A new range!

Starting a new project is always refreshing, to me.

I have a sensation of a clean space to reinvent that relax me and fills me with positivity.

Probably, if for some reason I'll have to stop this job, I'll become an interior design.

After the titanic (for my standards!) work on the dwarf range, I decided to focus on a main faction of my setting: the Second Government of Inneath.

It's always important ( I'd dare to say crucial) to make a very good work on the human range of a fantasy setting, cause it often defines the whole look of the general design: think about the iconic Warhammer Empire, or the Lions of Alahan in Confrontation.

Usually, the success of a new setting depends on two factors: the main human faction and the main villain.

For this reason I initially started to work on the Second Government range with some concern: unlike dwarves, that are my obsessions since I was young, I've never been attracted too much to human characters. So I've asked myself: "Will I be able to design interesting concepts, outside my comfort zone?!"

However, despite my initials hesitations, now I can happily say that I'm having such fun in creating my Second Government range!

So, even if there is still a lot of work to do, I think it's time to take a stock of the situation, now that we are getting closer to our next Kickstarter campaign.

THE HUMAN RANGE

Unlike the dwarf range, that I designed with two blocks of characters (the Iron Crows and the heterogeneous group of other dwarves), with the Second Government I decided to focus principally on three regiments: the Bluecoats, the Redcoats and the M.A.S.K. (yes, the name it's a little tribute to an old animated series!).

The Second Government is conceptually made on a strict and well organized politic system, so I thought (at least for this moment) to design the range with a strong regimental/militaristic theme.

Of course there will be picturesque individuals among them (think about the Grimorians, or the Pathfinder!), but the look I wanted to give to this range has been, since the beginning, more homogeneous.

Moreover (perhaps influenced by the subjects I am designing!), I'm thinking more deeply about how managing the Kickstarter campaign, in order to be more organized: I don't regret the choices I made during the previous one (at all!), but I obviously have to learn from my past mistakes, so in order to give you a smoother production and, consequently, delivery, I will change a bit the format of this new campaign.

The first change concerns numbers: in the previous campaign we started with 15 characters and we literally invented 10 new ones while the campaign was growing. That surely helped to collect more funds and, of course, to create an amazing amount of dwarves (but still, they are not enough!), but obviously, after the campaign, we found ourselves having to design and sculpt 10 characters (+ all the stretch goals!). Even if Valerio and Davide really made a miracle, we spent over 6 months on that.

Sorry, Valerio and Davide.

To avoid that kind of issue, for this new range I established to design 18 characters, and to start the campaign only once we have sculpted them all.

Another "mistake" was the amount of bundles: in the previous campaign I made too many bundles, and this not only gave me headaches during the fulfilling of rewards, but also created some bugs concerning shipping costs (for example, many backers pledged for the single bulldog bundle, which logically had very few shipping costs, and added to it a lot of other miniatures. Obviously it was due to my negligence, I would have done the same, as a backers!).

For this new campaign, I designed 3 main bundles (plus the classic "mighty mega box"), let's see them in (almost all) details:

The Bluecoat (da ba dee) bundle.

The first bundle is based on the Bluecoats Regiment. They are principally explorers, and their duty is to discover (or re-discover) new lands and possibly claim them in the name of the Second Government. We have already sculpted all the characters designed for it: two "basic" Bluecoats, a Captain with the regiment standard, a good boy, a grim leader (the Admiral) and the Pathfinder.

I can't already tell you a price for this bundle (it mostly depends on how much the Pathfinder will cost), but in my mind I would like to set the Bluecoats for 50/55€.

The Redcoats Bundle (w.i.p.)

The second bundle is focused on Redcoats. This regiment composes the regular armies of the Second Government, so unlike Bluecoats they are more specialized on warfare and have a more aggressive look. Considering that I'm not making a wargame with armies, but a skirmish game, I decided to design these Redcoats as a sort of "heavy supports" for a classic quest: basically, they are well trained and equipped specialists that support Bluecoats in their most perilous missions.

We still have to sculpt two characters, to complete this bundle: the Redcoat Admiral (next to come) and another Redcoat Soldier (I'm still deciding whether to design him as a melee specialist, or as a gunner. I accept suggestions!).

At this moment, we have sculpted a Redcoat Sniper, a Redcoat Soldier (based on my friend and awesome painter Marko of Craftworld Studio) and the colossal Iron Titan, directly from the forges of Zorn Uzul.

As for the Bluecoat Bundle, I can't tell you an exact price for Redcoats, because it mostly depends on how much I'll gain by selling my kidney to produce the Iron Titan.

However, price would be a little higher than the Bluecoat Bundle (about 5/10€ more).

The M.A.S.K. Bundle

The last bundle contains the sinister characters of the secret organization known as M.A.S.K. (Ministry Against Secret Knowledge). I wanted to create a sort of fantasy C.I.A: secret agents that investigate and had to neutralize all those unconventional/creepy/mysterious problems that can't be managed in a normal way. I wanted for them a kind of pulp and disturbing look, and I'm really having fun on designing them! We have already sculpted two agents of M.A.S.K and a Grimorian (a kind of magician-archaeologist) with his apprentice. Two more characters have to be sculpted, and I really can't wait to show them!

The price of this Bundle, that doesn't have a big dude, will be around 45€.

THE STRETCH GOALS

Obviously, it can't be a Kickstarter campaign without Stretch Goals. It would be like using spaghetti with the ragù alla bolognese: a sacrilege.

However, things are gonna change a bit from the previous Kickstarter campaign, concerning SG.

In our dwarf campaign my first goal was to unlock as many features as possible, and gaining more backers: after all, we were almost new as manufacturers, so I had to strategically use all my cards to get your attention.

I decided, so, to propose a lot of stretch goals and, above all, to give them almost to every backer. This, of course, helped me to reach a wider audience (after all, who wouldn't be tempted by the idea of getting more than 20 stretch goals, for a 35€ pledge?) but it also increased significantly my production costs. In numbers, a complete kit of stretch goals costed me about 13-14€, and I had to give more than 390 of them for free.

With the new Kickstarter campaign, however, my goals change a bit, and it's due to the range that will come after this one (I can't go into details, you know..spies..).

Of course I still have to increase my audience and of course I really wish that this human range get the same success of the dwarf one, but after the Second Government we will start to work on a very big project that will involve a lot of new characters and will be also the debut of 3 new factions (Orcs, Elves -yes, elves- and Necromancers).

As you may imagine, the Second Government campaign has, as a main goal, to collect as much as funds possible to produce in short times (that means a lot of investments) the following range.

For this reason I have to better optimize my production costs, without obviously losing your interest: a difficult quest, indeed!!

Me, trying not to disappoint you all, while I optimize my costs.

I've already thought about an impressive list of stretch goals, so don't worry: I won't celebrate a marriage with dried figs, as we say here in Italy.

The most tasty ones will be, of course, the three new characters I've designed to complete the three bundles: a new Bluecoat explorer, a new Agent of M.A.S.K and a new Redcoat.

These three characters I schedule to be unlocked relatively quickly, so if the campaign just goes normally, you already can consider one free extra character for each bundle.

Moreover, the other stretch goals will be divided up into three categories: there will be stretch goals made only for the Bluecoat Bundle (I'm thinking about a set of scenic objectives and a set of sea-birds), stretch goals made only for the Redcoat one (a brand new type of Mechanical Familiars, the MKIII "Helper", and alternative parts to pimp your Titans) and stretch goals made only for the M.A.S.K. Bundle (new Flonzi!!).

If unlocked, every stretch goal will be inserted for free in its specific Bundle, but of course you will be able to add as many as you want as add-ons.

Only two stretch goals will be inserted for free in all bundles: the scenic bases set (the first stretch goal to be unlocked) and the Kickstarter limited edition Basset Hound (one of the last stretch goals to be unlocked).

And what about those who will pledge for the Mighty Mega Box? Of course they will have for free every single stretch goal unlocked plus some exclusive stuff (a new pilot for your Titan, more dogs and scenic accessories and, of course, the second booklet of Peoples of Inneath).

What about the price of the all-inclusive Mega Box?

I hope to be able to set it about 140-145€.

SUGGESTIONS?

So, this is how this new, exciting project is going on at this moment: we have already done a lot of work, but still we have to do more.

Thank you for reading my wall of text, I hope you've found interesting this post and, above all, I would like to know what you think about it!

To me, a direct feedback is very useful, not only cause I would be able to refine my project to fit as much as possible your wishes, but also cause when I see you active and proactive, my enthusiasm grows and so my motivation does!

So don't hesitate to comment on my facebook page (or here, if you want to subscribe!).