anvildigitalforge
patreon
This Is Important - Please take a few minutes to help us improve the Digital Forge!!
🕑 Added 2022-04-23 17:56:35 +0000 UTCDear Patrons,
This is our most important update since launch, as we are considering making some fairly significant changes to the way we run the project, and we value your views!
Thanks for your support on the journey so far, and for taking a few minutes to read this - we don't want to take too much of your precious printing and painting time!
The Short Version (or scroll to below the image for the more detailed version):
- The Anvil Digital Forge was growing steadily up until January 2021. Since then our subscriber numbers have remained flat at around 1200-1300 supporters per month.
- Concepting, sculpting, optimising, supporting and test printing 50+ separate components each month is a huge task and we are unfortunately not making enough money to cover our development costs.
- Committing almost all our digital design output to the Patreon is impacting our mainstream resin business.
- We want to take action in the next six months so that the project can succeed in the long term.
- We will shortly be sending current and recent Patrons a link by private message to an important survey which will help guide the changes we need to make.
- The most important questions concern a possible move to offering many more single piece miniatures - in line with the vast majority of 3D printing Patreons, and how we make changes without alienating current supporters.
- It's 27 questions and will likely take you approximately Ten Minutes to complete.
- As a thanks for your time, you'll find a link at the end to download some tasty zombie survival gear which will come in handy next month!
- The Survey is anonymous, but if you have specific questions, suggestions or concerns feel free to comment publicly below or on our discord channel (https://discord.gg/4vRnCKcg)
^^Grab These Freebies!!^^
The More Detailed Version
Cup of Tea.. Check.
The combination of cheap 3D printers becoming more mainstream, and the pandemic greatly impacting our resin operation, has radically reshaped Anvil Industry over the past couple of years and there is no going back.
Offering STL's for sale is a huge opportunity for us - and clearly a booming and highly competitive market, but it's also presenting some significant issues for our traditional resin miniatures business, and the general economic situation is pretty grim for small businesses at the moment.
When we launched the Digital Forge back in May 2020, it grew steadily (hurray!) but from January 2021 the number of Patreons leaving has been the same as those joining up - we've had about 1200-1300 supporters each month since then.
We've continued to innovate with improved supports, added value such as multi-shell elements- and we are one of a very small number of projects offering fully modular components with compatibility between months.
Concepting, sculpting, optimising, supporting and test printing 50+ separate components each month is a huge task, and we regularly squeeze in extra content because we are keen hobbyists and love what we do.
Unfortunately this means we are not currently making enough money to cover our development costs.
This wasn't such a problem during the pandemic when we could not release new resin models for a long time. Now that we are getting our regular operation back up and running - committing almost all our digital design time to the Patreon is making it hard to develop new products aimed at the resin market.
For the Digital Forge to continue to operate as a viable stand alone project, it ideally needs to be making enough money to fully cover development costs, and a healthy profit would mean we can continue to innovate and offer even more value for money.
Digital STL economics are very different from physical sales - If all existing supporters signed up one new Patron, our revenue would double and our problem would be solved immediately, because our development costs would stay exactly the same.
We are competing with larger projects which are entirely digital and which have upwards of 5000 subscribers. having 4-6 times more money coming in means they are able to release vastly more content each month.
We would like to increase the scope of our offering and offer even more value for money, but it's only viable if the project revenue is growing.
Our current format/offering isn't working, so we need to consider quite significant changes in the next few months.
We value your input, so you'll get a link by Patreon private message soon, inviting you to complete an important survey which will help guide us in making changes. It's 27 questions and will likely take approximately Ten Minutes to complete.
As a thanks for your time, you'll find a link at the end to download some tasty zombie survival gear which will come in handy next month!
We need your input on :
- What kind of miniatures/games you are involved with.
- How you support and value our existing format.
- How you use various elements of what we offer.
- A possible move to offering many more single piece miniatures - in line with the vast majority of 3D printing Patreons, and how we could do that without alienating current supporters.
We are concerned that a majority of 3D printing enthusiasts may be put off by seeing renders of cool models and then realising they have to print, clean up and glue together half a dozen components for each finished miniature.
Obviously the ideal solution is to include both single-piece miniatures AND modular parts, but that's significantly more work and it's not financially viable at the moment. - How we can effectively advertise the Patreon and attract new subscribers.
The survey is anonymous so you can be totally honest, but if you have any feedback, questions or suggestions you would like to be public, feel free to comment below, on our discord (https://discord.gg/4vRnCKcg) or you can private message us with any specific concerns/ideas.
We love making digital models for our fans and we will put a lot of effort into making the project an ongoing success - We are extremely grateful for your support on the journey so far!
Thanks
Team Anvil
Comments
I think having more tutorials on how to use blender for digital kitbashing would also be helpful, specially using your own miniatures, similar to the mech video but even simpler like just combing various infantry pieces, real laymans terms to ease people into the concept. A perfect example is of the chaos ogre on your blog, just a whole step by step process of how it was done. More confidence in the process will lead to more people attempting and experimenting hopefully.
Chris Braille-Scale
I do like the idea of painting competitions as advertising. Winner gets your store credit for digital or resin. Stipulate that the mini has to be at least 50% from your line if it's kitbashed or something. Help reward the community and drive sales and web traffic all at once. Could grow it to different categories, best single mini, best diorama, best kitbash, etc.
Brent van Abkoude
What kind of miniatures/games you are involved with. I'm mostly a painter but I do support other miniature companies. I buy from you guys (physically too), Artel W, Games Workshop, Kingdom Death and the odd Dungeons and Dragons/Pathfinder branded line. Stl files wise I support a few different sculptors big and small including some that provide free stuff for the community. How you support and value our existing format. I love the modularity of the pieces, it speaks to the hobbyist in me that I get to assemble the bits to my taste. How you use various elements of what we offer. Kitbashing and figure-building. I have been getting into diorama building as well. A possible move to offering many more single piece miniatures - in line with the vast majority of 3D printing Patreons, and how we could do that without alienating current supporters. I personally like the modular kits but I suppose maybe making some more character-centric pieces couldn't hurt. It would make me re-evaluate my subscription, I can't lie but I'd see what happens. We are concerned that a majority of 3D printing enthusiasts may be put off by seeing renders of cool models and then realising they have to print, clean up and glue together half a dozen components for each finished miniature. Obviously the ideal solution is to include both single-piece miniatures AND modular parts, but that's significantly more work and it's not financially viable at the moment. How we can effectively advertise the Patreon and attract new subscribers. I have no idea how advertising works to be honest. Maybe painting competitions?
