The Story Behind Timashov Publishing
Hi, I’m Eugene — the founder of Timashov Publishing.
This story doesn’t start with a business plan or a grand vision. It starts with me, sitting at the kitchen table with a notebook, a cup of coffee, and a sense that I couldn’t keep waiting to do the work I loved. We had just moved to Canada. I didn’t have a steady job, didn’t know many people, and definitely didn’t have a big network in the board game industry. But I had experience, I had ideas, and most of all—I had a deep love for the kinds of games that bring people together and make them say, “Let’s play that again.”
Timashov Publishing grew out of that moment. One small step at a time. No investors, no shortcuts—just passion, persistence, and a whole lot of late nights.
The Card Game That Changed Everything
After the first few months in Canada filled with paperwork and adaptation, I was finally ready to start building something for the worldwide board game market, which had been my goal all along. And that first step came in the form of a small card game called Pacific Ocean.
Pacific Ocean wasn’t meant to be a blockbuster. It started as a small print-and-play giveaway to build an audience. But I decided to launch it on Kickstarter anyway, to test the waters and find out if anyone beyond my own table would want to play.
Day one — June 22, 2023: about 2,000 CAD and 100 backers. That might seem like a modest start to some campaigns, but to me, it felt like fireworks. Strangers, from countries I’d never been to, were backing this little ocean-themed card game from a guy with no name recognition, no marketing budget, and very imperfect English.
Each day after that, we kept getting around 90–100 backers. It didn’t go viral, but it grew steadily—and honestly, that felt even better. It meant the game was speaking for itself. By the end, we raised nearly $50,000 CAD. For a game that started as a freebie, that was incredible.
I had spent a year learning everything I could about Kickstarter. Every article. Every case study. But no book or blog could prepare me for that moment when it clicked: This isn’t just possible. It’s mine to build.
That project wasn’t just my first campaign—it was the first proof that this wild dream of mine might actually work.
Bringing My Worlds Together: The Story of Photo Tour
The idea for Photo Tour goes way back—before I ever launched a Kickstarter, before Timashov Publishing was even a thing. I used to be a professional nature and landscape photographer. That was my world. But at some point, I felt it was time for a change. I wanted to try something new. Something that combined my creative side with my love for board games.
So I made a pivot. I sat down and wrote a six-page concept document for a game about photography—traveling, discovering new places, capturing the moment. Then I reached out to Yuri, an amazing game designer and just a genuinely great human. He brought in his colleague Oleg, and together they built the first version of the game based on my original idea. Back then, it was themed around photographing landmarks in Russia. The mechanics were almost exactly what you see in today's Photo Tour: North America.
We launched that first version in the Russian market, produced 2,000 copies, and sold out within a year. That experience gave me the confidence to go bigger—and so, when it came time to bring something major to Kickstarter, Photo Tour was the obvious choice.
We reimagined the game for a North American audience. We added new twists, refined the mechanics, built mini-expansions, and gave it a full visual overhaul. That became Photo Tour: North America, the most polished game in our portfolio. It’s been in the works for over four years if you count all the versions. And honestly, it’s my favorite. It’s a true reflection of my interests and skills, and I’m incredibly proud of how it turned out.
This campaign was also the first time I ran a proper pre-launch. I had a $5,000 CAD budget just for Facebook ads before launch, and another $5,000 for the live campaign. The first day was massive—450 backers and $42,000 CAD raised. That was nearly the same amount we made during the entire Pacific Ocean campaign!
The community response was amazing. People really loved the game. But I also realized something important: even with a decent ad budget, a lot of potential backers had never heard of us. We chose to go all-in on paid ads and kept influencer marketing minimal—just three YouTubers, mainly to cover our campaign videos. In hindsight, I think we could’ve done more outreach, but even so—it worked.
Hitting the $195K CAD milestone felt surreal. It was a turning point. Not just because of the number, but because it proved that we were ready to compete at the next level. That we could make a game that holds its own among the best. Of course, it didn’t make us rich overnight—but it gave us the one thing that matters most in this business: momentum.
The Science of Small Boxes: Launching DNA, Habitopia, and Synthesis
After the success of Photo Tour, I knew I wanted to try something different. Something smaller in size, but still packed with gameplay—games that didn’t take up much shelf space but still delivered a full, satisfying experience.
Around that time, I started researching similar campaigns and noticed what Allplay was doing: bundles of two or three small-box games in one Kickstarter. That sparked something. What if I could do the same, but with a science twist?
So I set out to build a trio—DNA, Habitopia, and Synthesis—each with its own vibe, but united by a shared theme: science meets strategy. We worked hard to keep them fun, smart, beautiful, and easy to learn. Each one had its own personality, but they looked and felt like they belonged together. We also made sure they followed the visual quality standard we’d set with Pacific Ocean and Photo Tour.
Running this campaign was a whole new challenge. With three different games, we had to create three separate sets of ads—and then a fourth set to sell the bundle as a whole. That meant more time, more creative work, and a bigger ad budget. And since each game appealed to a slightly different audience, we knew it was a bit of a gamble to bundle them together. But we sweetened the deal with free upgrades and expansions for the full bundle—and people responded.
What I didn’t expect was how much more complex it would be to manage. At first, I thought making three smaller games would be easier than one big one. I was wrong.
We needed more artists. More graphic design. More communication. More everything. It was a huge logistical effort. One smart decision that helped a lot: for DNA, I licensed a full set of illustrations from Vlad, a talented illustrator who had already created stunning artwork for a science book series. Instead of building everything from scratch, we adapted his work for the game—and it turned out amazing. It saved us months.
The Kickstarter launched in late November 2024, which... wasn’t ideal. People were already shifting to holiday mode, and ad costs were climbing fast. Despite all that, the community response was fantastic. Backers loved the theme, the art, and the bundle offer. Almost all of our pledges were for the 3-game bundle.
We finished the campaign at $145K CAD, which was lower than Photo Tour, and honestly, that felt a bit frustrating. We put so much into it. But then Kickstarter rolled out a new feature: late pledges. We jumped on it immediately and kept the campaign open. In the weeks that followed, we pushed that number up to $250K CAD in total, until the ad spend finally outpaced the return.
All in all, it was a success. Not just in numbers, but in what it showed us: we can take risks. We can experiment. And we can deliver multiple quality games at once. That’s a win in my book.
More Than Just Games
After five games and three Kickstarter campaigns, you start to see what really matters. It’s not just the mechanics or the components or even the funding goal—it’s about creating something that makes people feel something: connection, excitement, curiosity.
I’m not a game designer myself—I don’t write rules or build mechanics from scratch. But I have a strong sense of what I want to create, and I know how to find the right people to make it real. Whether it’s exploring genetics, photographing national parks, or building shared habitats, these games are my way of sharing ideas I care about. And if one of them leads to a moment of joy, discovery, or a great memory with friends—that’s the whole point.
I work with incredible collaborators—artists, designers, developers—who care as much as I do. And I still obsess over the small details: token colors, rulebook clarity, the texture of the box. Because I want our games to feel right. To feel finished. To feel loved.
If you’ve ever backed one of our projects or played one of our games—thank you. You're the reason this works. You're the reason we keep going.
What’s Next
We’ve got new projects brewing—some already in development, others still just scribbles in my notebook. Some are big, some are compact. But all of them have heart. And if you've read this far, you're the kind of person I make games for.
If you want to follow the journey as it happens, I write a newsletter called Inside the Box. It’s where I share personal updates, behind-the-scenes decisions, sneak peeks, marketing experiments that worked (and the ones that didn’t), plus thoughts on what it actually feels like to run a small indie board game publishing company. If you're into that kind of honest, in-progress storytelling—you're very welcome there.
The subscription form is right here—if you're curious, just drop your email and join me Inside the Box.
Thanks for being here. Thanks for believing in this.
— Eugene Founder, Timashov Publishing