A Dead Game System

I'm not going to "name and shame" here although I feel it's a shame that the game was pretty much DOA when it was released.

Some history.

The game was developed by a miniatures company to go with models they were producing. This was not their first foray into that world and the games used very similar rule systems. But they were a miniatures company, not a game company. They said this explicitly.

The games had life while someone was willing to work on them and then stagnated when those people left. So people would get their hopes up only to be slowly disappointed as the interest waned. This happened many times.

The skirmish game rules are still out there and the models are available under different names. The line that was tied to the game has been retired but the models are still in production as general usage. If that makes any sense.

For the other game they sold the IP for the setting and the minis themselves to another company. Personally I think that company got a raw deal because of the history of the game itself but I wasn't the one buying it. I believe they get some of the proceeds from the miniature sales since it's their name on the bases but don't quote me on that.

The game didn't have a following at the time. The metal minis were necessarily expensive since they were heavy. Not many stores stocked them or the rulebook either. So most people didn't even know the game existed.

After the rights were purchased the miniature companies put together a Kickstarter campaign to start getting the models from metal to injection molded plastic. The miniature company had already done a couple of those and it made sense for the two companies to do this first one together. But ...

The miniatures company wanted the best sellers to go into production first. That makes sense from their perspective. If they sold well in metal they'd sell REALLY WELL in plastic. And there's another much more popular game that would benefit from cheap plastic robot minis. Those are the models they chose.

The game company had to deal with selling their new rulebook as part of this campaign. Here's where things continued to fall apart.

The popular minis were spread across the game factions. That made it a scattershot approach to starting the game.

The rulebook was an add-on purchase and not part of the campaign pledge. That confused a lot of people and caused some ill will later on.

Here's the thing that gave me the idea that the company that owns the game didn't know what they were doing. They didn't make any rules or force building information on the campaign. Halfway through they make a quick start document available but there was still no guidance on how many of what minis to buy. None. Ever. Even after the campaign was over and the pledge manager was open they gave no help for people who wanted to play the game.

That's when I realized the game was dead before it started. The right company could have jump started it back to life and gotten a following, much like other tabletop miniature games. This was not a company to do that. The game - miniatures and/or rulebook - aren't in the game stores I've visited. Everything seems to be online purchase only.

The game company has had at least two more Kickstarter campaigns since the first one and they were faction focused. I think each one had mostly two factions with a smattering of other minis. So it was what should have been done from the start. The game website has quick start rules and a force builder so you can figure out what to buy. Everything they should have done from the beginning is now available.

But they missed their window. I personally don't like the owner of the company. He's not the type of person I'd put into social situations to sell a game. He knows the rules but he doesn't have the personality to bring in people and get them excited. He's kind of a jerk. His booth tends to be set up with models and him sulking at the little counter or showing a very small demo for someone. With the transition of the game rules to him he lost the miniature company support to help out at conventions. It shows.

What brought this to mind was me going through my minis from the first and second campaigns. This is more of a chore than it sounds since the minis sent as rewards are multi part in little plastic bags with no identification as to what minis they are. Sorting them out is a challenge of trying to match bits to the pictures of the assembled minis online and going from there.

I found I have way, way, way too many minis from the first campaign. I overspent like crazy and have more faction minis than I will ever field. I'm sending a bunch of those off to be broken up into mercenary forces that someone else is going to paint for me in exchange for things I've 3D printed. They're going to make the forces, now that I think about it. I'm just sending a box full of minis and letting them figure it out. I checked - that's acceptable.

I don't know that I'll ever get to play this game. I honestly don't know. It would depend on me meeting people who would be willing to play and I don't see that happening in the near future. People here are very much 40k and some other games that small groups play. Bringing in a completely new game is difficult to impossible. Without being able to buy stuff in stores it lessens the desire to play. Sure they can order it like they do so many other things but that's an extra step for a niche game.

I know it sounds funny to be talking about a dead game and then talk about working with the minis. I'm not getting rid of any of them since I seem to collect armies. I also know there's no market for these if I did want to get rid of them. The new ones are cheap enough that trying to sell them wouldn't be worth the effort. They'll go into foam storage and the book will go on the shelf.

Both to gather dust, as it were.