Summer Update
Hello!
So it has been awhile since my last update. Things have been quite busy over the last few months. Although the last Kickstarter did not fund, I’ve continue to forge my way forward on the game and miniatures.
Rules Update
Most of the time has been spent on finalizing the Slumbering Oblivion rule set. That appears to be almost complete, at least the testing I have done along with the folks that are helping create them. We have gone through several months of testing, re-writing and tweaking the rules and I’m happy to say they are pretty much done. Just a little more polishing and we should be good.
As I’ve alluded to in the past, the folks helping on the rules are well versed in war gaming and have many years of experience in the field. I’m not ready to say who exactly they are at this point, but if you’ve played any of the more popular war games then they are names you will recognize.
Resin vs Plastic
One of the other areas I’ve been exploring is the possibility of going the route of plastic injection molding for the miniatures. Right now they are all cast in resin but a lot of folks have asked about going the injection molded plastic/HIPS direction.
There are many factors to consider here. First and foremost, the upfront cost of injection molding. Unlike traditional resin casting, there is a substantial upfront cost for plastic. This is primarily due to the fact that having molds cut out of steel and at such a small scale is very expensive. At a rough estimate, it is around $10,000 per model. This adds up quickly when you consider there are dozens of models! So the demand has to be there to go in this direction. I’m working on putting all the costs together now and once I have the numbers finalized I’ll likely run another Kickstarter to see if there is truly enough interest to move towards plastic. The good news is that the end results are much cheaper to the backer/customer but that also means the number of backers has to increase significantly for it to be viable.
One of the other factors is that all of the current models would need to be converted to a digital format as they are currently just physical models. I have been working with a company that can scan at this scale and once I receive all the information from them that will be additional costs to consider over and above the actual mold cutting mentioned above.
Then there are many other factors such as shipping, packaging, etc. So a lot of time is being spent on gathering the details to determine the right direction forward. Worst case scenario is that the game stays in resin but that is not a bad thing in my opinion. I do like quality plastic but have always enjoyed resin as well. I plan to have the details finalized in the next month or two so stay tuned.
Terrain Building and YouTube
And finally, as part of the game rules testing, I had become bored with normal terrain on my kitchen table so decided to build a dedicated war game table suitable for the world of Slumbering Oblivion. It took about a month of work but I finally finished it. I also decided to record the process in case others out there were interested in building their own game tables. The end result was over a hundred hours of recorded content but I was able to edit it down to 16 videos that highlight the various aspects of the build. I have begun to upload the series on my YouTube channel so if you are interested in terrain or game table building please give it a view. You can find the first one here: https://youtu.be/mmBH469dfA4 These will be the first series of videos with more going up regularly. So be sure to subscribe!
Various views of the finished game table. Check out the YouTube series to see how it was made.
That’s about all for this update. I will endeavor to provide more regular updates going forward. The last few months have just been incredibly busy! You can always check me out or subscribe to my various social media channels for more consistent updates:
Instagram: reclusivephoenix
Twitter: reclusivefenix
FB: https://www.facebook.com/reclusivephoenixllc
YT: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRV4l5w76Fyxmem9FzmbBNg
Cheers,
James