, we want to continue creating value for our fans. Additionally, we are hoping this “alternative revenue stream” will help us create further stability to weather future storms. We’ll talk more about some of the rationale behind the business model in a future post (oh yea, we're also starting this blog!), but for now the goal is to add something meaningful and valuable to our portfolio as we continue to design and develop more and more games.
Art Spilling Off The Pages!
Starting a new business from scratch - while exciting - is hard. Thankfully, not only do we have some experience, an established brand and a little more than a few awesome friends, in the Rival Restaurants universe alone, we currently have over 250 Unique Art Pieces! From Chefs, Restaurants and Recipes to Ingredients, Action Cards and even the Event Deck, we have carefully illustrated every component that makes up the universe. Not only that, we have painstakingly crafted pun and pun (actually that part comes pretty naturally) with hundreds of more ideas looking for a home. Combine the existing art and our “knack” for wordplay, getting into the sticker business almost feels necessary. Now don't take this to mean we're just going to slap some art together and call it a day - we still have to take the time to curate the collections and design each piece. And don’t worry - we are not planning to launch a sticker shop with 1,000 stickers on day one - we’re not Cheesecake Factory - but we definitely have some premium cuts to choose from as we bring them to life.
A New Audience
What do Board Gamers and Sticker Enthusiasts have in common? We’re about to find out! As a board game publisher, it’s not enough to simply make games for existing gamers - it’s also our desire to bring new gamers into the hobby. As we embark on this journey to sell stickers outside of the board game community, our hope is that people who may have otherwise never engaged with the hobby, find themselves pulled in by the irresistible allure of cardboard and plastic.
So What's Next?
Over the next month or so, we plan to wrap up the initial sticker designs, source manufacturing, and prepare our website for the launch. We don’t have an exact launch date for the shop just yet (ideally next month) but we have some special plans for the launch - including an “earlybird bonus” for anyone who supports us at the beginning! If you’re not already subscribed to our newsletter, we encourage you to do so. Otherwise stay tuned, sit back and enjoy this latest adventure with us.
