Just curious about something, and would be curious about your opinions, everyone.
We are doing fairly well at Black Army at present. Not rich by any means, but sales have been enough to convince us that this has been a good investment, and the vehicles alone are really generating capital - enough to get us working on other topics.
I have another possible "side project" coming up. In this case, another fiction-come-history range, and I'm in the process of narrowing down what to work on first!
I was curious about what you think about these options; I don't want to say too much about specifics, as I don't want to tip my hand just yet (ideas have a way of being appropriated.) That said, these options are all in various stages of development (to include source materials, a few sketches, some character concepts, etc.) All of these are "Heroic" 28mm concepts at the moment. They would likely include supporting "open rule format" sourcebooks.
- Weird War One (talked about by many, done by none.) Probably to be done in "Heroic" scale 28s, so a little larger than our Shanghai range.
- "Weird War Two" (in this case, done on a front that hasn't been covered before.) The front is a popular one, but it hasn't been covered by Weird War Two to any great degree (aside from a few mentions in roleplaying games, and a Gear Krieg supplement).
- Post Apocalyptic range. This would begin in North America and then gradually evolve to include forces and characters from other parts of the world. The era in which it would be "set" (or anyway, from which it draws its influence) is fairly unique in that it hasn't been touched yet. An idea that I was working on for some time a few years ago. I freely admit that Lon's courage to do Atomic Cafe 1957 has inspired me to give this another go, but it would in no way be a copy of that system, that miniature series, etc. Completely different era.
My reservations about these.
#1 could be hard to sell, frankly. I love the period, as do many of you. (And if you don't, then pbbththt!) but seriously, it's not the most popular period in terms of market share, though it is growing in popularity in recent years.
#2 would probably sell well, but it's Weird War Two. Again. Granted, the setting is different, and I like to think, unique, but I fully aknowledge that the market may decide to give it a "pass." That said, there are plenty of ranges of Zombie Germans for WW2 at the moment, and they seem to do well enough to co-exist together.
#3 could do well, but may not have the mass appeal of #2 (or perhaps #1). Also, no particularly definitive rulesets for this type of warfare. (I would end up producing some rules of my own, before too long, but you get my point, I think.)
Your thoughts would be welcome, as would ideas, etc. I'm sorry to be so vague about these concepts, but like I said - some ideas can be appropriated, and I have had more than one unfortunate experience with that in the past. As such, I'm not -quite- ready to spill the beans, but I can certainly drop hints.
I agree with you in all points. But I think your approach - doing something someone else hasn't done before - should guarantee a success whatever you're trying to do. So if you're able to offer something new to a market already saturated, might still be a big bang Some comments to the ranges: *WWWI: would be great to see... As you said, it pops up now and then on the LAF, but it's difficult to guess if someone's willing to spend cash on it. I don't have anything from this range (yet). I might be tempted to start a collection, depending on the minis available.
*WWWII: you said it. again... I've recently started collecting WWWII minis. And I think there're still some gaps left by SoTR, Incursion and Darkson. I'd like to see something different than just zombies and werewolves. There should be more than just that. I'm a fan of the RtCW computer game. Some elements from this are providing ideas, which I haven't found anywhere yet. Some unusual miniatures for exisiting forces might also be as welcome as a new and yet unexploited range.
*Post Apocalyptic: could be difficult... I think there's already a lot available. You need a very good idea to place yourself in this market, me thinks... I got the impression (which might be wrong of course) that nearly every miniature shop has a post apoc range. You'll need something convincing that people will buy your products and not the other one
Thus spoken from the PoV of the Great Collector. As I'm not gaming, I can't say anything about rulesets and game mechanics...
