Kickstarter general question about profitability

[totalfailure]

I think one thing is unique about Car Wars’ situation, though. For a long time, it was the only real player in the car combat genre, and the only one to be a major mass market success, albeit that success was some time ago in the past now.

SJG promised this game as a result of the Ogre Designers Edition Kickstarter, more than six years ago now. What has changed since then? Gaslands. While not a major market player, I think its appearance while Car Wars 6E was still being developed has undeniably drunk some of the milkshake of what is a pretty niche gaming market that is car combat. I think it’s naive to think that at least some of the overall demand for this style of game hasn’t been satisfied by Gaslands, reducing the potential for Car Wars.

Could Car Wars have been ready sooner, and would things have been different if it had been on the market earlier, or at least Kickstarted before Gaslands came out? We can only speculate, and will likely never know all the details, anyway. But for me, it is hard to escape the feeling that Car Wars 6E could have been a much bigger thing - if it had happened a few years ago. I guess we will find out in the years to come.

[kjamma4]

I'm convinced that the change to 1/64-ish scale is a good move to entice current Gaslands players to give 6e a try.

[JimTullis]

Originally Posted by kjamma4

I'm convinced that the change to 1/64-ish scale is a good move to entice current Gaslands players to give 6e a try.

I'm not convinced. I play Gaslands. The arenas are too small. 1/64th looks cool, but H0 would allow for better cityscapes and more maneuvers.

The demo of 6th that I participated in was fun, but lacked some of the feel of room to maneuver and the feel that you could drive out of the arena into a bigger world.

[beetle496]

Originally Posted by JimTullis

I'm not convinced. I play Gaslands. The arenas are too small. 1/64th looks cool, but H0 would allow for better cityscapes and more maneuvers.

Yeah, I wish SJG had stuck to H0 scale. My understanding is that was the plan until relatively recently. Can anyone confirm that? No point second guessing at this point though. Still looks to be lots of fun!

[43Supporter]

Originally Posted by totalfailure

What has changed since then? Gaslands.

This, plus computer racing-sims; I was attending an auto race this past year, and got into a discussion with some of the drivers about the current state of racing sims -- telling them about _CW_, and spending an entire afternoon to play 60 seconds of game-time... a camera would have been so useful to record their facial expressions. :)

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by 43Supporter

This, plus computer racing-sims

Which is a general problem for all wargames: computers just do it better. RPGs have a lot of mechanics that are difficult for a computer to implement, but those are usually the not-covered-by-rules judgment calls that wargames try to avoid.

[woodchuck]

Originally Posted by 43Supporter

This, plus computer racing-sims; I was attending an auto race this past year, and got into a discussion with some of the drivers about the current state of racing sims -- telling them about _CW_, and spending an entire afternoon to play 60 seconds of game-time... a camera would have been so useful to record their facial expressions. :)

Did they like it and could they be viable as a customer base?

[kjamma4]

Originally Posted by JimTullis

I'm not convinced. I play Gaslands. The arenas are too small. 1/64th looks cool, but H0 would allow for better cityscapes and more maneuvers.

The demo of 6th that I participated in was fun, but lacked some of the feel of room to maneuver and the feel that you could drive out of the arena into a bigger world.

But does that have anything to do with the scale of the miniatures? If you play original CW in original CW scale, you have an arena x by y inches. If you upsize to 3X scale, you have an arena 3x by 3y inches.

The issue with HO over 1/64 is 1) availability and 2) cost. You win both issues with 1/64 Hot Wheels/Matchbox.

All I'm saying is that a current Gaslands player presumably is more likely to jump to CW if she is able to use her current models in both games.

[43Supporter]

Originally Posted by woodchuck

Did they like it and could they be viable as a customer base?

They were more stunned than anything else -- realize: Most of them were under age 25, and some weren't even around for the preceding millennium. The idea of spending an entire afternoon playing one board game was unfathomable to them.

Yes, I did end up saying "Get off my lawn". :)

But as to being customers: Not a chance -- schedules wouldn't allow it, even if they were interested. Depressing, but that's the reality these days.

[JimTullis]

Originally Posted by kjamma4

But does that have anything to do with the scale of the miniatures? If you play original CW in original CW scale, you have an arena x by y inches. If you upsize to 3X scale, you have an arena 3x by 3y inches.

Yes, but unless you can upsize you dining room table to 3X, you won't have room to hold the 3X arena.

The issue with HO over 1/64 is 1) availability and 2) cost. You win both issues with 1/64 Hot Wheels/Matchbox.

If you mean availability and cost of Miniatures, maybe. SJ Games is producing a wide variety of miniatures that already have weapons. Where as, Hot Box requires you to sculpt your own weapons or search Etsy. So, yes car bodies are cheap but weapons aren't.

If you mean availability of almost any other features, H0 scale is the most popular train scale and you can get almost anything you can think of for terrain and pedestrians. I can't think of any 1/64th scale pedestrians or realistic buildings. You can also get actual H0 scale 18-wheelers, which are impossible to get in 1/64th.