From Warhammer Parody to $3 Million Phenomenon

SPACE KING: The Board Game has become one of the surprise tabletop crowdfunding successes of 2026, raising more than $3 million from around 8,000 backers within days of launching on Kickstarter.

The campaign went live on 30th August and passed $2 million in less than 24 hours. What’s even more interesting is, that despite the core game being available for $99, the average pledge is currently trending at just over $375 per backer.

But what is the game? And who are first time Kickstarter creators Flasgitz behind it?

Who are Flashgitz?

Flashgitz is an independent animation studio created by Tom Hinchliffe and Don Greger, and English-American duo who met through Newsgrounds and have been producing animated comedy together for well over a decade. Their YouTube channel has grown to more than 5 million subscribers, with a catalogue built around deliverately provocative, frequently crude parodies of games, films, internet culture and popular franchises.

One of Flashgitz’s earliest animations was Inside GW, which I would share here but it’s age restricted so won’t embed the video, so please follow this link to view it if you’d like to. Inside GW was released in 2013 and lampooned Games Workshop and its business practices. They went on to produce considerably more direct Warhammer 40,000 fan animations, most notably their Furry Crusades series featuring Black Templars slaughtering armies of furries.

Space King has taken a different approach. Rather than usual actual Warhammer characters and terminology, it’s created its own exaggerated grimdark universe. Humanity worships the mysterious Space King while enormous armoured Psycho Warriors rampage around the galaxy fighting aliens, one another, and occasionally their own astonishing stupidity.

The inspiration is hardly difficult to stop, the characters, terminology, and setting all belong to Flashgitz.

So, what happened with Games Workshop?

The history here is sometimes described online as though Games Workshop specifically forced Flashgitz to stop making Warhammer animations, but there doesn’t actually appear to be any good evidence that they were given a direct cease-and-desist.

What definitely happened though, was that in 2021 Games Workshop adopted a much more restrictive approach to fan animation due to it’s own development ands expansion of the Warhammer+ streaming service. Games Workshop changed their IP guidance explicitly prohibiting fan-made games ands animations without a license. This change caused a fair amount of anxiety among Warhammer fan creators and contributed to several prominent animation projects being discontinued, or moving under GW’s control.

Flashgitz moved away from directly using Warhammer IP and started developing their own Space Kings universe. Space Kings gave them something that was still capable of parodying the excesses of the Warhammer 40,000 universe while also becoming an IP Flashgitz had complete control over themselves. Which has led to them creating, and launching, the Space Kings boardgame.

Falashgitz TX LLC filed US trademark applications covering SPACE KING and FLASHGITZ, including applications covering board games, tabletop games and tabletop RPGs. The Space King tabletop application was filed in February 2026.

The problem is that Games Workshop already has something called Flash Gitz.

Flash Gitz are the heavily armed, ostentatious Ork mercenaries that have existed within Warhammer 40,000 for years and remain part of the current Ork range and rules.

On 20th August 2026, just ten days before the Space KingKickstarter launched, Games Workshop filed a formal opposition before the US Trademark Trial and Appeal Board against Flashgitz TX LLC’s attempt to register FLASHGITZ for tabletop games.

So whilst there doesn’t seem to have been previous legal issues between the two over the animations, there is now a genuine trademark dispute taking place between the two companies.

Ok, but what is this $3 million+ Space King game?

SPACE KING: The Board Game is a 2-4 player semi cooperative game in which players control Psycho Warriors battling aliens while also attempting to undermine each other. The game comes packed with large PVC miniatures, with the Psycho Warriors standinf around 50mm tall and some of the bosses reaching more than 100mm.

The basic Recruit pledge costs $99 and gives you one copy of the game, but with an average pledge of $375 backers are obviously going in for a lot more.

By far the runaway most popular award is the next step up for the base $99 pledge. This is quite a jump though, but so far over 5,500 people have pledged for the $299 Psycho Warrior pledge level. This not only gives you the base game, but also the War World Expansion, b-Positive Expansion, Psycho Warrior Pack, Weapon Pack, Space King Favor, Lore Book and also any stretch goals that the campaign unlocks.

There are, of course, higher levels. The Super Psycho Warrior pledge is $699 and upgrades you to a metal box for the base game and a War World Medal with the signatures of Tom and Don on. Almost 950 people have backed at this level so far. The $1999 Psycho Monster pledge gives you everything from earlier tiers plus a short custom audio message from a Space King character of your choice.

The highest pledge level was limited to 15 backers, and have all been snapped up. The Globulus Maximus pledge gives you everything mentioned already plus the backer gets to appear as a Psycho Warrior in a future episode of SPACE KING! It would have put you back $7,777 (@ £5,760) though, but the kids don’t have to go to college do they?

If you would like to know about Flashgitzplease check out their website or Youtube channel. If you’d like to back, track, or just have a peek, at the SPACE KING: The Board GameKickstarter then you have until Friday 25th September before it crosses the finish line.

Images, and videos, courtesy of Flashgitz