The Big Survey Results - How Your Feedback Is Shaping The Digital Forge! (Patreon)

Hello Patrons,

Firstly, a huge thanks to all of you who took a few minutes to fill in our survey - we had over 350+ responses and the information is very helpful!

Secondly, our goal is to make the project as useful and valuable as possible for the majority of people. It is very difficult to make decisions which everyone will be happy with, so we ask for your understanding if we are doing something which isn't ideal for your hobby/project.

So, let’s get to the questions - what you said, and what we are doing in response! 

Very short summary so you can get back to printing -  We are going to focus on quite strongly themed sets of 8-12 figures, which will contain a mix of different miniature types and be more modular, plus include more separate conversion components and options. We have started testing production using a Form 3 printer, and also hope to get resin versions available asap.

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Longer version with all the data and details of what we are changing:

Nearly half of you are printing models for larger scale wargames - we will try to offer at least one infantry squad option each month which will typically be suitable for printing a larger number of figures.

A clear majority want models which are just as detailed as our regular releases, so this is what we will do!

The models will still be suitable for less experienced painters who can use washes/dry brushing techniques to get good results in most cases.

A clear majority want fully or mostly modular parts. 

 Going forward, most characters will remain less modular, but where we can make option parts for characters (eg, separate heads, guns) we will do so. Infantry models will be fully modular unless there is a good design reason to combine certain parts (for example bullpup weapons really have to be a single component with the arms!).

A clear majority of you either have no strong feelings or are happy to add supports yourself if it means we can better use the time. 

For the next 3-6 months, while we are very short staffed due to the Coronavirus situation, we are going to offer pre-supported (and test printed) versions of any character models we do, certain components where a custom made support structure is straight forward.

More importantly perhaps - we are continuing to improve on our “design for 3D print” philosophy, which means at every design stage we are doing everything we can to optimise the components for 3D printing with as few supports as possible.

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We asked about different styles of miniature (rank and file, varied infantry, character, larger models). 

These questions were not very well designed. For all four questions approximately 60% of you were very interested, 40% less interested, and 2% not interested. We can’t really determine much from this, other than that a good mix is probably best, so that’s what we will try and do!

83% of you want more conversion parts? Consider It Done!  From now on, wherever we can split a component out and offer it separately, we will usually do so. Expect to see slightly fewer models, but a lot more separate components!

The response to Scatter Terrain and Bases was a lot more mixed, with a minority of you expressing a strong preference for either.

We are going to continue to include a few appropriate scatter terrain elements still but we won't make it a strong part of our effort.

For now, we are not going to do bases, but we will look at offering them in the future as the Patreon grows, as it would be a nice addition.

We will include a character model or some conversion parts with the $3 tier in months where we are offering significantly less scatter terrain.

More than half of you have no interest in Resin models (not that surprising given its a Patreon for STL files) but that means almost half of you do, and we have a lot of non-Patrons who are very interested, so we are certainly going to offer resin models when we have the capacity to do it.

Over half of you are interested in purchasing 3D prints.  Your Patreon funding has already made it possible for us to invest in a Form 3 printer, which is ideal for rapid and high-quality production print runs. We have started testing the machine and will keep you all up to date.

This was probably the most important question in the whole survey (in terms of affecting how we run things).

Over 90% of you are happy with a slightly smaller model count, combined with the increase in modularity and more separate conversion parts we have already mentioned.   

We have changed the “what you get” description to include a separate model count of 8-12 models. The modular nature of the designs means you will actually be able to build a larger number of different models.

We may, of course, do more separate figures in some months, but a slightly lower minimum lessens the pressure on our design resources and means we can focus more on quality, detail and modularity.

It's useful to know that most of you are happy with a less consistent output. We will try to offer awesome stuff every month, but we can take more risks to offer specialist products for some months which won't appeal to everyone.

You can expect to see, at a minimum, polls on the kind of themes we should be working on, with some more specific follow up questions in some cases.

A clear majority would like us to stick to a fairly strong theme each month, so this is what we will do.  One idea we are exploring at the moment is having 3-4 months of strongly themed releases, followed by a “mixed” month which will include extra reinforcements for popular prior months, plus a few more unique figures or conversion parts.

For adding value, most of you opted for exclusive STL’s or bonus models, so we will focus on these as the basis for adding value to the project.  

We have modified the Patreon description to give us some flexibility with early access/discounted pricing on resin miniatures for Patrons. It's still our intention to offer Patrons a great and special deal (as you are funding the creation of the models!) but given the uncertainty and difficulty we are having running the resin operation through the pandemic, we don’t want to commit to anything which later proves to place an unreasonable burden on our production team.

^These results are interesting for us and help us with promotion, but don’t have a huge impact on the project.

Any Extra Comments?

We had over 100 extra comments/suggestions. Thanks for all your kind words of encouragement! It really means a lot.

We can’t respond individually, but be assured we have read and considered every single comment!

Thanks again for your help. We are very pleased with how the project is going, and we are very excited to continue to design lots of awesome new models for our Patrons in the months ahead!

If you have any further feedback or questions, feel free to comment publicly below, or send us a private message if you prefer.

Team Anvil