28mm miniatures game in the works

UPDATE: The Wargame 2080 online store at https://www.shapeways.com/shops/wargame2080 ... has finally launched with 30 products, including these heavy infantry and a light tank:









ORIGINAL POST BELOW:
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Hello everyone,

My name is Daniel Walthall and I have just recently announced my upcoming 28mm miniatures game designed exclusively for 3D printers: Wargame 2080

I've already designed several of the 3D models that will be part of the game, including two types of infantry, two types of tanks, two types of mechs, a flying unit called a drone, etc. You can see 3D renders of some of them at my shapeways shop.

My main design goals for this miniatures game are affordability, highly customizable armies, and streamlined game mechanics. I plan to release the game rules completely for free once they are ready for public beta testing. This will help make the game more affordable, because you will not be forced to buy a large hardcover rulebook, plus additional books for each faction, as with many other miniatures games. Also, the starter set for Wargame 2080 will primarily consist of "standard units" which can be used by any faction. This means you wont be stuck with miniatures you can't use if you decide to change factions! Wargame 2080 will also have "prototype units" and even "prototype weapons". Prototypes can only be used by certain factions. There may be one or two prototype units included in the starter set.

I have ordered the first designs for Wargame 2080 and I'm now patiently awaiting the shipment of my 3D printed miniatures. Once I get them, I'll take plenty of pictures of them unpainted, and later with them fully painted. If you are interested in the development of my game, please consider liking (Wargame 2080 on Facebook), and if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.

I've always dreamed of being able to create and sell my own miniatures game, and I'm very excited to be able to finally bring my dream to fruition through the awesome technology that is 3D printing!

In case anyone is interested, I've launched my website for my miniatures game, and I will be posting images of the first 3D prints for the game very soon. The very first prints from shapeways were nearly perfect! Even details as small as 1/64th of an inch came out great. I have already tweaked and improved them to make them a bit taller and more sturdy, with larger feet for better stability. As soon as I can afford, I'm going to be printing out more of my designs and hopefully offering them for sale soon. Wargame 2080 website is here.

I received the first designs for my game from Shapeways, and they came out nearly perfect! I've been hard at work creating more 3D models, and I will be showing previews of them soon at the website! http://www.wargame2080.com

Cool, nice job. Website looks solid as well. It's very exciting receiving your models . Looks like they printed really well for their size. You thinking of painting them at all?

Thank you for the feedback! I'll be improving the website over time, but It's good to hear that it's looking good already. The last thing I wanted was a site that looked too amateurish.

Yes, I was surprised myself at how the details came out. It looks like the angular shapes I'm using come out better than complex organic ones. In my opinion they still look great on the table, but of course I am totally biased since I designed them! During the Alpha and Beta testing phases, I'm hoping to get good feedback from testers about the overall art style and look of the miniatures in addition to the gameplay/rules feedback.

Also, they are already partially painted, and once the paint job is done I will link a few pictures here for you to check out. I'm learning that although traditional painting methods (lots of drybrushing and ink washes) can make the "rough" surface of 3D prints even more noticeable, using thicker layers of paint and a more "wet-brush" technique can produce good results.

I haven't finished painting any of the miniatures yet, but I updated the Wargame 2080 website with this new unit preview:



As soon as I can afford it, I'm going to order a test print of the design. It uses the same armor plates as some of the vehicles, and the armor plate will be removable. They will be cost more to print than light infantry, but not drastically so.

28 mm ? Please on the rule page state that kids under some age must not use your toys , they can chew them ... something like 12 y.o. rating at 2.8 cm is very risky to be handled by some kids. (*one example is chewing the legs and eating them ... and go to E.R.)

Other than that , good job!

That is very good advice, thank you! I didn't even think about the possible choking hazard, so I'm glad you mentioned it.

The miniatures come fully assembled, but there are some very small parts like the interchangeable heads on the mechs, and the weapons, so they are definitely NOT for small children. Before I begin selling any of the miniatures, I'll go ahead and put a warning on each item page, plus on the shop header and website that Wargame 2080 miniatures are NOT toys, and should never be given to young children because they contain very small parts.

That are the things lawyers think about!

Note : Red background with white text : " Wargame 2080 miniatures are not toys for children`s that are under age X . You are responsible to any hazard/damage caused by misuse of the products , including the case of adult buying products not recommended for children`s under age X. The designer is not responsible to any damages and it is your responsibility and only yours what you do with any product ordered. "

English is not my native language , but by legal terms that is the way it must sound. X being the minimum age.

Nice! I would love to see more of these "print and play" games. What are the rules generally like? As for the legal stuff I would say that "Contains small parts not suitable for children" should be enough, but I'm not a lawyer.

The rules are still being refined, and soon I hope to let more people into the private alpha test to get more playtesting to find potential loopholes, rules problems, balance issues, etc. The main features of the rules so far are:


-Streamlined for quicker play than most miniatures games. (simple rules for determining line-of-sight, whether a unit is in cover, etc.)

-No record keeping required for unit health, because all damage is shown visually on the model by removing weapons / armor plates / utility modules etc.

-Energy Token system that serves two important functions: Visual indication of whether a unit has taken it's turn or not (the token is removed after a unit takes a turn) and allows a player to "boost" their unit each turn by directing the energy to one of 4 places: Movement, Ranged Attack, Melee Attack, or even Defense Dice when the unit gets attacked.

-Highly customizable armies for each player that can gain credits and experience (AI points) and even gain new Facilities by fighting battles. Designed with careful balance in mind: higher level units will cost more Points, so a new, fresh army can still stand a chance against a veteran one. Also, there is a hard limit on how many Facilities can be used each battle, so players with many Facilities simply have more possibilities to choose from, not a greater amount to "harvest".

-Playable with 1-4 players. That's right, you can even play by yourself with special Solitaire Rules! This is even explained in the backstory of the game: The majority of military forces in Wargame 2080 are AI drones, robots, and unmanned vehicles, therefore a solitaire battle represents a commander attacking a base defended by AI units, whose actions will be somewhat predictable, but also somewhat random.

-Multiple ways of achieving victory, to keep your opponent on their toes and allow for greater tactics and overall battle strategy.

Great mechanics! Good luck!

You have some excellent concepts, here! I actually started to design a miniatures game where the unit stats were physically part of the minis... I'm very interested to see how this pans out.

I would say, after you get clear of all of alpha/beta testing and then see about opening a Kickstarter or IndieGoGo campaign to have a line of minis made. Thus far, in my experience (currently 90% through designing my own minis game) 3D printing isn't quite there yet in durability, detail, and cost for some gamers, so I am seeking info on injection molding runs if printing doesn't work out.

I had also interest on the matter and also see mostly the cost (as IMO the detail is fine, specially for minis to be painted) as a problem.
But durability? I don't get this one, actually. Resin, plastic or steel having durability issues? Maybe resin and some plastics have an issue when left inside a car in a hot summer in certain countries, but other than that... I'm curious about the durability issue mentioned.

Anyway, the real problem I see, even producing the minis in a print on demand scheme, or as custom work for certain special clients, is mostly the cost, in whichever 3D printing work flow or service. You would really need a dirty cheap material to be able to compete with the price I see set in minis that are probably created by traditional methods.

In terms of durability I am more concerned with the strength of a material while holding fine detail. Certainly there are some pretty tough 3D printed items, but do they hold a candle to injection molded plastics or spincast metal when it comes to preserving detail being painted, handled (accidentally knocked over on the table... repeatedly) that sort of thing? I have one fairly large and detailed miniature in WSF, and while I will concede it is durable, it isn't at all smooth. I am very curious to know if you have experienced prints that have met gamer expectation standards.

On the other hand, I've just completed paying my artist for his fine work, and will be ordering a pair of minis soon... hopefully they will impress me and some gamers at the local shop.

Actually, I was indeed asking, more than making an statement, as I had no idea. I am not even a gamer, just have handled them a bit, but no playing with them, (I'm a 3D hi res modeler, but never produced a 3D printed mini) and painted some mini. Only that like plastic have been used in mass production minis, that was why I was wondering about it. As FUD is some kind of plastic, if I understood it well. A pity that there's not some "dirty cheap" procedure and material, metal based (lead free) being able to produce high detail. That would rock for minis. Even if only for prototypes, and not so much for production in higher numbers. Probably for higher numbers of copies would only be possible at prices like those of ceramic or sandstone, I suppose.

@Innovo Thank you!


@Maethius Thank you for your feedback and advice. I've thought long and hard about whether to go with 3D printing or plastic injection molding for my game, and I've decided to go with 3D printing for a number of reasons. One big reason is that I can introduce new units as often as I want without having to come up with thousands of dollars each time. Traditional methods are cheaper per miniature, but there is a much larger up-front cost, and if that particular design never sells enough copies, the up-front costs will never be made back. Conversely, with 3D printing a specific design doesn't have to sell very many copies at all to make back the initial cost to produce it. My profit margins will be smaller, especially with the Starter Pack, but my expenses should also be smaller than with injection molding.

As to your other concerns: Whether a 3D printed mini can hold as much detail when painted, and whether the paint will chip off easily or not: The WSF material here at shapeways does not hold quite as much detail as a high-quality mold for injection molding, that is true, but if the most detailed parts are oriented upward and not at an angle, details as small as 1/128th of an inch are actually printable! That's one-eighth of a sixteenth of an inch! I've tested this myself with my textured bases that have very very tiny "bumps" and cracks in the surface to simulate broken concrete. I'll be showing examples of these kinds of details soon when I finish painting the latest prototypes. Also, from my own tests, it's actually harder to scratch paint off a 3D printed miniature in the WSF material than a smooth plastic miniature. This actually makes perfect sense, because the surface of my WSF minis is slightly grainy and porous. Therefore the paint gets absorbed better and once it dries, it's actually hard to scratch off. With smooth plastic miniatures, the paint sits right on the surface and all it takes is a fingernail to scratch it off unless you spray the completed mini with a clear coat to protect the paintjob.


@Silvanus From what I have seen with my prototypes (In the White Strong and Flexible material) the durability is actually better than traditional plastic miniatures, as long as you don't make the supporting structures too thin. I stayed overnight at a friends house recently, and I showed him my 3D printed miniatures. When I went to sleep, I had completely forgotten to put them away and I had left them on his kitchen counter. By the time I woke up, his cats had knocked over half of the miniatures off the counter onto the floor, and not a single one of them was damaged at all.

As for the cost, it is true that 3D printing is more expensive per miniature, but there are many other costs that I wont have to deal with, like: Shipping, warehouse fees to store product, packaging/shrinkwrapping, mold production costs, etc. Because of this, I will actually be able to have CHEAPER prices for some of my products than most of my competition. Also, to cut down on the expense for my customers, I'm going to provide ALL the rules and unit data completely for free. The miniatures gaming hobby is a very expensive one, but I want to make sure that people can get into my game without breaking their wallet.


Finally, here is a picture of my latest prototypes unpainted. I'm nearly finished with painting them all, so I'll be posting fully painted pictures soon!

This is good information for me; so vertical orientation holds better detail than horizontal... that makes sense, given the process. I agree with the setup versus production costs of injection vs. printed minis, as well. I suppose, if a title were to be one of the rare, runaway hits, it would make sense to transition from 3D to injection (unless the technology for printing grew to catch up!) One of the other things I need to ensure with my models as they are made is that they maintain their real-world size accuracy as new units are introduced. It should be an interesting road for all of us, eh?

-Greg

Very true - but unfortunately at Shapeways you cannot specify the orientation, so it's a bit random.

To further complicate matters, as has been stated elsewhere, you cannot even assume that the models will be printed horizontally or vertically - the models may be rotated in 2 dimensions by up to 90 degrees to give the Oriented Bounding Box (basically the smallest volume that will contain the model). This can introduce all sorts of stepping problems, depending on the geometry of your model.

Just to clarify, by "oriented upward" I mean this:

If you were to print a coin, and you placed the coin horizontally in your model file (just as it would be oriented when laying on a table) the side of the coin that is facing upward will capture the most details. The side of the coin that is facing downward will also be fairly detailed, but the edges of those details will be very slightly "rounded" and therefore the details might not be as "crisp" as the upward facing side.

A good example of this are the energy tokens in the picture above (the tokens with the numbers on them). They were placed horizontally in the model file, with the number side facing upward. The numbers came out extremely crisp and clear. The other side of those tokens have an E symbol on them, and the details on that side were very slightly "rounded" on the edges and not 100% consistent. For my game, I need the E side to be identical for every token, so I have flipped the tokens so that the E side is oriented upward. The next time I order my 3D prints, the E side of the token should be crisp and clear with virtually no variation between them.

Also, the weapons for my game are interchangeable using a simple "peg and slot" system. I've found that if both the peg and the slot are perfectly straight (with the peg pointing straight up) the resulting print will be more accurate and the peg will fit the slot better. If I turned the peg at an angle (oriented diagonally like a 45 degree angle) the very tiny print lines on the sides of the peg may cause it to fit more "roughly" into the slot instead of going in smoothly.

Anyway, I agree with you that if a 3D printed game were to become a runaway success, it would probably make sense to start producing the miniatures using injection molding. Larger miniatures companies do something similar: Using metal casting for the less popular designs (lower start-up costs, but higher production cost for each miniature) and plastic injection molding for the more popular ones (high up-front cost, but lower production cost for each miniature) where they are confident that the higher volume of sales would make up for the higher up-front cost. The only problem I see with that, is that I am not sure if all of my designs can be manufactured using injection molding. That's one of the cool things about 3D printing: You don't have to worry about whether a mold can be created for your design.