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The game is designed to be played on an open playing surface with cavern like rock clumps, dark forests, Sunsiders farmsteads etc. there will be no humans or Demi humans in this KS. We will probably run another one with more factions later.

Love the flesh golem. I can't wait to see the dwarfs. Do you have any concept art of the dwarfs that you can share?

No not yet. Nothing has been done on the Sunsiders or the Dwarves at this stage. Dwarves are my personal favourite so I can assure you they will be a priority at some stage. The dwarves are going to be treasure hunters so will be designed to reflect that. The Dawrves are the racial enemies of the goblins so I imagine that Dwarves will be high on the priority list to get done.

I mentioned earlier about running a UK based KS with the possibility of having US dollars and Euros on each pleadge. If this was combined with free postage to the UK, US and EU, would that be enough to tempt our American friends or would it have to be a US KS to be a hit?

I can't speak for all of America but I really don't mind paying for shipping as long as its reasonable. What I don't like is paying the shipping rates post KS because my (and most others) credit card company charges me a fee to convert to GBP. This fee is separate from the conversion rate. This just annoys me since if I'm going to be spending money I'd rather have it go towards the KS and not the already rich CC company.

I disagree about US buyers all expecting 'free shipping'.

More and more campaigns are charging actual shipping now, either during or after the campaign.

If you spell this all out clearly up front, there shouldn't be any major issues.

I think one of the 'big' KS players, CMON, does it this way now.

Will some people complain?

Yes, of course!

This is Kickstarter after all!

On the USD vs GBP KS topic:

- Mantic only run their campaigns in USD because their Chinese tooling requires payment in USD.. so having the funds to directly transfer over there straight from their KS bank account in the US is a good thing.

You're using Renedra who will require payment in £, so don't forget that extra layer of exchange rate charges, fluctuation and other stuff that will probably result in the amount being lower than you expect.

The USD is currently on a slow but steady downward trend against the pound so any fluctuations are not going to be in your favour, you would have to make the campaign more expensive for everyone to take this into account since pledge levels can't be modified after the campaign starts.

It is entirely possible for USD to lose 10% of its value in one month relative to another currency such as GBP.

In addition, USD is, right now, worth less than it has been in 6 years, with room to drop further.

It might still be a good idea, but just be wary and know what you're getting into, especially with foreign shell companies and tax liabilities and such.

What's the general percentages on how much higher USD campaigns are vs. other currencies?

I know there's lots of variables to take into account, but knowing as much as possible about your projected costs (then maybe adding in an additional 10% to 20% fudge factor) will help a lot.

Especially as your number of backers and overall campaign total will be significantly higher if you use the dollar, but there's some built in additional risk too.

I'm still wondering about my earlier question. If I ran the KS in GBR with a dollar and euro price too with free postage to the US, would that be enough?

Maybe?

Your concept art is AMAZING.

IF your miniatures match it, you're going to have a VERY successful campaign on your hands.

Kaine Larson wrote:
I'm still wondering about my earlier question. If I ran the KS in GBR with a dollar and euro price too with free postage to the US, would that be enough?

That's the million dollar question that I don't think you can or will get a clear cut answer on. Look at the Infamy KS right now. They have excellent sculpts and very reasonable shipping outside the UK. Their KS model hasn't chased me away because the shipping isn't free or that it is in GBP. Although I'd be able to pledge more if it were in USD because I wouldn't have to wonder what I'm really paying post fee's and conversions.

I'd be very careful about the shipping costs. International shipping costs can increase significantly between when your kickstarter closes and you deliver product. If you want to offer free US shipping, your best bet is to find a US partner/distributer who can repost internally.

Personally I'm more inclined to back a project in USD just because it gives me a fixed cost without having to worry about currency fluctuations and transaction fees. That said, I've backed several GBP based projects in the past and will probably continue to do so in the future.

Shipping FROM the USA to EU/ROW seems to be the real killer.

Shipping is not an issue for me. I have had this sorted with a huge UK distributor for some time.

Kaine Larson wrote:
I'm still wondering about my earlier question. If I ran the KS in GBR with a dollar and euro price too with free postage to the US, would that be enough?

This seems to be the best solution. I recently saw it at the NEMESIS campaign and I think it was quite successful.

I have spoken to an accountant friend of mine this afternoon and although he can see the benefit of it he suggested the risks could be too high to run in USD. He advised me to run in GBP but to make the KS as US friendly as possible so I think this is what I will plan to do. I am looking into providing free postage to the US (which is a distinct possibility) and also providing full costs for each pledge in GBP, Euro and US dollars. I dont want to alientate our cousins across the pond by any means but I need to keep the risk to a minimum. Larger companies may find it easier to do but as a new company we cannot progress down this route currently.

Our Kickstarters of the future will probably be easier to implement in this format.

To be clear this Kickstarter will be focusing on Goblins and Zombies with the possibility of Lizards too.

The next one will be Orcs and Gnolls or Drow.

I have concept sketches drawn up for these guys and I am soooooo excited about them!! Lets not get too carried away I need to get this one done first!!!

Sounds fair. Just be sure to keep the exchange rates up to date as, if I recall, kickstarter don't take payment until the campaign is finished, and if you're running for a month then there could be a significant variation for larger pledges.

In GBP, what kind of pledge level would you be looking at for 2 factions+a rulebook? Also, with the rulebook, will the rules for the other factions be included so people can proxy/counts-as, or will there be another book with the next campaign?

The plan was to have Goblins as the basic boxed set follwoed by stretch goals leading up to the zombie boxed set. That was the plan whilst the hobgoblins and bugbears were making up the plastic boxed set. The plan is now to make these other troops in resin and metal with the goblins and zombies being made in plastic. I have some meetings over the next fortnight to try and make the KS focus on offering two simplified plastic boxed sets in the Kickstarter. This will probably mean that there will be one frame available in each boxed set with an additional command/bits frame. This will mean that we could offer a starter set as an earlybird with a rulebook containing both races. The Lizardkin would still be a further stretch goal in this instance and if they were not funded they would form part of the intial offering of the next KS.

The idea for the rulebook would be to release details for the first two or three factions plus some others. Eventually we would like to release faction books. We would also like to release books based on areas of the Underdeep, for example, the Labyrinth which could introduce wandering creatures that can be paid or coerced into fighting for individual factions. We also have plans for an allies matrix which will allow may different cretures to be included in every force, eg, a Goblin force could contain a troll or a Minotaur for example.

In regard to the exchange rate I will include a weekly section that I can update with the current exchange rate on it to give people an idea of what the final prices will be. I cannot do much more than this and I sincerely hope it doesnt put too many Americans off the idea of pledging.

Well this has kept my interest the entire time, so that is always good. In regards to the pricing, I think most Americans will be totally fine if you are upfront and update the prices for them every week. There is not much you can do about the downhill trend of the American economy and I think only the most stubborn american backers would complain (as long as your open about the prices and try to make the american shipping reasonable). Otherwise I think your idea is a good balance and well thought out. I would just like this KS to succeed and you to not risk too much.

Me too... I've already spent a lot of money!! But you have to speculate! It's not about the money for me. It's about a vision I have had for a long time but obviously everything has to stack up for this to be viable.

ClockworkChaos wrote:
Well this has kept my interest the entire time, so that is always good. In regards to the pricing, I think most Americans will be totally fine if you are upfront and update the prices for them every week. There is not much you can do about the downhill trend of the American economy and I think only the most stubborn american backers would complain (as long as your open about the prices and try to make the american shipping reasonable). Otherwise I think your idea is a good balance and well thought out. I would just like this KS to succeed and you to not risk too much.

...Dude. Have you *met* KS comments section dwellers? I hope your optimism turns out largely justified but there will be at least some drama, I'm afraid.

There will countless unhappy people. You can't do a thing in this world without someone being unhappy. I once gave a piece of my pizza to a homeless guy one night in wintery London. He told me he didn't like pepperoni. The moral of the story is that people will always have a gripe against something. My goal has always been to please as many people as I can. The majority matter to me and all I can do is my best. I am prepared for the verbal onslaught... It's like water off a ducks back to me!

 Bolognesus wrote:

ClockworkChaos wrote:
Well this has kept my interest the entire time, so that is always good. In regards to the pricing, I think most Americans will be totally fine if you are upfront and update the prices for them every week. There is not much you can do about the downhill trend of the American economy and I think only the most stubborn american backers would complain (as long as your open about the prices and try to make the american shipping reasonable). Otherwise I think your idea is a good balance and well thought out. I would just like this KS to succeed and you to not risk too much.

...Dude. Have you *met* KS comments section dwellers? I hope your optimism turns out largely justified but there will be at least some drama, I'm afraid.

I have with mixed reactions. When I backed battlesystems KS it was the most positive energetic wonderful comment section I ever took part in. People were cheering people on, giving life advice and encouraging whatever occurred. On the other hand I am also currently backing Zombicide 3 and even though coolminiornot are doing a fine job I have never seen a more Toxic comment section (except Areal the video game KS but that just got suspended today). People complain about FREE things! It blows my mind the greed people have. But so far Kaine has been open, honest and willing to communicate. There will always be bad seeds but if enough positive people join it can wash it out as well as good support from the creators of the project. So I remain hopeful for this KS comment section.

Just be sure to post a link to a conversion site for the currency rate exchange and you should be fine.

I will do my best to provide...

In the meantime I thought I would show you the Headcleaver sculpt alongside the Headcleaver artwork...

Ooh, nice characterful mini! I can't help but feel though, that the nose for example has lost quite a bit of definition compared to the concept. Is this just lighting or is it really much flatter/smoother?

I love that there will be a skirmish game to go along with these miniatures!

The Kickstarter will focus on two factions to start?

Undead vs. Gobliins?

A strange way to start, no traditional 'good' forces, but the quality of the sculpts and casts and plastic will help out, a lot!

The idea was for the game to focus on the races of the Underdeep and their struggles for survival. We will be releasing Sunsiders as well. There is a bit more information further up on this page in regard to this.

Ooh, nice characterful mini! I can't help but feel though, that the nose for example has lost quite a bit of definition compared to the concept. Is this just lighting or is it really much flatter/smoother?

There is always going to be a bit of a loss of detail as the goblins are really small.

We are trying to get as much detail onto every model as possible with the heads being a primary focal point.

I get that! As you say though, heads are a primary focal point; that's why the nose stood out to me (it's making a daring escape on this race apparently, but it's not quite away from the head yet ), all the more since it's such an unusually looking, defining characteristic.

Don't get me wrong though, I still like the look.

Kinda think I prefer the more sleeker nose

I'm sure you've be asked somewhere before but I don't suppose theres any chance of seeing a scale shot of the goblin? Next to ruler would be cool or any well known figure would be better.

No sculpt, ever, will look exactly like the concept art. Most of the time the sculpt does nto even come close.