scarletsquig wrote:
Guys, concept sketches are not "magic wizard voodoo" that you have to pay thousands for, especially when they are up for peer-review and don't have to be 100% perfect on the first pass.

I do illustration/ design myself. It's a matter of sitting down for 3 hours with a pencil and paper and then 3 hours later you have a concept. $50-$100 per piece is the general going rate, it's not expensive.

Full-colour, highly polished art from Opuz Arts, one of the major pro studios that is hired by big corporations for AAA video games, though... yes, that *will* cost you, through the teeth, but since when has a KS ever needed that? Pencil sketches from are fine for concepts.

Not hard to hire a freelancer either, there are a ton of different sites out there that can be used where you will find thousands of people with sci-fi art portfolios who are happy to be hired.

You don't even have to look outside the wargaming industry if you don't want to, there are a lot of freelance artists working for various companies, a lot of them happy to work short notice or evenings/weekends to get a job done.

How does it make you feel that your games are only played by fat, socially awkward weirdos?

 reds8n wrote:

How does it make you feel that your games are only played by fat, socially awkward weirdos?

Good ol' internet.

Also, when do the Squats return?

Question:
WarDrones
Will these be different kits for different factions?
Will they be (multi-part) plastic?
How many optional builds (roughly) will there be for the WarDrones?
When will we be able to see some WarDrone visuals?

To answer the last question first - we are hoping to have some work in progress (WIPS) for you to see next week.
We are actually progressing two different designs - one of which we will make in plastic to start with - with part of getting the design right involves making some original prototypes at actual size - and that's what we're doing now. Which ever of these we make as a plastic kit we will include options within the kits to represent the different human factions. We will also make available separate customising pieces which will work with the plastic kit. But we won't make more than one plastic kit to start with - maybe further down the line
The kits will be multipart plastics yet. But we wil also make some WarDrones in metal. There are different designs of WarDrone anyway - so having a variety in metal will be a good way of doing that. These could be different factions - but they could also be different weapon or equipment fits, heavy duty 'Siege' WarDrones and so on.
The kits will be poseable - so lots of options - there will also be options for armament within the kit.

Question:
You're carrying a shock maul with just two charges left, and you're in a room with Hitler, Thatcher and Celine Dion. Who do you hit and why?

Celine Dion... twice.
The other two will take care of each other.
Rick

Question:
Many creative people find the adjustment to seeing direct feedback from anonymous fans online to be difficult, especially as many fans can be blunt or harsh when it comes to putting opinions up on forums. How have you found the reaction to Gates of Antares so far? Has seeing the negative feedback around the details (or perceived lack there of) on the Kickstarter page been difficult for DSC?

Oh I worked for GW for nearly three decade and my skin has thickened to the point where it could resist a laser cannon!
Actually I really do find feedback useful - even when it's negative - though I do prefer it not to be rude! If someone really goes over the top I don't let it bug me - someone being passionate about your game isn't that bad a thing is it - I just try and pick out the real points from amongst the language. If you let yourself be swayed by the way someone expresses themselves you can miss good points - so I try to stay very cool about the whole thing. It's 'the heart that feels and the head that thinks' sort of thing - like any kind of creative process you have to take the excitement and passion and then use that, but the act of creation should be utterly cold and dispassionate.
Blimy I'm starting to sound like a Literary Criticsm course!

WarDrones
Will these be different kits for different factions?
Will they be (multi-part) plastic?
How many optional builds (roughly) will there be for the WarDrones?
When will we be able to see some WarDrone visuals?

We are hoping to have some work in progress (WIPS) for you to see next week.
We are actually progressing two different designs - one of which we will make in plastic to start with - with part of getting the design right involves making some original prototypes at actual size - and that's what we're doing now. Which ever of these we make as a plastic kit we will include options within the kits to represent the different human factions. We will also make available separate customising pieces which will work with the plastic kit. But we won't make more than one plastic kit to start with - maybe further down the line
The kits will be multipart plastics yet. But we wil also make some WarDrones in metal. There are different designs of WarDrone anyway - so having a variety in metal will be a good way of doing that. These could be different factions - but they could also be different weapon or equipment fits, heavy duty 'Siege' WarDrones and so on.
The kits will be poseable - so lots of options - there will also be options for armament within the kit.

Simians:
The Pansimians - I call 'em Sims - occupy their own worlds within the Determinate, the Concord and the Isorian Shard - but I reckon most are part of the Determinate. That means there are any number of Sim run societies and empires - as well as Sims that mix in to the factions. One Sim world I'm just briefed the models for is a small empire in the Determinate, with a dimorphic population of larger warrior Sims and smaller techy Sims, those are quite fun!

Freebooters will be the next faction to get detailed up!

One of the areas that has been busiest on the BtGoA forums so far has been the universe background section, with users submitting their own ideas about the factions and sub-races within the Panhumans and Pansimians especially. Have any of the directions that the community have taken on these threads surpised you? Are there any that are completely different from what you had in mind, or do they mesh quite well with your ideas?

There's been lots of useful discussion on the Pans and Sims (as I tend to shorten these) including lengthy debate on the pro's and con's for 'furries'!
I often go back and check out these sections as I approach a write-up - because you don't always catch every post and there are so many posts now sometimes you forget where you read something!
There have been a few posts that are so close to ideas I've been playing with that it's a bit spooky - like the dimorphism idea - but then I suppose ideas do tend to suggests themselves and a comment from one person wil often spark off a similar line of thought in two or more others.
I'm really pleased to see so many ideas on the table - it really gives me confidence that this game could be enormous given time!

WIPs
We intend to have more work in progress next week - we had planned on having something more to show this week but the snow has slowed things down a bit and we've not been able to meet with our sculptors as we wish. We have a chap working on Boromite Overseers, we have some WarDrones on the way, and a few other try outs waiting in the wings.

Inches vs Cm
 I am cool with cm or inches - cubits even - really it makes little difference to me as a designer. I must admit I'm not wholly sure whether cms would be well received in the USA - which is a significant market - the UK is fairly neutral in terms of who used what metric - Europe is sensibly baffled by inches but the European market is relatively small. The UK, USA and English speaking world is by far the biggest market.


What if Kickstarter fails?
Well we're very confident that we will make it! But should by some terrible calamity we fall short of our target we will definately be carrying on with the project - it's just got too much going for it to stop now! There are other ways of raising funding and we'll get there one way or the other

Reaction to Feedback and Critisisms so far:

Oh I worked for GW for nearly three decade and my skin has thickened to the point where it could resist a laser cannon!

Actually I really do find feedback useful - even when it's negative - though I do prefer it not to be rude! If someone really goes over the top I don't let it bug me - someone being passionate about your game isn't that bad a thing is it - I just try and pick out the real points from amongst the language. If you let yourself be swayed by the way someone expresses themselves you can miss good points - so I try to stay very cool about the whole thing. It's 'the heart that feels and the head that thinks' sort of thing - like any kind of creative process you have to take the excitement and passion and then use that, but the act of creation should be utterly cold and dispassionate.

Could you give us a couple of little nuggets of detail about the game that haven't been revealed yet, but that you're pleased with and think might capture people's imagination? Maybe one on background, one on gameplay and one on minaitures? Or something like that.

OOoooo we do try and keep you guys up to speed on the website. The only tip I can reveal is that we're currently working on some very interesting collaborative projects that we're hoping to announce before the end of the KS.
In terms of the game I'm preparing a new section on the shooting rules at the moment - and one of the things I really like about this is the idea of using targeter reticle markers to 'mark' targets - allowing troops to guide shots to their targets - I know it's the sort of thing modern armies do already - so its not exactly surprising - but it's really neat being able to build up the reticle markers and make a fixed position untenable. Need to get it working properly next

What inspired you to invite the general public to help shape the GoA universe and system?
The idea of running a huge online universe where everyone participates - that's just great isn't it! So I have to say - pure meglomania

How heavily will Terrain feature in GoA?
So far we have tended to play around ruins and jungly terrain - because that's what we have - and I do feel that games play better when the terrain forms a part of the game itself - rather than something that just 'gets in the way'.
I'm looking at getting some terrain pieces made for the system too - more on that later!
Rick

How much of a "vision of the universe" did you have as KS was launched?
Have the forum comments changed your vision? much?
And what did You originally think Hansa should look like?

Yea I had a good overview but only a few points of detail - and the thing I've found is that the KS demands detail! So I've been working away at some specifics - I've just put a lot of flesh onto the Isorian Shard for example. The tricky thing is working on a bit of background - then a bit of the rules - then a bit of background - and you end up getting pulled from pillar to post - which is quite exciting in a way!
I had a picture of Hansa as quite a thin, rangy sort of guy, but more like Clint Eastwood in his spag western days - but that just shows my age I think!

What is it about designing for the hard science based future that appeals to you? 40k was obviously not, but Necromunda brought a less fantastic, more Cyberpunk vibe and you obviously still hold great affection for it, so when swinging further to the "serious" side of things with GoA, what about the hard science world do you find to be more fertile soil for creation?

Well I loved all kinds of SF when I was younger - largely gave up reading it in my 30's - and now I'm catching up again! So, I've always had a taste for something less fanciful than 40K. 40K was such a strong flavour, and so different from what was out there in terms of SF gaming when it was new, that the mystical, pseudo-religious stuff just overwhelmed what science I actually put into the original game. One of the things that went by the board - for example - was any kind of logic to warp travel. I worked out all the journey times and everything - and the reason the Space Marines were spread out sop thinly was because you couldn't just travel instantly from one place to another. But that was ignored when it came to organising shop based campaigns and promotions, and soon it came to be ignored in the background, novels and so on - so in the end you have this huge galaxy that might as well be a single planet for all the difference it makes.
Phew - got a bit ranty there - anyway - with GoA I've set the mobility based on warpgates - and that makes it much easier to expand the back story without breaking the internal logal or sweeping it under the carpet... as it were

On the possibilities of more videos with BoW
Yes Warren is fantastic at getting to the nub of things and keeping the conversion focussed! We are going to do more videos with the BOW team before the KS is done. I also did a separate session on games design with Warren - so that should be available shortly.
Rick

Perhaps the new skirmish version of GoA will overtake Necromunda, and replace it. Is that A plan Mr P?
Plan - no not yet - Dream well yes - one can always dream!
Rick

What is your favourite sculpt and if you wouldn't mind posting a pic of the model you have painted that you are the most proud of.
Fave sculpt? Well for GW I guess the Green Knight by Mike Perry is up there - I've always liked the Perry's stuff - the animation and posing is just so natural.
I shall have to dig out some of my work! Actually, Warhammer Ancient Battles was full of my painted Romans! I tend to lavish more time on historicals than SF or fantasy because at GW I was surrounded by fantastic painters and I know I could never match that!
Rick

Do you have an ETA on the Alpha rules?
We are aiming for alpha April and I think it's actually Sept for the beta - I'm planning on having a basic rules outline ready for the end of Jan but I keep posting work in progress onto the development forums so as I do it. I'd be finishing off the shooting rules now but I'm here!

 Miraclefish wrote:
Well, that fluff isn't particularly inspiring. It's very long winded, dry and, frankly, nothing about it feels new.

pgmason wrote:
I believe I've read somewhere on one of the forums that Kev White doesn't use concept sketches - he sculpts directly from a written brief. Therefore his WIP green basically was the concept sketch.

None of the three actual members of Darkspace Corp is an artist - Rick, John and Rik are rules/fluff guy, business guy and software guy respectively. All of the artists and sculptors involved are freelancers, not part of the project team itself. If they want artwork or greens they have to pay people to produce them. I know it's frustrating for some, but they can't magic up concept artwork out of nowhere.

 Pacific wrote:

I will say that having plastic for the 'grunts' (whatever they may be), then a more detailed but also expensive medium for the character and other pieces (so either resin or metal) seems to be almost universally popular with manufacturers, I think for both cost reasons but also for the production of the miniatures themselves.

angryboy2k wrote:
Right. It's not just the cost of plastic tooling - it's the leadtimes and development times. Once a miniature is finished, you can have it in production in days in metal. You're looking at leadtimes measured in months for plastic miniatures. Add to that the extended development period and I think it's obvious that metal is the best way to get a large variety of nice miniatures out of the door in as short a time as possible.

Metal's not an impediment to variety (old Citadel ranges should be testament to that!) and I'd rather have a nice variety of good quality metal miniatures (old metal IG) than some horrible plastics just because "they're poseable ooh!" (Catachans).

 Dentry wrote:

Not to draw the discussion into the argument of which material is better, but I prefer working with plastic because it's easiest for me.

angryboy2k wrote:

 Dentry wrote:

Not to draw the discussion into the argument of which material is better, but I prefer working with plastic because it's easiest for me.

How is it easier? Plastic models seem like a lot more work to me.
Ignoring basing, here's a comparison:

Hansa (one piece model):
1. Clean up 1 moldline.
2. Drill out gun barrel.
3. Glue into base.
4. Paint.

Space Marine (10-piece plastic model):
1. Clean up 10 moldlines.
2. Drill out gun barrel.
3. Glue torso together.
4. Dry assemble with blu-tac to get pose right.
5. Stick legs and torso together. Keep arms, shoulder pads, head and backpack separate for now.
6. Stick these parts to rods, lollipop sticks or whatever.
7. Paint sub-assemblies.
8. Complete assembly of finished model.

 yakface wrote:


You're not comparing plastic vs. metal there, but rather mono-pose vs. multi-part plastic.

angryboy2k wrote:

Deliberately. What you said about multipart resin/metal kits is true, of course, but the example I made a few posts up compared old metal (one piece) IG regiments with the (multipart) Catachans. Most people who talk about plastics aren't thinking of monopose miniatures but rather multi-part models with the concomitant long lead time needed to get both the models and the tooling right.

Hansa's a single-piece model. He's an example of how single-piece metal models can be great; people don't need to (and shouldn't) get stuck in the mindset of "plastic is the only way to have variety in an army". Simply put, I'd rather have an army of 40 different "Hansa equivalents" than 40 "plastic space marines" (insert your preferred multipart plastic kit here). And it'd be faster to assemble and less hassle to paint.

 yakface wrote:
[
History has shown us that you're typically unlikely to see 40 different metal models of the same 'type' of model. Instead they tend to make as few as they can get away with.

 yakface wrote:
[
Which of course means the models look great in small groups but then when massed on the table one player's army looks strangely familiar to any other player's army of the same faction.

 yakface wrote:
[
So multi-part tends to shine in making each player's army more unique, while mono-pose (be they plastic, resin or metal) are obviously easier to assemble and paint but lose the overall army individuality.

Ultimately we're really talking about player preference here. Some people don't mind the extra work required for multi-part in exchange for the freedom of individuality. Others prefer the easier set-up and the (generally) more dynamic posing of mono-pose models.