So here we are again, its been a short while since the Kickstarter for ArcWorlde went live and my previous article went out so its time to catch up a little bit with the man behind Warploque, Alex Huntley. He is currently sitting at around £20,000 plus on his Kickstarter and still going!

Zak Macklin: Within 2 hours of launching your relatively low target Kickstarter you had already met your goal. How did you work out the £5,000 initial target and what made you decided on the stretch goals we have reach so far?

Alex Huntley: As with other successful Kickstarters, a lot of preparation and research went into the campaign before the launch. I visited the casters I will be using to lock in the exact cost of producing the miniatures while sorting out the costs of printing the rulebook and more. This was the basis for my initial goal target and was sorted many months ago. I create all of the miniatures and artwork myself. There's no need to outsource and my only costs are bulk supplies of pizza and Relentless!

During my Kickstarter research I realised how important the stretch goal aspect can be. It is often the most exciting part of the campaign and generates a real buzz for backers. With that in mind, I made sure to create a diverse stretch goal plan and endeavoured to sculpt as many of those models as possible before the campaign started. I did this with some level of pessimism - because I didn't expect to get close to my target so soon. However, my Brindie Brothers knew better it would seem, because they all pretty much forced me to sculpt 24-7!

I wanted to support ArcWorlde and the backers with more than just miniatures. There are Stretch Goals that add value and richness to the world and gameplay. Things like scenarios, extra rulebook pages, funky painting guides and other insanity that is yet to come!

So, all in all, the Stretch Goals were planned pretty well!

What I wasn't prepared for however was the sheer insanity of the first few days and the time it would take to update the Kickstarter page. It's not the easiest backend to use, but I'm doing my best. Smashing the target goal in two hours and nudging ten thousand pounds by the end of the first day did cause a few problems... but they were good problems of course!

Do you have an overall goal? I know you said you have some forty addition figures sculpted and ready to go into production but how are you finding the logistics of producing as many figures as you will need? I know White Dragon Miniatures is doing some of your casting for you.

White Dragon (or as I know him - Alan Le Voyeur) is indeed doing some casting. Because I use wood and resin elements in my master sculpts they can't be used in the vulcanisation process for metal casting. Alan will make me sub-masters to take the metal casts from. As far as volume goes - although historically my miniatures were cast in resin, I realised metal was a much better medium to meet the delivery deadline if things did go ballistic and there were a lot of backers.

You set an expected time of delivery of February 2014. Do you think this will be achievable for everyone with how successful your kickstarter appears to be, considering you are one man against the world?

The delivery deadline of February has been very carefully considered and it is possible that I'll be able to honour and deliver the pledges before then unless things go totally crazy. I'm certainly not doing this on my own either. My casters are incredibly knowledgeable and very experienced and I have support from various people during the campaign itself. James from Infamy Miniatures is my co-campaign manager, I chat frequently with my other Brindie brothers, Alan's on hand to do casting, Joe has many contacts, and that's just the start. Backers should have no fears about getting their models and extras in a timely fashion.

Do you have any follow up projects that are likely to hit Kickstarter following the release of ArcWorlde?

As with any project that you hope to keep going for a long time, there are always ideas you keep in mind for the future. Once the core game of ArcWorlde has been released, I hope to do a number of expansion packs over the next few years. Whether or not I feel I need to use Kickstarter to launch them entirely depends on the outcome of this one, and the response the gaming community has to the game when it is released!

How do you find time to plan a Kickstarter and sculpt miniatures around studying at university? Does this project tie in with your degree at all? Is there a chance that if the Kickstarter goes out of this world you would suspend your studies to move over full time to the miniatures business?

Finding time to run Warploque Miniatures and study for my degree is indeed tough! I am currently reading Human Genetics at the University of Nottingham, so sometimes I find it difficult to give both the time they need. As well as these, I am also a member of two drama societies, and I am heavily involved with Musical Theatre, so life is pretty hectic! However, I love to be busy and active - life's too short to be bored. I have indeed considered the problems I may face if Warploque continues to grow, and I am sure that I will be able to cope with any that may arise. My current plan is to study for a PhD after my Bachelors is completed in 2015, but I am starting to consider taking a year or so out so I can fully concentrate on Warploque!

You must be very busy with all of the feedback and questions and preparations for the stretch goals, so thank you for taking the time to talk to me again!

Zak Macklin

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