I was thinking 54mm, because the models could be very cool, and because most of my sculpting experience is around that scale - horses and dinosaurs mostly, but the principles are the same! Other scales will be a tougher learning curve for me. However, a boarding party game would need lots of (resin) scenery, which I could do a lot cheaper at 28mm scale...
It could be hard picking the right thing to do. You want to pick something you are going to love so that you can put the love and effort into it that it will require. But, there are a lot of times where gamers will do something that they think is "JUST GREAT AND EVERYBODY WILL LOVE IT!!!" only to have it go nowhere. You are going to have to find that right balance where your energy, a good market analysis, and a sound strategy coincide.
I was thinking 54mm, because the models could be very cool, and because most of my sculpting experience is around that scale - horses and dinosaurs mostly, but the principles are the same! Other scales will be a tougher learning curve for me. However, a boarding party game would need lots of (resin) scenery, which I could do a lot cheaper at 28mm scale...
You are going to want your miniatures to sell well, and while 54mm might be nice there isn't, to my knowledge, much of a market or demand for 54mm miniatures beyond GW's "Inquisitor." That scale does not lend itself well to squad or higher level combat.
Is your boarding party game going to be like Space Hulk or is it going to be something different? If you are going to go the Space Hulk route (nothing wrong with that) then I suggest you leverage what is already out there, namely Space Hulk and the Space Hulk stuff produced by Litko.
If you are going to a different route rules-wise you should develop the game first, using stand-in counters, and then determine what your miniatures are going to be like. Make sure your rules are good and have the miniatures follow because if you make your miniatures first your rules are going to be forced to conform the rules to the miniatures, a bad idea. A crappy rules set with great miniatures will not sell. Remember Epic40K?
For the Boarding Party, I'm thinking of a SciFi quasi-Elizabethan setting, with small capital ships officially sanctioned as Privateers. Uniforms similar to those in the BFG rulebook, probably. Kind of space piracy, raiding merchant vessels, that kind of thing. Just ideas at the moment, but any suggestions will be gratefully recieved!
If this is really the route you want to go then you had better map out your major and intermediary concepts.
- How much sci-fi are we talking? Spaceships? Blimps? Ocean going vessels?
- How will the boarding be done? Crashing into the shuttle bay? Small boarding boats/pods? Hooks and ropes? Jump packs? Teleport?
- What is the purpose of the game? Eliminate the crew? Capture the ship? Sneak aboard and steal the cargo?
- Is all combat going to be on one level of the ship, or is there the possibility of going to different decks?
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I guess what I am trying to say is that if you make miniatures you had better make them fit the game instead of the game fitting the miniatures. If you have to make the miniatures first I suggest that you make them compatible with similar games so that if your rules turn out poorly you still have the option of doing piggy-back sales off of the other game. Since you are going towards a "SciFi quasi-Elizabethan setting" I suggest going 30mm and trying to piggy-back off of Warmachine. Co-incidently they are putting out a pirate supplement late this year.
_________________ I shot a Deathstrike Missile and destroyed an enemy titan in my pajamas last night. ?How it got into my pajamas I still don't know...
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