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So far your game seems skirmish, do you think plastic models production justifies such small model count?

As Shane said in his last post: unfortunately, we won't be able to produce platic models for now. We decided to start the production in resin with the help of Maxmini, as it is the guarantee of superb quality. Guys from Maxmini are really helpful, making sure that all of our models will be prepared for production even before the Kickstarter campaign.

AlphaStrain rules set is based on small, skirmish, tactical scenarios, so resin production will be best for that. If you'll like the world, the game we have a bigger system already prepared. If we'll get to that point, maybe we'll go back to thinking about plastic production.

Right now we are preparing for the alpha tests of the game, so stay tuned! If you are interested, let us know. We'll post the official news soon.

I don't think a bigger system or plastic production will be advantageous.

That's why we are pushing it into undefined future and focus on the best quality resin miniatures and interesting, original, skirmish rules set

Is the conversion idea a real possibility? I'd love antlered heads for conversions

Right now we are aiming for something between one build miniatures, and big plastic multi part kits.

Heads will be separated, unless it would be completely impossible (I can only think of one miniature so far).

Of course the final product will be heavily dependent on the Kickstarter success and your support

Oh of course! Is there an ETA on the kickstarter launch?

29th of Febuary 2016. We'll post big new here and on our social media pages to confirm that date soon.

Looking forward to that

Resin sounds great to me!

Good, good. I was starting to wonder how much longer before I can throw money at it.

Official announcement! BlackRain AlphaStrain Kickstarter going live on 29th of February this year! Wish us luck

As I commented on Facebook, I'm looking forward to this. The partnership with Maxmini gives me very high hopes for the quality. What kind of pledge levels are we looking at on this?

Don't forget to update the thread title!

Good luck with your campaign.

 Barzam wrote:
As I commented on Facebook, I'm looking forward to this. The partnership with Maxmini gives me very high hopes for the quality. What kind of pledge levels are we looking at on this?

Working with Maxmini is great news! Will definitely be backing

Requesting a mechs-only pledge level or way to pledge now (maybe just an add-ons pledge level?).

Thank you for your interest guys! Shane should update the thread name soon;]

Talking about pledges.

As this won't be a huge Kickstarter we can plan the pledges better and easier. There will be 3 basic types of pledges:

1. "Heroes pledge" to get characters models (Kali or SOC)

2. "Infantry pledge" to get troopers (Zhendu)

3. "Mech pledge" to suprise suprise get a mech

Each of these will multiply, so there will be a pledge for 1 infantry model, then another pledge to get 5 infantry. Same with heroes and mech but they will go in 2s instead of 5s.

Will use the remaining days to tease you with remaining stuff for the KS. Yeah, there will be more than we already shown.

Alpha tests should also start soon, so if you are interested contact us at shockworkstudio@gmail.com . We'll get you an alpha version of the rulebook and some unit profiles to play Alpha tests will be closed, but the following beta will be open for everybody.

Thanks for staying with us! We'll get back soon with more stuff to show.

First post updated with KS announcement

That sounds excellent, Michael! You can also make a draft page of the Kickstarter if you want folks to be able to check it out and give feedback but the plan sounds great to me.

We'll definitely do that! Thanks for the idea. We'll keep you guyd updates with what's going on with the campaign.

I hate to say it, especially as I love their stuff, but Maxminis own KS has really stalled badly

(partly due to a move, but partly as they seem to be taking on more work than they have staff to do in a timely fashion. I'm sure they'll deliver eventually but the natives are most definitely getting restless),

so if you're working with them you probably need to bake some timeline penalties into the contract

Ulysses Sidewinder test CAST. Resin, multi part, 70 mm, on Kickstarter really really soon.

The poseablitily is something tha tyou should enjoy while building that mech. Running, resting, even jumping Ulysses (if you really want to) are all posible options here.

I don't know if photos will show that, but the legs are poseable in two axises, thanks to the ball joints.

Hope you'll like it.

ah, and if you are wondering why the "eye" on the resin cast is different, it's because it was long in the transportation and I had to make a replacement :\

Alpha tests! Yup. We would like to invite you to participate in our closed alpha test of BlackRain AlphaStrain. If you are interested in playing the game before anyone else and sharing your thoughts with us, send us a message!


All you need to do is send an email at: shockworkstudio@gmail.com (name the email AlphaTests, please), so we could send you a rulebook, some unit profiles, everything you need to play BlackRain AlphaStrain!

I've had MaxMini do some custom casting for me a few years back - they are top notch!

I'll certainly keep an eye on this campaign - I'm even more interested now!

Kickstarter Preview! UNAS didn't have a Mecha, right? Well, it has. It's one of the first concept arts for the whole game.

Light Mechanized Infantry for UNAS faction. Exactly like Ulysses it will come in 3 different variants, with different weaponry and role on the battlefield. For now, take a look at a packed image of almost all the parts for this kit.

Hope you like it and see you soon on KS!

Kickstarter Preview Link>> https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1466664258/18411891?token=22176548

We have a Kickstarter mock up for you guys! The countdown has started, we are closer than ever t make BlackRain a game we dreamed of.

Take a look at the campaign, at it's pledges and strech goals. If you have any concernes or ideas, let us know. You know that we take your opinions into account.

See ya all on the Kickstarter!

I see a few grammar and spelling mistakes in the text. I'll make notes of it on the page when I'm able to actually type on a computer instead of my phone.

I do have some questions though. How come you guys have figures that you can pledge for listed as stretch goals? Shouldn't the basic infantry, heroes, and mechs be unlocked from the start? Otherwise, why would I pledge for the two player set if I can't get it until the $30k goal is reached?

My next question is, will you have add-ons? Currently there aren't any listed. If I pledged for the two player box, but wanted a Yin Dao as well, there's currently no way to do that since add-on prices aren't listed.

That aside, the digital sculpts are looking good. NAU continues to be my favorite and I really like those new Zadruga designs.

The miniatures are listed as 35mm, it would be nice to get some comparison shots of them with other miniatures.

Unfortunately the layout of pledges and stretch goals is confusing.

You have pledges for a Hero and Infantry but none of those things look available until they are unlocked with "Stretch Goals". Listing those pledges early can be confusing as they don't look like there are options to choose from until "later".

For example the Two Player Starter doesn't even unlock until $30,000 but you let people pledge at $65. It is a poor design and misleading because the fund goal is $5k. If you only end up funding $6k and you didn't cancel the KS, that means the other pledges don't happen. People will tend to not pledge until it is unlocked if that is what they want, but not pledge and hope it gets unlocked. It also can be a misleading because it can make it seem that even if you fund at $5K, you might cancel if you don't unlock enough stretch goals.

My suggestion is if you are going to go through that route. Then don't list the pledges until they are unlocked, you can add pledges later. In this case if the $5K is for the Ulysses Sidewinder then other than the digital pack, that should be the other pledge. Once infantry is unlocked, then you add a infantry pledge, etc. Otherwise I would suggest a different concept for the campaign.

This looks like an Infinity clone - what's the key differentiator / improvement? What does this do better than Infinity? Why should I gamble on this instead of just buying Infinity?

Thanks for your comments guys, that's why we wanted to get your feedback first, as we knew there would be issues with it.

We showed all of the pledges so you could see how the system works, but yeah Dark Severance, I agree tha there should be an option to pledge for stuff that are unavailable. We'll just gonna add the new pledges as the miniatures gona get unlocked.

Barzam If you could, I'll be thankful Strech goals, and pledges, as I wrote above, there won;t be pledges for not unlocked stuff at the begining. Maybe we'll add additional purchases, but like with strech goals, they will be updating as they get unlocked.

JohnHwangDD For many reasons :
1. This is not a space opera
2. This is not a manga inspired game
3. The gameplay is not that complicated
4. 2D maps with it's own rules, unique events (something like a campaign, but with more replability value)

I think you should like it.

Thanks again for your replies! These are really helpful.

Oh, yeah. FWIW, your discrete pledges are like 2012-2013, and work against the notion of people adding bits and bobs together.

Simplify them to 3 tiers:
- "a la carte"
- "solo starter"
- "2-player starter"

Then, have a price menu for the different things. Otherwise, it's a mess to keep track of.