Zero Dark: The Miniatures Line Kickstarter

Ein neuer Kickstarter liefert Modelle für Sci-Fi-Fans.

Let’s Make Some Minis!

Precinct Omega has spent the last few years developing and publishing a new range of science fiction and fantasy miniatures games and now we’re going to dip a toe into developing our own range of high-quality, 28mm science fiction miniatures. We’ve already got a small set of STLs ready to go, but our ambitions are bigger than that and, with your help, we can turn those dreams into reality.

From Humble Beginnings…

My concept sketches weren’t impressive, but working with Adam at Desert Island Designs, he has created what I hope you’ll agree are really striking and original designs that absolutely capture the hard (ish) science fiction setting of Horizon Wars: Zero Dark.

Each of the sculpts represents a character in the Operation Nemesis storyline, with their own history and motivations and we’ll reveal more of these as the campaign progresses. But for now, let’s take a look at the first four designs:

And it wouldn’t be Kickstarter if I didn’t also have some stretch goals to add even more stuff to the campaign!

The Vision

It’s really simple: I want to make minis that you can use to play the games that I write. My games are „miniatures agnostic“ – you can use whatever minis you want, from  Corvus Belli, or Hasslefree Miniatures, or Bad Squiddo Games, or Anvil Industry… I don’t want my games to ever be reduced to being marketing tools to shift minis. But, on the other hand, I do love minis and I am developing the setting for the games into a deeper place. I would like my minis to be marketing tools to shift games.

But it’s a one-person company and just publishing games isn’t enough to create the business model that will let me do this full-time.

So this isn’t your usual campaign. This isn’t a glorified pre-order or  monetization attempt. Precinct Omega is an independent game developer and publisher and we want to grow our offering organically in partnership with the community that supports us.

Making Minis

I think the trend of miniatures manufacturing shifting from factories to people’s homes, with digital resin printing, is incredibly exciting, and allows designers to put miniatures into people’s hands without the inconvenience of casting or shipping. So I’m offering digital products as the bare minimum this project will develop. But if we only produce digital products then, to an extent, I think we’ll have failed even if we reach our funding target.

Not everyone has a printer, so we are partnering with Mr Lee’s Minis to print a stock of physical minis for backers without their own printer to get their hands on these designs.

But printed resin isn’t the material everyone wants to work with. So, whilst styrene or thermoplastic is beyond our reach for now, I would love to raise enough to be able to contract our friends at Lancaster Casting to create cold-cast resin versions of these minis – not just cast versions of the prints, but versions specifically modified to take advantage of the quality of detail achievable in resin casting.

And, more than that, if we raise enough money, we’ll take masters from those resin casts and hand them over to Macrocosm Miniatures to create the moulds needed to cast white metal versions of the same minis.

The Future

If we reach our bare minimum, then our backers will get the files or prints they’ve backed and, to be honest, that’ll be it. Adam will get paid. I’ll have the experience of running a Kickstarter. And Precinct Omega will stay as a „when I can afford the time“ game development business.

But if we meet the right stretch goals, this campaign will create the foundation for a range of new minis that will only expand. It will create the resources that will let me add these products permanently to my webstore, and give me a supply of stock to take to shows and events all over the UK. It will be a step forward for Precinct Omega, and a big advancement towards making this a full-time business.

Add-ons

Kickstarter’s new „add-ons“ feature leaves a certain amount to be desired and, in retrospect, I would have not used it at all. Suffice to say that, in fulfillment, you will be able to add new items to your rewards. Add-ons will include:

• Extra digital files (for those not backing All-In Digital)
• Extra physical prints
• Digital rulebooks (in the form of a Wargame Vault voucher)
• Printed rulebooks (again, WGV voucher)
• Signed printed rulebooks (shipped from the UK)

Fulfilment

If the project fulfils at less than £5000 total funding, fulfilment will be direct with Precinct Omega. You’ll receive a form by email to confirm shipping details and any add-ons, followed by an invoice for anything over and above your backer level funding. This will just be me at my desk, so please be patient but, also, if you have an issues we can resolve them nice and quickly.

If the project fulfils at more than £5000 (woo!), I’ll be engaging a fulfilment service to manage the volume of orders and more details will be issued within a week or so of the campaign ending.

Die Kampagne läuft noch 28 Tage und ist finanziert.

Quelle: Zero Dark: The Miniatures Line