Ultimate Game Night Game / Board Game Bag - Season 2

• Even more attention to details and improvements: We have made 11 specific quality improvements for season 2, see section on "2.0 Upgrades" below. 
• Features Carried Over from the Original: Our improved version of the Ultimate Game Night Game Bag offers these same great features as the original amazing attention to detail including:

Background

Since 2011, Mayday Games has sold thousands of Crokinole Boards and we inadvertently started making Crokinole Bags to go along with the boards when we found there wasn't a reasonably priced, high-quality bag on the market. Over the last 13+ years and several revisions/improvements to those bags, we have developed the knowledge to understand the fine balance between quality and value for board game storage solutions. We have even produced bags for other publishers and Crokinole board companies to the north, so you might already own one of our carrying cases.

We are so pleased to be able to launch the Ultimate Game Night Game Bag. We've spent more than two of years designing, testing and refining our bag to ensure the best possible bag we could imagine at an affordable price.

Why did Mayday Games Create Our Own Bag?

There are many great board game bags on the market, but we wanted to create a bag that was a step above the rest. This bag is totally unique and was designed by board game players and for board game players.

• Mayday Games is a company built by board game enthusiasts. We understand the unique needs of gamers and therefore designed the bag with you in mind. 
• We want you to prepared for any gaming location you visit. Gaming venues can include game nights at home, out with friends, hanging out with your local guild, at your local game store or café, or hitting up gaming conventions and tournaments. The quality and protection found in every bag will make traveling ideal. 
• Board games come in all sizes. The bag was designed to fit the largest of games (such as Twilight Imperium, Gloomhaven, Frosthaven, Western Legends Big Box and others). We also made sure it fit your games where multiple boxes are needed such as Dominion, Nemesis, Zombicide, Arkham Horror)
• The best games also require multiple components. The Mayday Ultimate Game Night Bag has loads of pockets to make sure the various combinations of boards, cards, miniatures, tiles, dice, tokens, coins, and other components are kept safe.

We are committed to providing superior bags at a reasonable price. We have been producing games and accessories in China since 2008. Our CEO lived in China for 6 years and still spends a large portion of the year in China to source our games and accessories directly with the factory, cutting out the middle man and ensuring top quality.  

What was the Design Process?

Our primary goals were:

#1: ULTIMATE STRENGTH.  We engineered this bag with the PRIMARY goal of being STRONG, so strong that nobody will ever have a problem in the normal use of the bag. We designed it to hold 75 lbs (34 kg) without sustaining damage. The factory engineers tested it on their end and then we REALLY tested it in every way we could imagine to reveal any flaws. We eventually filled the bag FULL of heavy card sleeves to finally break just the outer zipper, but the bag itself held up amazingly!  Watch the videos HERE. (full video HERE).

So where did the bag fail?  It never ripped or pulled through the seams through all our tests. We finally got it to fail with boxes of sleeves pulling straight down on the zipper, which is not the way the bag would ever be carried. The side zipper pulled apart due to the stress of the weight on one side.

We were able to unzip the bag open and re-close it with no permanent damage, just temporarily split it. We continued using this prototype bag for more than a year with no further damage. We still decided to upgrade the zipper at that spot for our final product.

#2: ROOMY FOR LARGE GAMES. We set out to have the bag hold Twilight Imperium 4.  After playing War Room we thought about redoing the bag again, but we had to draw the line somewhere. Sorry, War Room... no "room" for you!

#3: EASY CARRYING.  Mayday produces a lot of card sleeves and those extra sleeves and premium add-ons to games add weight!  We've packed the bag with up to 40 pounds of games, but it isn't easy to carry that much weight over long distances, so, we specifically designed the bag to handle extreme weight with ease. Check out these options.

#4: GAME PROTECTION. Our experience with needing to protect 15+ pound crokinole boards means we understand just how much padding/protection a bag needs to provide to protect hundreds of dollars in games.  We use a thick, soft-foam padding on all sides, the walls, top, bottom, and even outside flap. We also include an interior divider that you can use between boxes to keep heavier games from crushing lighter weight ones. The divider is also perfect for holding games in place if you are carrying less than a full bag. It is also perfectly adjustable thanks to the Velcro material along the interior of the bag.

11 Upgrades for Season 2

Even with all of this planning and care taken we have learned a lot from the first production run in 2024.  We have made the following 11 specific improvements from 2024 to this 2026 bag:

1. Increase the cart pocket height from 7.5 inches to 9 inches for an even sturdier and more stable fit when using the optional cart (sold separately).

1. Larger and stronger zipper pulls for easier opening and closing of all zippers.

1. Added an ADDITIONAL way to carry the bag by adding a large, adjustable shoulder strap to the TOP of the bag.  Oversized D-hook support with wider straps for extra strength.

1. Increased the large main zipper front flap in both width and height for easier loading/unloading of games, especially larger ones and to really take full advantage of the huge capacity.

1. Adding additional EVA and foam padding throughout the entire bag to further enhance the durability and provide extra protection.

1. Upgrade the stitching quality and strength of the two side pockets that are used for either beverages or oversized playmats.

1. Improve the quality and strength of all internal stitching for a stronger bag overall and a more polished look inside.

1. Enhanced inspection and greater production oversight to ensure no loose threads or hanging stitching remains.

1. Replace the connecting fabric between the seams with a higher quality/strength fabric.

1. Upgrade the internal shelf system to be made of higher quailty nylon material and a more durable EVA foam on the interior of the shelf piece.

1. Swap out the five small rubber feet with 4 much larger rubber feet on the bottom of the bag for extra grip and better protection when setting the bag down or resting it anywhere.

Features

We took over 2 years developing this bag to ensure that it ended up being exactly what we wanted, and we have spent most of the last year looking as critically as we could to make it even better. We have taken it to game nights, conventions, and focus groups. We polled users of other bags about what their favorite features were, what they would change, and what they HAD TO HAVE in their ideal game bag. Over this time, we received from the factory quite a few different iterations of the bag. But most importantly we have several thousand real-world gamers who have had the bag for over a year now and they have provided us with feedback.  We are confident that this bag is another step up from our first Ultimate Game Bag!

Watch Brigit from Mayday go thru the Season 1 bag point by point.

Here is a quick unboxing video from a very happy backer from our last campaign!

Reviews

We built this bag to LAST! Here are some behind the scenes looks at our testing and some candid reviews by real local gamers as well as some trusted names in Board Gaming.

 

Check out our own tests in Utah as we try to break this bag!

 

Watch Forrest test the Mayday game bag head-to-head versus what is probably the best-selling bag on the market.

A great review from BoardGame Officer. This is a nice endorsement from someone who understands quality in equipment.

Watch a few quick clips of more testing the stress points in China.

Watch Kyle's full 10-minute overview and review of the bag above!

Check out Lance's review above!

Here is a recent thread on Reddit from one of our backers discussing their experience with the Ultimate Game Night Bag.

Pledge Levels:

Choose from our different pledge levels as follows:

• Solo Player Pledge: Single Bag Backer gets you a single game bag with which to wow your friends at your Game Nights!

• You and a Friend Pledge: 2X Game Bag Backer gets you two game bags. One for you and one to share. You don't want to always be the one traveling to Game Night.

• Game Group Pledge: 4X Game Bag Backer gets you four game bags. Save money for you and for your game group friends. Lower the average cost of the bag and save on shipping at the same time. Your best value if you want to go in with some friends!

We don't have a specific retailer pledge level on this project but we would LOVE to have any retailers back this at special pricing. Brick & Mortar stores and distributors, please send us an email to brigit@maydaygames.com. We would love to have your support too!

Add-ons

We are helping take things to the next level by offering this 17 x 13 x 5.5 inch cart that is perfect for when your bag is really loaded down.  This cart collapses down to just 5.5 inches is intentionally smaller than the internal area of the bag so you can even put the cart into the bag should the need arise.  This cart is VERY STURDY with the following features:

• External Size: 17 x 13 x 5.5 inches (45*34*14 CM) box size
• Platform Dimensions: 10.5 x 13 inches, a little smaller than the bottom of the bag which is 12.5 x 15 inches, so the bag hangs over just a bit (see photos below).
• Construction: Heavy Duty Plastic and STEEL rods
• Wheels: Super smooth, all-direction 5-roller wheels for effortless pulling (except maybe on that GenCon carpet, man that stuff is annoying sometimes)
• Load capacity: 110 pounds (yes 50kg)!  Yep, you can probably roll your younger sibling around on this in a pinch!

We will be offering this cart as an add-on post campaign for USA backers and it will ship together with your Ultimate Game Bag(s).  We won't be offering this for non-USA backers.  Very sorry!

MSRP is $40 on the cart but we are offering it to USA backers only for just $25 as an add-on!

Stretch Goals

We have two main stretch goals, at $50,000 we will unlock the Red bag option and at $100,000 we will unlock the Green bag option.  If we beat our Season 1 funding of $131k then we will have to consider a $150k stretch goal as well.

Shipping

The shipping costs for the bags will be subsidized by us. (See the chart below for shipping prices.) Note that shipping will be collected post campaign during the Backerkit survey process.

Local Pickup: We are allowing for a local pickup option during the Pledge Manager. If you would like to pick up your bag at our warehouse in Springville, Utah you pay $0 shipping.

Note that China, United Kingdom, the EU, and Australia, will all be shipped from inside those countries/regions by our logistics partners so there will be NO taxes due to you backers in those areas. Should you receive any notices of Customs Fees or VAT when you receive your package, please notify us at kickstarter@maydaygames.com and we will correct this through our distribution partners.

For the UK and the EU, VAT is included in the shipping fees as we don't have anywhere else to charge it. You WILL NOT pay any additional VAT/CUSTOMS fees! We know your shipping costs are much higher than other areas, but your laws REQUIRE us to pay VAT on the value of the game PLUS SHIPPING. We hate it too but it is the law! Just know that we are subsidizing your shipping costs because of this.

For the rest of the world, we will ship your rewards from either China or the USA, depending on where you live and you will be responsible for any taxes/duties to your own country. We cannot be responsible for knowing the local tax laws of every country.

Why Kickstarter?

We are a very small company and frankly don't know how to gauge the appropriate number of copies to produce for potential "hit" product. We are committed to providing the Kickstarter with the proper number of copies and will decide how many more to produce after the campaign based on the support we see here. We need your help to properly forecast production as we've never had a product like these game bags. We believe in accountability and keep this google sheet with all of our prior campaigns so you our backers can always see exactly where we stand HERE.