There have been plenty of teasers from Mantic Games, including (but not limited) to their only half-joking April Fools Day post and, more recently, the Salute 2013 previews. Today, Mantic Games official launched their Kickstarter-campaign for Warpath Deadzone. It’s the fourth Kickstarter from Mantic Games, following last year’s Kings of War and DreadBall, as well as this year’s Loka.
It’s probably the first Mantic Kickstarter that will cross the magic 1 Million US$ mark.
#1 – Mantic Warpath Deadzone Kickstarter Video
#2 – The Deadzone Game
Deadzone is a 2 player miniatures game using D8s played with between 5-25 high quality Mantic miniatures:
- Sci-fi Skirmish System: Take command of a crack team of upgradable elite troopers from one of four factions including powerful heroes, troopers, heavy weapons and specialists.
- Modular 3D Environment: Deadzone is played using a flat, grid-based gaming mat that can be built up using Barricades and Buildings from our modular plastic Sci-fi Scenery Range.
- Equipment and Loot: Upgrade your troopers by collecting equipment and new weapons from the Battlefield, such as machine guns, medi-packs, grenades and more. But beware – you could be triggering a booby trap!
- Player Progression and Experience: Grow your team across the war as individual soldiers earn experience and advance through ranks, acquiring new abilities and awesome new weapons.
#3 – Four Reasons Why Deadzone Will Break Records
There is little doubt that this will be a massive success. The entire Kickstarter is was funded (at 50.000,- US$) in the short time I am writing this post (less than an hour, probably less than half an hour. And most people are likely still at work (in the UK) or just out of bed (in the US).
Unless there’s a major hick-up, I am fairly certain that this Kickstarter will go far.
Modular Plastic Terrain
The “big thing” that raised a lot of interest in the past few weeks is the Deadzone Terrain.
According to the Kickstarter-video, it’ll be build around a standard template, allowing it to be put together in a many different variants.
There is no “terrain only” pledge level (as far as I’ve seen). So (for now), people will have to buy into the game of Deadzone, not just into the terrain (despite the fact that the video stresses, how this terrain can be used for other games).
Other than the terrain, there also appears to be a gaming mat (which, just from the render, also has a Dust Tactics vibe to it).
Simple, fast-play board-game mechanics
I am pretty sure this will be a big factor.
For all the market-power of Warhammer 40K, most new games (especially those doing well on Kickstarter) lean closer to the board-game side of things, catering to the more time (or attention)-deprived folks (like me).
Dust Tactics, obviously, build its success on the concept. The addition of earning experience over the course of campaign (Necromunda-style!) surely wont hurt Deadzone either.
Zombies!
Zombies rule Kickstarter. You know it. I know it. Mantic knows it!
Enforcers
Whatever the appeal of Zombies is to people, I am more impressed with the Enforcers. Mantic’s elite, power-armoured space soldiers are definitely coming into their own (and moving away from the Iron Man look). What can be seen on the Kickstarter-page looks promising.
It’s been a long time since someone did anything new and distinctive to the “Space Marine” archetype.
While I do like the McVey sculpts for Sedition Wars, they do feel rather generic. Other games – Infinity notably – offer unique visuals overall, but do not really tie to one specific model or faction. Moreover, Corvus Belli still deals in pewter…
I can see Mantic’s Enforcers becoming a really, really, really popular range!
#4- Your Thoughts?
What do you think about Deadzone? Wanna leave a guess at the mark this will go to? Does Mantic have what it takes to clear 1 Million? 2 Million? 3 Million?
Can Deadzone dethrone the Kickstarter kings of 2012?
Would love to hear your thought!
Z.
The Deadzone Kickstarter will be funded on Sunday Jun 2, 11:59pm BST.
I am Zweischneid. Wargame Addict. Hopeless painter and founder of Pins of War. I hope you enjoyed this article. Don't forget to share your favourite miniature pictures and wargaming videos at www.pinsofwar.net.
@pinsofwar
Golem Arcana Kickstarts - Is it Good for Half a Million? http://t.co/robFdbWNkd #kickstarter #boardgame #wargaming - 5 hours ago
it’ll easily clear $1m i am certain of it. Don’t think it will hit $2m though. If they do release a terrain only option i could see tgem get extremely high (i give it less then 2 weeks until we see it) i won’t be backing as there is nothing that truely wows me with what they have shown, and i really don’t believe they need kickstarter anymore same reason i’m not backing any of the cmon stuff (but that is for a whole other post)
More power to them though, they have certainly found what people like and aremilking it for all that it is worth
@belverker – why does Mantic need KS? The best way to explain is by example. Their Goblin army release had one plastic tool and a bunch of metal releases. Their Kings of War Kickstarter funded 22 plastic tools in a month! What Kickstarter does is speed up the releases by 3 or 5 years plus it means that they can produce a product without massive risk to their company. Same goes for CMON. Gates of Antares illustrated this well. The market was underwhelmed by it and that project was cancelled. If that company had invested their own 300K up front (which was what they asked for IIRC) they would be in a lot of trouble not getting any return on their investment. KS not only makes money, generates gaming communities, provides great bargains for gamers, but it also protects the existence of the companies themselves. In the current economic climate a good deal for the customer and a reduced risk for the producer sounds like a real win-win to me.
http://pinsofwar.net/ Zweischneid
Its a bit – if on a smaller scale – the discussion raised (again) by the Zach Braff Kickstarter.
The problem isn’t what happens when things go south. Whatever you do, you can never loose money on more than a 1:1 ratio. If I invest 1000 GBP and it fails, I lose 1000 GBP. If I invest 300.000 GBP and it fails, I lose 300.000 GBP.
The problem is where do the spoils of success go? When investments make a ROI of greater than a 1:1 ratio?
Take an extreme example. If I had invested 1000 quid in Facebook 6 years ago, I’d be a multi-millionaire. If I had invested 1000 quid in a hypothetical Facebook-kickstarter 6 years ago, I’d have 1000 quid worth of T-Shirts and a few credits for Facebook games.
Where are the multi-millions that make the difference? They would be with the project-creator!
That is where Kickstarter is “new”. Every other form of investment needs to spread some of the wealth-creation from entrepreneurial success around. Even the most hard-nosed bank or hedge-fund has to pay out dividends or shares.
The incredible spread-the-risk-vs-concentrate-the-rewards ratio of Kickstarter is what makes it so attractive. It makes outfits like Goldman Sachs or Lehman Brothers look like charities.
And that, in turn, is where scale matters.
People have no problem to “give it all” to “small guys”, liberating them from the trials of the financial system, which admittedly doesn’t scale very well to the very small businesses.
Yet the bigger, more professional a company becomes, the more there is an expectation (and rightly so I believe) that they link themselves back into the economic system that connects entrepreneurial success with wealth creation more broadly (dividends, ROI; etc..). Or, if they want all the spoils to themselves, take all the risk themselves by using their own money.
This is has been the key to the success of post-industrial, entrepreneur-and-idea driven capitalism in the past decade or two. Continuously sidestepping the established financial markets (and all its accountability-mechanisms) by rewarding investors (“backers”) with consumer products, rather than a share of the profit of consumer products, will raise questions.
Ruska
Kickstarter will be the death of me! Always wanted to try Necromunda, this looks pretty similar.
http://pinsofwar.net/ Zweischneid
True. Especially the terrain. The similarities to the Necromunda bulkheads (just – in theory – better, more 21st century) is striking.
Mantic does know how to tease and put interesting stuff out there. …. back to fiddling with DreadBall, before I get weak ;=)
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