Project Phoenix is the Next Big Video Game Kickstarter

PhoenixThis story comes from a tip sent to us by eagle-eyed reader (and sometime contributor) Eric R., who knows our predilection for all things Kickstarter.  Eric directed our attention to Project Phoenix: Japan’s Indie RPG.  He thinks that it just might be the next big video game Kickstarter.  I’m inclined to agree.

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Monday Miniatures: The Future

Automata Scene 1 7

Pre-kickstarting is all the rage these days, so I thought I would take the time to share this news bulletin (courtesy of sometimes contributor James Yee.) about Hairbrained Scheme’s newest project, Golem Arcana. The idea is a miniature based board game with a technological edge courtesy of our ubiquitous touch screen toys.

The virtualization of tabletop hobbies is just one of the many headwinds for the miniatures industry we have mentioned here before, but if the idea is of interest to you, then by all means read on.

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Caffeineforge: Year One

Birthday-1

On August 12th, of 2012, the first post was made on Caffeineforge. Though that would mean Monday is our one year anniversary, regular readers will know that that particular day is booked pretty regular.  I feel like the anniversary is a big deal, though I know it is really just a number. Unlike the first couple months of its existence, today I would say the blog only takes a couple hours a week to keep up to date.

But sometimes it seems very hard to find those couple hours a week.

It is my opinion that not many blogs reach it to this particular milestone, but I had trouble finding any references to prove or disprove that notion. I did find that:

  • According to a 2008 survey by Technorati, which runs a search engine for blogs, only 7.4 million out of the 133 million blogs the company tracks had been updated in the past 120 days. That translates to 95 percent of blogs being essentially abandoned.
  • It is estimated that within one month of creation, 60% to 80% of blogs worldwide are either abandoned or infrequently updated. This means that the average lifespan of a blog is equal to that of the common fruitfly.
  • Perseus claimed that the average duration of the remaining 1.63 million abandoned blogs was 126 days, with some 132,000 blogs being abandoned after a year or more. The oldest abandoned blog surveyed had been maintained for 923 days.

Want to see how we’re doing one year in? Read on.
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My Cup Runneth Over

overflowing-cup

I think a couple weeks ago I said I was having one of those weeks. Well, it’s still true.

I don’t mean I’m having another one of those weeks – I mean that I’m still having the same week. It is now one of those months, and I’m having trouble coming up for air.

Don’t get me wrong – almost all of it is either positive, or will eventually be positive. I’m just overwhelmed.

If you feel my pain or are puzzled by how there really could be to much of a good thing, keep reading past the fold.

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Monday Miniatures: Now hear the word of the Lord

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This week there perhaps a dozen mini related Kickstarter projects posted. Exciting, right? Wrong. The vast majority of them were printable scenary for wargamming, and when I talk about paper castles, I don’t mean awesome ones, like the papercraft fever dream, pictured above.

It’s a good thing that Kickstarter declared that their service is for everyone, or I would be tempted to rant at length about how the crowdfunding service is for dreamers, not product lines (and half-assed ones at that.)

So, this week there are only 2 projects I feel like sharing.
 
 
Worldsmith Industries – Just had a tank explode, and need a marker for the battlefiled? This project has you covered.
Creative Gamescapes – This project want to make 3D terrain for all your scifi gaming needs. Definitely some cool stuff.
 
 
Jessica sends us two painted minis this week, and did an amazing job on these Bones.
 
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
 
 
Clint is back to his orcs and sent in this photo along with the last part of his review/how-to.
 
maw-31
 
 
Clint here again — ok, so I didn’t use a Bones mini this week, but this last part really doesn’t have anything to do with Reaper’s minis.  This week, I’m going to talk about taking and editing photos of your painted minis, as well as show my workspace.  Because for some reason, David is fascinated by it.  Me, I’m mostly just embarrassed by it.   It’s a mess.  A literal mess.  Just look at this desk, would you?
paintdesk
 
About the only bit I want to point out is the use of bottle caps as mixing pots for washes and glazes.  Cheap, prolific, and perfectly sized.  Screw yogurt pots or paper cups.   Bottle caps are usually just thrown away and can be found everywhere, particularly if you’re a soda fiend like myself.
paintstation
Ok, I am proud of this bit.  This is how I store my paint.  Everything goes into a dropper bottle, even the GW paints.  I buy them in bulk from US Plastics for about a dime a piece.  The rack is a 4 x 2 sheet of half inch MDF that I drilled 5/8th inch holes in a staggered pattern into.  This is in turn mounted to two 1 x 2 rails mounted to the studs in the wall above my painting desk.  The paints are labelled on the bottom and arranged by hue.  This is important to me, since I’m colorblind and can’t just spot the blue paint mixed in amidst the reds.   A magnetic bar and few brass hooks hold a variety of tools from files to drills to reading glasses and magnifiers.
craftwall
 
Right.  So here’s the other half of the room.  Airbrush station and my lightbox (and metric ton of other crap…)  The lightbox is what I’ll be working with next.  It’s nothing more than a large cardboard box that I cut holes into three sides and then covered those holes with a sheer white cotton fabric.  A few worklamps on the sides and top allows a diffuse light to fill the box and eliminate shadows.  These days I have a black posterboard shoved in there to act as a background, but I’ve used plain white and some printed “cloudy skies” in the past.   So I just stick a mini in there and shoot a bunch of different angles, trying to keep it in the same spot, just rotating it around.  Like this…
animated angles
 
 
I’ve an older Kodak digital camera that I sometimes use, but these days, my Galaxy S4 is my camera of choice.  Anyhow, once I’ve grabbed a dozen shots or so, I move them to my computer and open up Photoshop.   First step is to pick my “main” photo and crop it to size.
step1
 
Can you believe that background is the black posterboard?  That’s the wonder of the lightbox for ya.  So this next step is the only part where I truly alter the photo by bringing up the Brightness and Contrast sliders.
step2
 
I’m trying to get the black areas black, while keeping as much vibrancy to the photo as possible.  The settings are never the same twice, so I just play it by ear.  Again, the goal is to make the blacks black without making everything else too dark.  So, practice is about all I can suggest there.
step3
 
The background is still too light and the camera picks up every cat hair, bit of lint and speck of dust in the ‘box.  So here’s where I whip out the Burn Tool.  This requires multiple passes, set at 65% exposure, with increasingly smaller brush sizes to bring the background all the way down to black.
 step4
 
Start on the outer edges and work inwards.  I try to not hit the mini itself at all, I’m trying to keep it as close to “real” as I can.  I confess to often burning out the sides of the base to blend into the black background, tho’.  I find it aesthetically pleasing.  Anyhow, it should end up looking something like this:
step5
The next step is finding other parts of the mini I’d like to showcase.  Details and the like.  I create a new image, sized 200 x 200 pixels, then cut and paste other photos into that as new layers.  I move the image around until the 200 pixel frame shows the bit I’m trying to focus on, then I cut and paste _that_ into my main photo.  Repeat this step a few times to show off what you want.step-6
 
I use a few layer effects to offset the inserts, like a bevel and outer glow.   But now we’re just talking personal preferences.  Add a label, or not, as you choose, then “Save for web” to compress the file size.  Voila’!  We’re done.
 
I hope folks found these last few weeks helpful.  Usually, my advice on painting is just “slap paint on it and move it around” and I’m not sure I really improved on that all.  I’ve been painting for a few decades now, and I still think I suck, so when David asked me to write up a review and shed some light on how I paint, I was a bit flabbergasted and a bit flattered.  Still, it’s been fun and look forward to another half year of “Miniature Mondays”!  Lord knows, I’ve got plenty to paint… here’s a look at my Shelf of Shame.  I’ve got enough to last me a few years at one a week!
 
Shameshelf
 
– Clint K.
 
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Guest Review: Shadowrun Returns

Shadowrun ReturnsHi folks!  Today we have a treat.  Reader and friend of Caffeineforge, Eric R., has written a review of one of the mostly highly anticipated video game Kickstarters to date, Shadowrun Returns.  Without further ado, here’s the review!

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Hollywood Strikes Again

jumpthesharkHot on the heels of Kickstarters for Zach Braff’s Garden State followup, Veronica Mars‘ big screen comeback, and with just days (actually, now hours) left on the clock for James Franco’s art film Indiegogo project, another Hollywood name has turned to the crowd to fund his next project, and this one is actually pretty big.  That’s right, acclaimed director Spike Lee is asking you to fund his next flick.

I don’t… even have a sarcastic remark to make here.  Nope, from this lofty perch I’m just gonna watch that shark we jumped shake it’s lumpy fist with impotent rage.

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Monday Miniatures: The Knee bone’s connected to the…

bone-xray-knee

You know – the coloration of these things is remarkably similar to their xrayed namesakes. I’m sure that’s how it happened. Someone opened up the box of prototype miniatures, fresh from China, and said that they looked like they were made out of bone. Just like that, the label stuck.

Bones will also be sticking around here for at least one more week, as we continue to delve into the many aspects of them. Last week it was first impressions, and this week it is painting. Next week, well I suppose you’ll have to read the article to find out.

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Once More into the Shadows… Again: Shadowrun 5th Edition Review (Part 2)

Shadowrun5In our last installment, I described several laudable features of 5th edition—elements that distinguish this edition from the previous.  In this post, I want to look at the good, the bad, the ugly, and the controversial of this new edition.

We’ll start with the good.

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Once More Into the Shadows: Shadowrun 5th Edition Review (Part 1)

Shadowrun5Several months ago, I wrote a post about the “Year of Shadowrun”—a year of new releases and developments related to everyone’s favorite mash-up of cyberpunk, heist movies, and D&D inspired high fantasy tropes.  Of all the new releases coming down the pike, there was one I awaited more fervently than the rest.  The one that takes us back to where it all began—the 5th edition of the classic tabletop game.  At long last it hath arrived: Shadowrun 5th Edition is upon us, and this is (part one of) my review.

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