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If it is in HIPS then you have my attention, but where will the sprues be produced? What other known work have they done?

If it is in HIPS then you have my attention, but where will the sprues be produced? What other known work have they done?

There's no other option for us than HIPS. Sprues will be produced in the best place possible, we're talking with few manufacturers as we speak. But we need to be carefull, as we hate delays as much as everybody on this forum.

What other work have I done? So far I was working as a freelance artist with companies like: Dark Age Games, Victoria Miniatures, Haste Games, and few smallers clients from here and there.

Don't worry about lack of feedback. Most wargamers don't pay attention until you hit the media with actual miniatures.

Just wait for when you at least have good renders, and you should get plenty of feedback. It just helps to have miniatures to link in your mind to the fluff you read.

 Vertrucio wrote:
Don't worry about lack of feedback. Most wargamers don't pay attention until you hit the media with actual miniatures.

Just wait for when you at least have good renders, and you should get plenty of feedback. It just helps to have miniatures to link in your mind to the fluff you read.

Too true my friend, I was lurking this thread and had actually decided not to post, but to wait until I have seen any renders before I can really get excited about a product. A company could have an amazing concept artist, but unless I can trust that firstly the concept art is in line with the renders, and then secondly, that the renders are in line with the final product, I try and steer clear. That being said, your concept art is fantastic, can't wait for those renders!

We are offically on Twitter. follow us to get all the news about Black Rain. TWITTER



Hey, AkhilleusK42, check this out> Commander Kali article

there's an article about development of one of our characters if you haven't seen it yet.

 ShockworkStudio_Shane wrote:
First post updated with teaser trailer and the first four faction descriptions.
We want to know what you think.

The concept art and video are awesome!!!!

The faction descriptions on your blog, even as short as they are, have a Lot of typos. You probably want to enlist a native English speaker to edit (maybe this is what Corvus Belli does for Infinity?).

It sounds like production is not yet set. Modeling for HIPS production is quite difficult - you may not want to commit to it quite yet, until fully getting the line digitally sculpted and quoted.

Looking forward to seeing more!

While the vid won't show up on my clunky old ipad, I love the Zadruga guy? Thing? Robot?

He looks a bit like an evil version of this future knight



I'll keep an eye on this for sure.

Where did you find that pic, Binabik, as I don't see it on their blog?

It's not our RiTides.

Zadruga will not be that armored, and this I think I can say, they're people. Scary, violent, always in the shadows, but people.

 ShockworkStudio_Michael wrote:

If it is in HIPS then you have my attention, but where will the sprues be produced? What other known work have they done?

There's no other option for us than HIPS. Sprues will be produced in the best place possible, we're talking with few manufacturers as we speak. But we need to be carefull, as we hate delays as much as everybody on this forum.

What other work have I done? So far I was working as a freelance artist with companies like: Dark Age Games, Victoria Miniatures, Haste Games, and few smallers clients from here and there.

I ment previous work of the manufacturer so we can see the quality of there work. You have some fantastic artwork here and you may have some great renders etc but the manufacturer might not be able to translate it. If we know there previous work it would settle some fears especially as your a new company. I'm looking l forward to seeing what you guys can do!

 RiTides wrote:

 ShockworkStudio_Shane wrote:
First post updated with teaser trailer and the first four faction descriptions.
We want to know what you think.

The concept art and video are awesome!!!!

The faction descriptions on your blog, even as short as they are, have a Lot of typos. You probably want to enlist a native English speaker to edit (maybe this is what Corvus Belli does for Infinity?).

It sounds like production is not yet set. Modeling for HIPS production is quite difficult - you may not want to commit to it quite yet, until fully getting the line digitally sculpted and quoted.

Looking forward to seeing more!

overtyrant wrote:

 ShockworkStudio_Michael wrote:

If it is in HIPS then you have my attention, but where will the sprues be produced? What other known work have they done?

There's no other option for us than HIPS. Sprues will be produced in the best place possible, we're talking with few manufacturers as we speak. But we need to be carefull, as we hate delays as much as everybody on this forum.

What other work have I done? So far I was working as a freelance artist with companies like: Dark Age Games, Victoria Miniatures, Haste Games, and few smallers clients from here and there.

I ment previous work of the manufacturer so we can see the quality of there work. You have some fantastic artwork here and you may have some great renders etc but the manufacturer might not be able to translate it. If we know there previous work it would settle some fears especially as your a new company. I'm looking l forward to seeing what you guys can do!

Production is not set yet. Really these models can be made picture perfect. I’ve seen it time and time again so I can say with confidence that when we settle on a final choice for manufacturing the models will be replicated perfectly. If a company can’t do that in a timely manner then it’s not a company we want to employ.
Our goal is to create a new gaming company, a brand you can trust and support for years to come.
Anything any company out there is doing we can also do. Thankfully Kickstarter exists to make things like this possible for creators. Shockwork is a nice handful of very dedicated artist and game designers working passionately on this project.
Rest assured, we will not produce a product we wouldn't be willing to buy ourselves.

Well, if you find any companies with a guy named Tony Reidy involved, back away as fast as you can. Dude's killed two of his own companies and sunk a kickstarter (Torn Armor) by stealing their money and never producing anything.

Have you guys considered producing a few trial figures first just as a way to get the brand out there and drum up interest in the Kickstarter?

Have you guys considered producing a few trial figures first just as a way to get the brand out there and drum up interest in the Kickstarter?

It was suppose to be a suprise, but yeah, we're doing this right now. Just wait a little longer, please, and some new cool stuff will pop out;]

That's great! Looking forward to seeing one of your figures, hopefully in the final production material / method.

Where did you get the music for that video?

By the way, really cool stuff, this project has just become a lot more interesting!

Well, color me impressed with the Zadruga faction. They look exceptionally scary.

I definitely like what I saw in that trailer too. Please tell me this will have a really good storyline?

Hello, My name is Vince, and I am another member of the Black Rain Development team.

I would like to start off by saying I am pleased with the interest we've seen so far in the feedback and its quite evident my companions feel the same way. We've put years into creating, developing, trimming, and refining concepts , from the art and story, to the rules and balance mechanics, and everything between. While there are still plenty of loose ends for us to tie up behind the scenes, I can say that the universe we've created goes well beyond a simple set of movie extras and a hero line-up. We hope to establish this as a story that covers plenty of details regarding the cultural and political changes, as well as a selection of stories of factions from the local skirmish scale level, to the international power house identities that alter the face of the planet with their decisions. But of course, we want the players to be involved in writing a bit of the history too, so there will be opportunities for lore-hungry role players to create and run with their own faction instead of those that we've established, or recreating some of our planned conflicts as potential campaigns.

Of course, we do have to keep priorities, and we are in the miniatures business, so despite my love of story telling, most of our effort is currently being poured into production. Keep in mind though, that we are taking great efforts to listen to feedback and any high demand for something from our audience would definitely be considered.

I think it's awesome that a number of you have posted here. As you've seen from the response, when you have more art / background / hopefully a miniature to share, you will have a very interested audience here!

The NAU and UNAS look most interesting to me. Hopefully we will see some miniatures soon. Even if you are aiming for HIPS, printing and producing some of your miniatures in metal or resin would go a long way to reducing my reticence to pledge on art alone. There is a big enormous pit between "cool concept art" and "cool multipart plastic miniatures."

Updated first post: new article on our blog: LINK

Other than that. We had a little conversation in the Studio about bringing some of the experience of the toy manufacturers to the miniature market. I'm basiclly talking about japanese models of Gundams, Linebarrels, etc. Esspecially Frame Arms system, where you can swap parts with no need to glue the model together.

What do you think about this concept(for bigger models, like mechs)? Do you prefer models with lots of customization options, and open for posing, or would you rather get a standard miniature with some extra bits like guns or extra armor plates to glue on? Let us know what you think!

Hmm, it depends... With those Japanese models, they generally come already painted right? I doubt that constantly switching around parts on a model you've just painted would be so friendly towards the paintjob.

Yeah, that's my hesitation, too - while the idea is cool (and in some ways, you can look at the hot-swappable arms on the Dreamforge Leviathans for inspiration!) it seems like it would be hard to execute.

A joint has to be hidden in a place where it would not be visible, such as under a large shoulder pad (like the Leviathans) so that paint won't get rubbed off. It's hard to manage, and if you're aiming at wargamers, just providing pre-cut holes for magnets would be almost just as good. I still have yet to see many companies do this, I guess because a large portion of people are going to glue it anyway, but magnets make for easy swappable parts... and it's Much easier if the hole is already provided!

I'm a fan of customization and I think RiTides suggestion of pre-cut magnet holes is the best compromise for it.

Of the Japanese models I've built with swappable limbs all of them have either had loose joints which made them incredibly hard to pose or the joints wear out rather quickly and also become difficult to pose. By posing them I mean things like getting them to stand properly or keeping their arms raised.

So I'd be happy with magnetizing the model instead.

I don't understand what's meant when you say "lots of customization options or some extra bits to glue on". What's the difference between lots of customization and extra bits?

In the Japanese kits, you can swap these armor plates as you want, as they are connected to the body by pegs.

Extra bits are just extra parts that you would need to pernamently glue to your model.

We'll think about the magnets holes, on bigger stuff it wouldn't be much of issue, but I don't think it'll work on standard infantry...

We'll definitely do a magnetizing tutorial for begginers, that's something we were discusing in the team long time before.

Ok, thank you all for the feedback!

I like this.
I enjoy Cyberpunk, Hard Sci-Fi, and this type of thing in general.
As a fan of Appleseed, GitS, Bubblegum Crisis, AD Police, etc.. I would like to suggest that you leave room in your game design for larger crisis level units.. like giant bio-roids, huge walkers, or other things you see like the Spider-Tank from Ghost in the Shell.. I'm not suggesting you allow for a full army type of thing like 40k, but scenarios where a big device is being leveraged and the other side has to respond. It's just a thought.

Between this and Human Interface.. oh.. and Infinity and MERCs... it's looking up for people who want non-grimdark sci-fi. Definitely looking forward to seeing more from you guys

EDIT:
Maybe consider making the underlying armor look a little more different. It kinda looks like the same suit design right now but with different stuff slapped on.
For instance.. the guys that say adapt or evolve or whatever.. they could look more like bio-armor.. think Guyver or Generator Gawl.'
The natural hunter types could maybe integrate nature into their armor a little more.. I dunno.. I like the designs but the aesthetics between the factions could probably stand to be pushed a bit further apart.

This looks interesting.

 ShockworkStudio_Michael wrote:
Updated first post: new article on our blog: LINK

Other than that. We had a little conversation in the Studio about bringing some of the experience of the toy manufacturers to the miniature market. I'm basiclly talking about japanese models of Gundams, Linebarrels, etc. Esspecially Frame Arms system, where you can swap parts with no need to glue the model together.

What do you think about this concept(for bigger models, like mechs)? Do you prefer models with lots of customization options, and open for posing, or would you rather get a standard miniature with some extra bits like guns or extra armor plates to glue on? Let us know what you think!

I would avoid it, since your design direction is incompatible with the top dog of the pack for shi fi, which is GW, your strength will be your design and how good the quality of the miniatures will be, multiposed miniatures are by definition lower quality than monoposed miniatures because of the compromise it is incorporated in switching parts between the models.

Moving on walkers, incorporating Bandais system in models even a few inches tall would be gimmicky in the wargame scene, it would increase the cost and incorporate a design element most would avoid using even gluing it on place.

I would be interested to hear about HIPS production, by definition it is targeted for big runs and the mold cost means it is quite expensive to make alterations, that's why new studios with skirmish games aim for resin/ metal models.

Hi!

we're back with a new big update on our blog. First unit of Black Rain, and it's way from concept art to prototype miniature.

We would like to ask your opinon on the sizes of the miniatures. Below you can see a quick size comparison of our models next to a Malifaux one. Be wary that these are the very first protoypes, printed in not the best quality possible . We just wanted to check the scale and have overall look at the miniatures.



We have prepared two set of sizes of Black Rain minis: 40mm and 42mm. As you can see 40mm matches the size of that Ten Thunder Archer, but 42mm catches detail better and it just feels better(it's easier to glue the model, parts are just more solid). The question is: what would yo rather see? Miniatures that matches the size of most of modern miniatures on the market, or slightly taller, easier to build and paint minis?

Let us know in the comments.

Mike

Stick to 35mm scale!

Please!

I think I should clarify the matter a little.

Talking about scale of miniatures is kinda tricky. Saying that game is "32mm scale" is really talking about the size of the base...so as you can see Malifaux model (Malifaux is a 32mm scale game) is actually 40mm tall. Same with new Infinity models.

So our 40mm tall is officiall 32mm scale.

Hope it wil prevent some misunderstandings.

ps.We chose these, not very exciting, poses exactly for the measurements purpose. When we'll have better prototypes we'll make more of this kind of photos.