The 7th Continent

What The 7th Continent does

The 7th Continent is the flagship product of Serious Poulp, a privately held French board game publisher founded in late 2010 in Paris by co-founders Ludovic Roudy and Bruno Sautter, who have worked together for over 20 years (previously co-founding a digital communication agency in 2002). The product is a 'choose-your-own-path' cooperative exploration board game set in 1907, in which 1–4 players take the role of explorers attempting to lift curses on a mysterious seventh continent discovered off the coast of Antarctica. The game uses card-driven exploration, dice-based action resolution, terrain mapping, an item-stacking and durability system, and a companion mobile app ('L'oeil qui voit') that adds augmented-reality features by allowing players to scan terrain cards to reveal hidden content. Each curse scenario provides over 1,000 minutes of adventure, with multiple curse content packs (e.g., Chant du Cristal, Déesse Vorace, L'Offrande aux Gardiens, Le Coffret des Damnés) available as separate purchases on top of the base game.

The company's revenue model is a one-time-license direct-to-consumer model: the Classic Edition retails at $69 via shop.seriouspoulp.com, with a premium Collector Edition and several expansion boxes (e.g., WGUMCD) sold at additional price points, and no subscription or recurring-revenue component. Go-to-market is crowdfunding-first — the initial The 7th Continent campaign launched on Kickstarter in late 2015, an expansion was crowdfunded in late 2017, and the fourth title, The 7th Citadel, was funded via Kickstarter in 2019 — supplemented by direct online sales and an active owned community (multilingual forums, Mailchimp newsletter, BoardGameGeek presence). Distribution is online-only with no meaningful retail footprint; a wholly-owned US subsidiary, Serious Poulp Inc., supports North American fulfillment. Supporting tech vendors include Stripe and PayPal (payments), CrowdOx (crowdfunding fulfillment), Mailchimp (email), Freshdesk (customer support), Google Analytics, and ONLINE SAS (hosting). Serious Poulp has registered trademarks for its brand and four game titles, and the founders received the 2019 Spiel Des Jahres (Kritikerpreis) — Germany's prestigious critics' Game of the Year award — for their cooperative party game Just One, published via Repos Production (Asmodée group).

Name

The 7th Continent

Legal name

SERIOUS POULP

Website

https://the7thcontinent.seriouspoulp.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2010

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Serious Poulp is a privately held French board game publisher founded in 2010 by Ludovic Roudy and Bruno Sautter, known for The 7th Continent, a choose-your-own-path cooperative exploration board game for 1–4 players distributed via Kickstarter and direct online sales.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Tabletop Board Games

NAICS

Hobby, Toy, and Game Retailers (459120)

SIC

Retail-Hobby, Toy & Game Shops (5945)

akta.pro primary industry

Strategy/Euro Board Games Retail (CRALALAC)

Keywords

• Cooperative board games
• Narrative exploration games
• Tabletop hobby games
• Augmented reality board games
• Crowdfunded board games

Headquarters

HQ city

Paris

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Personnel, Supply Chain, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Board Game Sales: Direct sales of physical board games and expansions through the company's online store, including the Classic Edition, Collector Edition, and various expansion packs. Revenue generated from one-time product purchases rather than subscriptions.
2. Crowdfunding Campaigns: Initial product launches conducted through Kickstarter crowdfunding campaigns, with backer rewards and stretch goals driving pre-sales revenue.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

The 7th Continent is a cooperative "choose-your-own-path" exploration board game for 1 to 4 players that provides 1000+ minutes of adventure per curse scenario, with branching narratives, card-driven exploration, item stacking and durability mechanics, and an optional augmented reality mobile app companion. The Serious Poulp portfolio also includes The 7th Citadel and various expansion packs, all distributed primarily through the company's own online store and Kickstarter crowdfunding campaigns.

Product overview

The 7th Continent is a board games publisher operated by Serious Poulp (founded by Ludovic Roudy and Bruno Sautter in late 2010) that distributes games primarily through online sales including crowdfunding campaigns. The company's flagship product is The 7th Continent, a choose-your-own-path exploration board game. The portfolio includes The 7th Continent Classic Edition, The 7th Continent Collector Edition, the WGUMCD expansion box, a Mobile App called 'L'oeil qui voit' with augmented reality features, and The 7th Citadel as a separate core product. Downloads section provides card lists, rulebooks in multiple languages, player aids, errata, and fan kits.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• The 7th Continent Classic Edition The base game of The 7th Continent, a "choose-your-own-path" cooperative exploration board game for 1 to 4 players set in 1907 on a mysterious seventh continent off the coast of Antarctica, offering 1000+ minutes of adventure and supporting solo play plus save-and-resume campaign progression.
• The 7th Continent Collector Edition A premium edition of The 7th Continent with enhanced components and additional content compared to the Classic Edition, targeted at hobbyist collectors of tabletop exploration games.
• WGUMCD Expansion Box ("Tout ce qui monte, finit par redescendre") An expansion box for The 7th Continent with additional content and curse scenarios, released during the late-2017 Kickstarter campaign and intended for owners of the base game.
• Mobile App "L'oeil qui voit" An augmented reality mobile companion application for The 7th Continent that players use by scanning discovered terrain to reveal hidden content at special locations, enhancing the exploration gameplay.
• The 7th Citadel The 7th Citadel is Serious Poulp's fourth published title and follow-up to The 7th Continent, a board game with cooperative exploration mechanics published by Serious Poulp.

Named customers1 record

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• KickstartercoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorCrowdfunding platform used for product launches of The 7th Continent (2015, 2017) and The 7th Citadel (2019). Manages backer rewards and campaign content.
• StripecoreTechnology or IntegrationPayment processing platform for transactions with customers through the online shop.
• PayPalcoreTechnology or IntegrationAlternative payment processing platform for transactions with customers.
• Repos Production (Asmodée Group)minorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorPublisher of Just One, the cooperative party game designed by Serious Poulp founders Ludovic Roudy and Bruno Sautter, which won the 2019 Spiel Des Jahres Kritikerpreis award.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Fantasy Flight Games: Established US tabletop publisher known for premium narrative and miniatures games; comparable as a deep-content, hobby-focused publisher serving enthusiast customers, though at far larger scale and broader product breadth.
• Asmodee: World's largest board game publisher and the parent of Repos Production (which published the founders' Just One). Comparable as a hobby-game publisher with broad catalog, retail distribution, and global scale, though it operates well beyond Serious Poulp's niche.

Direct peers

• Chip Theory Games: US-based publisher of premium tabletop games (Too Many Bones, Gloomhaven variants) funded through Kickstarter; comparable in crowdfunding-first, deluxe-component, hardcore-hobbyist positioning.
• Portal Games: Polish publisher of Euro and narrative games (Detective, Imperial Settlers); comparable as a European, founder-led boutique publisher in the Euro/strategy category that overlaps with Serious Poulp's target buyer.
• Repos Production: Belgian/French hobby publisher (Asmodee subsidiary) that published Just One designed by Serious Poulp's founders; highly comparable as a French-language cooperative/party-game publisher with overlapping design talent and distribution.
• Awaken Realms: Polish Kickstarter-native publisher of narrative-heavy box games (Tainted Grail, Nemesis); closely comparable as a European, Kickstarter-first, content-rich narrative board game maker in the same premium enthusiast segment.
• CMON: Publicly listed Kickstarter-heavy tabletop publisher known for large-box narrative and miniatures games; comparable in its crowdfunding-first launch model and deep-content enthusiast positioning, though at much larger scale.
• Plaid Hat Games: US publisher known for cooperative narrative games (Mice and Mystics, Stuffed Fables); comparable as a small-team publisher specializing in cooperative, story-driven tabletop experiences.
• Stonemaier Games: US-based boutique publisher of premium Euro-style games (Wingspan, Scythe), built largely via Kickstarter; directly comparable as a small-team, founder-led narrative/strategy publisher with strong crowdfunding playbook.
• Greater Than Games: US boutique publisher of cooperative and narrative games (Sentinels of the Multiverse); comparable as a small-team, Kickstarter-active publisher serving the same cooperative tabletop niche.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/SeriousPoulp
• Facebookfacebook.com/SeriousPoulp
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/serious-poulp

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The 7th Continent