Hysterical games — "winding the company up"

[mousakaParticipant 929xp 0]

@jamesedwards Fair enough, realise I was a bit hasty to have a go at you about posting, and am sorry for my tone, so my apologies to you. Think it was in part as I am hoping this is not the end and worried that too much exposure of the news could affect what deals could be made.

I am also a backer for both of the Panzerfauste ks, and while not totally out of pocket, am hoping there can be a bright light at the end of the tunnel, especially with regard to getting the rule books at least (which have good stuff in them having seen some of the work in progress sections. They were almost there, just needed printing really as far as I know.

The main issue they had with the rules was that both the skirmish and the mass battle rule books each had an external writer, but both of them had to stop work on their book unexpected quite soon after the ks finished due to external personal issues. This meant that Rob and Steve had to do the writing and play testing themselves rather then have other do this. I agree thought that the rule books still seeemed to take a long time to get to the point they are now.

Knowing Rob, I find it hard to believe he would be jumping from a boat he knew was sinking, it was a very good job opportunity this time, and he had a lot still invested in HG, including his wife’s job. I am guessing, but think it was the casting side of the company that caused the problem, possible due to rising costs of materials compared to the margins they got from the work they did, with Brexit causing a lot of issues as the pound went down compared to euro and dollar, and/or having some casting contracts cancel on them at the wrong moment.

[jamesedwardsParticipant 1101xp 1]

@limburger — thanks, I wasn’t aware that Kickstarter had that option. I agree they should do more to push it, not solely for corporate responsibility but also because it is good business. Having repeated failures tarnishes Kickstarter as a brand itself, I will not be backing these types of projects any more (more comfortable with non-miniature games though).

 

@mousaka — no worries, I understand the sensitivity. Sounds like you know the team so its right to feel strongly about it. I’m a business owner myself and I get disappointed when these companies fail and everyone is moaning about losing their $100 or whatever. The people behind the business have lost a lot more than that!

[civilcourageParticipant 11134xp 1]

Its sad to see these guys in trouble, i loved their models and the universe (luckily wasnt a backer as i couldnt justify the cost) but i think many people are right in that its usually creative individuals bringing this stuff to market and managing a business is a very different prospect.

I hope this is the end of these small companies folding as the mini world is starting feel like its getting smaller.

[mkultra99Participant 814xp 0]

I could have sworn that Andy Hobday of Warlord/Footsore/Warbanner fame just announced that he was now involved with Hysterical…?

[mousakaParticipant 929xp 0]

@mkultra99 that is right, it was flagged up though not sure what impact this will have now.

War Banner partner with Hysterical Games

[limburger 21683xp 0]

@jamesedwards : most kickstarters only use it for their top tier pledges (maximum x backers). And then there’s the likes
But they did do a special campaign that probably was meant to highlight how useful this feature was.

I think part of the problem is that it is hard to estimate potential audience and balance that against a realistic budget (plus explaining this to consumers).
And as a result of the ‘all or nothing’ approach creators are sort of forced to abuse strechgoals as an alternative.

I wouldn’t be surprised if there are companies out there that offer consulting services for creators ….

IndieGoGo does allow for more flexible targets … but they lack the sheer size of Kickstarter.

// —

Let’s hope they manage to survive and thrive.

[horati0nosebl0wer 19615xp 0]

I’m getting late to the game on this thread

@orlandothetechnicoloured you’re quite right in pointing out that they had impact on other companies. There was a KS for Renaissance ogres run that was impacted by this matter that I just picked back up on. I’ve not been overly worried on my KS stuff as generally it might take a little while but I assume it’ll pull through. The incident of Signum and the rights fight with Cadwallon and the long march timeline of Kingdom Death fulfillment has put updates as backburner issues.

With dealing with such small run batches it would make sense that one unpaid bill might well be an issue. I can only assume that might’ve been case for the best FLGS of the city near me folding.

[mousakaParticipant 929xp 1]

Thanks for highlighting this @horati0nosebl0wer as from the update it suggests that Warbanner will be taking over all of Hysterical Game’s parts, with more news by Jan 2019 if not before,which hopefully gives some light and suggests that there is hope for Kickstarter backers, both of HG directly and via casting work. You can read more at:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1704581903/28mm-renaissance-ogres/posts/2359070

[theamazingmrgParticipant 2703xp 1]

@mousaka – that does look promising, but I would still like some more details!

[chaingunParticipant 1939xp 1]

This does sound interesting, partnering with war banner could be the silver lining we are all hoping for. I look forward to reading more on this in the near future.

[orlandothetechnicolouredParticipant 4380xp 1]

More from Hysterical Games

“Apologies for the radio silence but we needed to concentrate on things behind the scenes to do what was needed to sort out Hysterical Games urgent debts and see what we could do to rescue the Kickstarters.

The former we have mostly done by selling off our mould making equipment etc which unfortunately meant we had to lay off the two members of staff employed by Hysterical (fortunately they have both found new jobs).

This, however, does not leave us with any money that is nee…ded to finish the Kickstarters.

Now, as we are sure most of you realise, Kickstarter is an investment platform and there are no guarantees that projects will be completed (indeed of the many we have personally backed, a few still remain unfulfilled and we suspect never will be).

However, both of us wanted to see if there was anyway we could try and ensure your investments were realised as much as possible and see the Kickstarters completed.

We have looked at various options, including selling the miniatures lines to a third party, but as it will cost several thousand pounds still to complete the Kickstarters, whilst there was interest in taking the miniatures line, there was, unsurprisingly, little in completing the Kickstarters for backers.

So we have decided to transfer the IP back to Wessex Games (Steve’s original company which brought out Panzerfäuste in 1998) along with the miniatures line and through sales generated from them, Wessex Games will then attempt to fulfil the Kickstarters to the best of their ability.

Unfortunately there is no magic money tree and Steve doesn’t have a pile of cash sat around to do this quickly so it will take some time, dependent on how quickly he can can raise funds at shows and through mail order. However his intention is to do his best to finish the Kickstarters off as quickly as he can and as well as possible.

At present everything related to the miniatures side is in a storage locker in Bristol and Steve hopes over the festive period to sit down and go through the various boxes of mixed up stuff to sort out what we have and draw up a plan to get everything done as soon as possible.

Wessex Games is a part-time, one man company, and he does have a full-time day job that pays the household bills, so please bear with him as he works through this, there will be periods of radio silence and he will not be able to respond to emails, PM’s etc very quickly (if at all).

Hopefully you see this as positive news and hopefully 2019 will be a positive year for both Panzerfäuste and Spitfyre.

Wishing you all a great Christmas and New Year…”

 

So not the rescue we hoped for, but at least the material should carry on being available via Wessex Games and they’ll try and fulfil the KS as sales funding allows

 

[orlandothetechnicolouredParticipant 4380xp 1]

although Hysterical games is now officially dead Steve is going to try and complete the KS as best he can using any profits generated from selling the Panzerfaust/Spitfyre minis etc under is Wessex games (note this is not his full time job so its going to be slow going, and KS backers won’t necessarily be first to get stuff as new releases will have to pay for themselves at retail)

but all in all much better than we’d feared as he could have walked away and abandoned things which would have been a real shame as the minis/IP is cool (and backers would have got nothing)

 

so an update

 

Driven Batty…

Posted by Hysterical Games (Creator)

Hi everyone

First off a belated thanks to everyone who came and said hi at Crusade and bought stuff. Having sorted out the boxes of resin it turned out we had lots of SpitFyre and HurriKane wings, but very few bodies which meant we couldn’t sell any starter sets but we still raised a bit of money to help progress things.

On that score Darko has sculpted both the Trog war-bat fighter…

https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/024/113/328/f8be81e2fb40c694f72e1a59b96bb703_original.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&w=639&fit=max&v=1550335436&auto=format&gif-q=50&lossless=true&s=41338c24e4f48859e919d4e409a558da

and bomber…

https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/024/113/333/c94ce718784d26eff5ca4c23220ec0f6_original.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&w=639&fit=max&v=1550335468&auto=format&gif-q=50&lossless=true&s=fc52cb084ceec4eac472da379df42454

I will be honest, I don’t like sharing the 3D renders of the SpitFyre models as they look exaggerated compared to the physical models but given the KS problems I thought you’d appreciate seeing them now.They are being printed for moulding and casting and Darko is now moving on to the Defier fighter wyvern with its unusual rear-facing guns.

More news on other stuff, including you being able to buy stuff and split pledge ordering soon.

Cheers

Steve

Wessex Games

[Author]

Posts