Mantic Open Day, November 2014 Part 2

The full title of the final seminar at Mantic’s Open Day, November 2014, was ‘The Future of Mantic Games with Ronnie Renton’, leading Ronnie to make a joke about what the future of Mantic would be without himself.

One thing he did want to be clear on though was that he sees digital products as a big part of that future. Geiger, the company that makes Mantic’s digital products, were represented alongside Ronnie and Stewart Gibbs to emphasise the point.

Here then are some of the key points and answers to questions from the room.

This post is about Mantic's pipeline.

• There are no plans to do any kind of space battle game. The reason for this is mostly that there is already a very successful game out there with a very strong ip behind it. Ronnie did say that if he were going to do something featuring Plague and Enforcer fleets he would probably just ask FFG for a licence as they have a solid rule set that people know and like.

• The Dungeon Saga Pledge Manager is on the way. Geiger said they planned a short beta test next week, then the proper release, and the KoW PM should come out straight after that. Ronnie was keen to stress all future Mantic PM’s would go through this one system so backers would only have to log in once. They would also remain fairly flexible so people could add stuff as they could afford it and pay instantly by credit card. He also joked there would be a paypal option for those that want to hide their spend from the other half.

• Geiger said the Dreadball Playbook app is also still on the way. The delay, we were told, is due to waiting for DBX and seasons 5 and 6 to come out so they could be integrated. 

• The idea of fantasy terrain came up and Ronnie indicated there was some tension between himself and Stewart over this. Ronnie thinks the 3” square model used in Deadzone can be transferred, Stewart is unconvinced. Really they need to be sure they can come up with something that will scale up from small villages to castles and the like. They also need to decide on a timescale to develop some kind of KoW skirmish game and there is definitely no room for it in the current KoW KS. 

• Geiger talked a fair bit about Dreadball league software that will be open to testers soon. The idea is for people to be able to set up leagues, record games, and possibly transfer results to a central server. There would be various ways for people to log in, but the issue of people possibly inventing matches and results to inflate their standings needs to be dealt with.

• Season 4 of Dreadball will be seen in January, then more Deadzone in February, then season 5 of Dreadball in March. I’m guessing the Deadzone in March will either be release to retail of stuff KS backers already have, or possibly even the first sign of the next KS.

• Ronnie has plans for a world tournament of Dreadball. He would like to fly the highest ranked European player to the States to play the highest ranked American in a ‘Ryker Cup’. Perhaps they play seven games but have to have seven different teams to counter the ‘Nameless are the best’ problem.

• On the topic of videogames, Ronnie said again they had been approached several times by serious parties. Games companies like that Mantic has good games with solid ip. But the potential cost and associated risk puts Mantic off committing to anything. This is similar to the answer Ronnie gave to the same question at the last Open Day. He would rather they held off doing videogames than risk the company on a poor one.

• The topic of using Restic on big models in the current KoW KS came up. Ronnie said they would be waiting to see what numbers of certain models were ordered before deciding what materials to use for some things. Getting base troops into hard plastic is something that came up again and again during the day.

• An app for Deadzone AI cards is done. Lots of work has gone into the algorithm to make it shuffle like a person. So you will see some cards get ‘stuck’ as it deals, becoming more random as time goes on.
• Confirmation that Deadzone 1.5 features Vermyn and is next on the slate. Will also revisit and hopefully fill holes in current lineup like Asterians basic troops. Ideally this will get all armies ready for a vehicles-focused Warpath KS. Mantic believes the tech is now where it needs to be to do vehicles right.

• There is also a growing possibility of non-KS funded projects. Azure Forest was held up as the example here. The only DB product that was not KS-funded.
• Device compatibility of apps came up briefly. There was some support for more Windows device app support but the issue really is complexity. Even with Android. Geiger said the variety of devices to cater for was huge. Apple is simpler, but the hurdle there can be their approvals process. Ronnie joked the only certainty was that if you had the same phone as him, you could be sure Mantic apps would work on it. Good news for me as we both use Galaxy Notes ;)

• There was a short discussion of the lack of hobby resources being produced by Mantic. Ronnie said this was really due to a lack of time. They have tried to do things like Dave’s Hobby Tips and Army Painter do the occasional painting guide. But there is also a fairly good amount of content being put out by the community. Personally, I like this. It feels more like Mantic to have the community produce things like painting guides and show what can be done with their terrain and models and the like.

That was more or less it for the Open Day seminars. Lots to look forward to including the next Deadzone kickstarter and maybe even a rollout of Warpath late in 2015 as well as more Dreadball, Dungeon Saga, and Kings of War. If you have any questions about what was said or seen at Mantic please leave them below. Let's close with a couple of pictures of what Mantic keeps on their bookshelves. Some suprising and some not so surprising sources of inspiration there...

Mantic Open Day, November 2014 Part 1

Wow, what a long and hectic day. Once again I made the pilgrimage around the M25 and up the M1 to Mantic HQ for the Open Day. It’s a long way to go, but worth it for all the cool stuff you get to see and hear

Including new boxes!

But not everyone can make that journey, of course. So, here’s my recap of what I heard in the seminars and saw on the tables and cabinets and a few thoughts on what’s going on and likely to happen at Mantic in the near future.

This time round there were three seminar sessions. This is, I think, the first time this has been done at Mantic’s current HQ building. The seminars were also somewhat specialised in their content too, another first. I missed the title of the first one and didn’t sit in on it either. Apologies, but it was probably about Kings of War and I used that time to catch up with friends and hit the shop.

The second talk was focused on Jake and his games. An important point to make here – Jake wouldn’t actually talk much about Kings of War or Warpath proper as these are not games he works on.He had quite a lot to day about Dungeon Saga, Deadzone, and Dreadball though. Here are a few key points he made in response to questions from the audience. Ronnie also sat in for a while so there are some titbits from him too.

Lots of new orcs.

•  Jake would love to do a fantasy version of Deadzone and a Warpath version of Dungeon saga. Its really a question of time though, that being that Jake doesn’t have enough of it to fit in everything he would like to do.

And other monsters.

•   The idea of Dungeon Saga (DS) downtime was discussed at some length. This would be dealing with the time between missions in DS for players to choose what their character does. Ideas like visiting a market to look for new gear or a temple to get a blessing were floated. Jake wants there to be at least five things you want to do with your character but only have time to do one. It’s a flavour of RPG mechanics without going all the way in.
•  Ronnie said DS components were being shipped in one load and they planned to send it all out in one go. This would mean two boxes for most pledges though as the contents would be too heavy for one box. I’m afraid I missed whether he was categorically saying everything in the KS was going to be in this one shipment and I didn’t back it so I’m not sure if that is even possible. But it did sound that way. Ronnie also joked about waiting to see what thing would inevitably go wrong. 

 

•  There was talk of expansions and sequels to DS. The initial campaign takes players up to defeating Mortebris who flees. On the way out he raises a demon for players to fight.
• The next expansion would be a prequel of sorts, allowing players to start with a brand new level one character. The possibility of two new characters being written was raised and then joining with two from the original game to form parties.
• Jake and Ronnie want the game to do really well at retail. In the second seminar Ronnie said Dreadball had sold twelve thousand copies at retail, compared to two thousand KS backers. DS had six thousand backers so, if it performed as well, that would mean more than thirty thousand sales. Reading between the lines, Mantic is aware of the importance of looking after retail as much as KS backers.
• Jake wants to see lots of scenarios being created by the community and the game is built to do that, what with the companion manual being put together containing stats for all the models in Mantic’s range. He would like to have seen more player-generated stuff for DKH.
• Jake is working on a new campaign for Deadzone. He is also aware the rules were not presented in the most accessible way in the original rulebook. The next Deadzone release will feature the Vermyn and will give missions that ease people into the rules.
• There is little chance of any expansion for Mars Attacks! The problem is that pretty much everything in the original i.p. is already in  the game. The Novas Virae were practically made up while the campaign was running.

• As far as Jake is aware, there is still a plan for annual tournament packs for Dreadball in the manner of Azure Forest. Ronnie had left the room at this point but things like this did come up in the next seminar as well.

• Jake is also still not happy with Jacks in Dreadball and is still working on a fix. The game is by no means broken as it plays now. My guess would be there will be a second edition of the rules at some point in the reasonably near future. He would really like people to try the experimental rules he floats on Quirkworthy and report back on them.

That was pretty much it for Jake’s session. The next talk was entitled, ‘The Future of Mantic Games with Ronnie Renton’ and I will cover that next.

Mantic Open Day 2013

I'm writing this from a service station, halfway between Nottingham and home. Its been a long day and its a long road, but here are some pics, thoughts, and recollections from this year's (first?) Mantic Open Day.

Please note these are very quick entries, not exhaustive, and I won't be held responsible if I misquote Ronnie ;) Or fur spelling mistakes.

First, the pics.

There were lots of minis on display today. Strangely they were mostly crammed into one tiny display box - cabinet would be too generous a term - in the worst-lit part of the building. This phone's camera is pretty good though, so enjoy :)

You've got the Basileans. Male paladins with broadswords and females with smaller weapons. I'm not that impressed with the females but both sets of models are definitely really nice and a great addition to KoW.

I think you can see the werewolves and trolls in the background of a couple of the photos. Three for £15 was the price point being mentioned for the trolls. I would have liked the werewolves to be a bit hairier, but maybe greenstuff will work.

The mummies are awesome.

The reb figures for deadzone were there too. I love the teraton and I think they're going to be a very popular line for dz and Dreadball.

I took some pictures of the deadzone display board as all the enforcers there are new models as, if course, are the plague. Check out how big that phase 1 is! I really like the sniper and the engineer models in particular. I was told at Salute that the engineer's backpack could be detached to make the sentry gun but I'm not sure if that feature is still included.

There are a few detail sits if the dz terrain. You might be able to see the surfaces aren't smooth. There's a fine crenelation. This is a result of the pieces being prototypes from a 3d . The final product will be smooth. I actually quite like the texture, I think it makes them look more organic, but smooth works too.

Finally there's the game mat for deadzone. It is indeed very very nice. It's much thinner than I thought it would be, maybe 2mm our 3mm thick. The back is a strong rubber that will hold it to a table our desk pretty welland the top really does feel like a mousemat. It's thinner though, so no worries about areas sinking our dice bouncing wildly :) I'm pretty sure I'm canceling my Secret Weapon kickstarter pledge tonight...

So, on to the Ronnie talk. Ronnie talks very quickly and possibly makes some of it up as he's doing so, so here's a quick collection of bullet points I remember:

He acknowledged it is very hard to make inroads in fantasy or sci-fi tabletop battles against the market leader. Apparently gw have £60m in tools and this is hard to compete with. Thus Dreadball and deadzone help people start building a collection of Warpath minis and interest in the setting that can be used when warpath launches for real.

Regarding the mat, the search for a material was exhaustive. Apparently Stewart's corner of the office looks like a haberdashers there are so many samples. As to different themed mats, the problem is volume. The current deal Ronnie has with the supplier is for 5000. This is the minimum the supplier will do and the price is still high. Ronnie hopes to do a deal for, say, 5000 of the first theme, plus a thousand of this theme, a thousand of this one, and so on. Yet another good reason to up your pledge for more mats ;)

The dz kickstarter once again exceeded expectations for early success.

Forge Fathers and Asterians are all but guaranteed to be included in the kickstarter. It sounds like models are, at least, at the concept art stage, sine may even be in sculpting.

Forge fathers go toe to tie with the corporation. They aren't afraid to displace humans from worlds they want and are happy to fight for them. As a quarantined world is likely to be unoccupied for fifty years, this also represents a great opportunity to plunder. Hearthguard act as security, brocks (aka berzerkers) are the scrap dealers of ff society and will often do the final strip of a planet, even taking all its dirt for sale elsewhere!

Asterians, or elves, might rate a human world as being worth 1 or 2 elf lives.So their armies will include one fragile Asterian commander and a load of combat robots. These will be 'kick-ass fast'and hard. So their gameplay might involve the commander desperately hiding from snipers and enemy units while the robots do the fighting.

Plans are drawn up for stretch goals for quite a way down the line. It sounded like up to about 800k. If it goes over that we might see seasons approach, like with db, to allow more stuff to be sculpted and tooled for release next year.

Ronnie is very happy to include partner companies' stuff in the dz kickstarter. He loves all the stuff Antenocitis do. He acknowledged Mantic doesn't have time to Maher all those little bits themselves and is open to focusing on the stuff it does do while partnering with specialists in complimentary bits and bobs. He mentioned opening a shop if there was enough product lines to stock, so who knows what might happen there?

Jake Thornton was quite enthused about answering a question on the next Dwarf King's Hold. It sounded like he had already given it lots of thought and seemed, to me, to be describing something akin to Super Dungeon Explore. All backed by Mantic's affordable minis, meaning a dungeon master would have many varieties if monsters to throw at adventurers. No definite plans for this were confirmed, but:

Mantic had another ks planned for this year. That one slipped out and no-one seemed to pick up on it...

KoW will, in some ways, be relaunched again this summer. Trolls are up next month, then - I forget - then Basileans. The possibility of spinning KoW off into its own mini-studio was mentioned, but as a possible option, rather than one being seriously proposed.

Ronnie loves those buildings. He likened the possibilities to minecraft. I still think they are more like Halo Forge pieces though. Ronnie guaranteed they will click together and apart but seemed to feel they perhaps weren't intended to be used in dz as people seem to envisage actually using them. You can see this in demo games for dz, where you can see the facade of as building almost being more important than its 3d shape. Dz is designed for a 2x2 table so there's not actually that much room for compete buildings. But Ronnie does believe they have the potential to become a staple for all sci-fi games on the market. As do I.

There is the possibility of a collection of short stories for dz to help establish the background for the factions. This could be a stretch goal and include Jake Thornton and guy haley. Probably depends on people asking for it though.

All three money from the KoW ks went into tooling new models. Mantic also put down $10k out of the kitty to get it all done. So kickstarter does just what it should - get things happening faster than they would through the traditional sales and investment cycle.

Dreadball has sold three times more copies through retail than were sent out from the ks.

Ok, that's all I can remember for now. I'll post more later if I remember it and probably my own thoughts on the day and Mantic in the 201 in another post.