Reply To: Rumours of 4Ground ceasing trading.

[phaidknott 7023xp 4]

No, the other company never got a look in. As far as we know they were promised a 50% share “if” they managed to deliver the miniatures for the Kickstarter. But other than the deal being struck 4Ground didn’t pursue matters further and send them things like masters for them to be able to produce said miniatures. So the other company had very little dealing with the KS (and no proportion of the blame can be placed upon them.

 

Alas this KS fell victim of over promising on the pledges and although they probably had the right idea (3D printing the miniatures) they were probably a few years ahead of the technology (we now have larger bed printers and they are cheaper). They also went with a “custom” resin at apparently £200 a litre, which they then found out had “cured” in the bottles (so they lost a lot of money there). This along with the leasing of seven printers probably caused massive cost overruns (along with the wages of the staff needed to run the things).

 

It’s a great pity we will not see the game come to light, the minis looked excellent and the game was looking good (from what we saw here on BoW). BUT I’ll add that many of use did get our pledge amount in MDF terrain from 4Ground (as I said it suffered from over promising), so any calls of “they ripped the backers off” is rather misleading. I think they did the best they could, it was an “experiment” of manufacturing with 3D prints at consumer levels at the time. To be frank I think they lost a LOT more than what we backers put forwards. As I said a great shame, and it was a very personal project for Ben and Cad and it probably soured the whole experience of the world they had designed over the years.

 

There was a lot of negativity from a certain minority when the pledges didn’t come through (including an attempt at a “hostile takeover” of the kickstarter). But as a £400+ backer I feel they did their best (and I got about £400 at retail in 4Ground products) and although disappointed we’ll not see those excellent minis come to light can’t feel too much hostility for the kickstarter creators.

 

If there was anything at fault during the process from 4Ground, it was the communication. It was “spotty” and a bit vague, but they were trying to adjust things on the fly and had a lot of hurdles crop up that no-one had expected. Alas even now they still not have confirmed the project as failed (although we all know it has).