Craig Van Ness Q&A Thread

[mee likey]

'sup Craig.

There was a thread on this site which discussed the cartoons...it's been a while, some of the links are dead.

Here are some Youtube links to a couple Heroscape teaser cartoons

YouTube

YouTube

I think more in that style might also have been made, but no longer posted anywhere.

There were also 5 mini-webisodes made in a 3D style. Here they are put together into one video (The resolution is poor quality.)

YouTube

Finally, in the Heroscapers download section, under "Theme and Fiction" you'll find all the Heroscape comics (in jpeg and pdf) and a rough draft of a script for webisodes that were never made. Looks like the original source of the script was here.

[Porkins]

Originally Posted by Rÿchean

I am a little surprised the reveal that Star Wars heroscape was almost a thing didn't break this site. Did no one else see this? CVN posted that he regrets that star war heroscape never saw the light of day, and we just gloss on by?

Craig, is there anything you can share with us about Star Wars heroscape, anything at all?

Yeah, I didn't pursue it because I figured anything more than this was probably locked up by a Hasbro gag order. But I would love to hear more if more can be said.

[Craig Van Ness]

Originally Posted by TREX

Indeed. That would be most interesting for producing customs. I mean we have our ways anyway, but still.

Yes. We had formulas. When designing we would put the cards into the formula to see what would come out. We usually guessed first at a cost.

[superfrog]

Originally Posted by Craig Van Ness

Yes. We had formulas. When designing we would put the cards into the formula to see what would come out. We usually guessed first at a cost.

Yes, I've seen cost formulas around, most of them seem to not be that great. Nowadays, a lot of costing is done by comparison to existing units, and revised by testing. I guess I was wondering if you could actually share the cost formula you used, or shed some light on to how effective it was.

[Craig Van Ness]

Originally Posted by Ninja Status

Hi Craig,

Were there official plans to develop some type of Lord of the Rings HeroScape?

Thanks!

No. At the time I think Games Workshop was making minis. I think we decided not to compete with GW.

[Craig Van Ness]

Originally Posted by heroscaper2010

Hi Craig, it's quite awesome to have you in the community, especially looking at the customs section! I'm sure your critique will be greatly appreciated there.

I have a game mechanic question. Was there any thoughts of creating units with a range of 2 or 3?

Thanks in advance!
~HS2010

We tried to make cards that made sense. I guess we never really designed with range 2 or 3 in mind. I think if we had an idea for a weapon that made sense to have a 2 or 3 range, we would have considered it.

[Craig Van Ness]

Originally Posted by Rathburn

Hello Craig, I must ask why did super scape not really get that much love. It does seem like a massively untapped market. Unless there where things such as opposing creative licenses that halted it's continuation, or lack of market impact at first.

When WOTC took over Heroscape, they had a plan to turn it into a D&D miniatures game. I strongly advised against this plan because I felt Marvel was much more appealing to mass market consumers than D&D. Also, I wanted to keep the Heroscape story pure. I urged WOTC to continue with the Marvel expansions as designed and to not launch D&D Heroscape. I knew they wanted to reuse sculpts. These sculpts did not exactly align with the head and hand scale of classic Heroscape. One thing I will always be is someone who pays attention to detail and quality. Ultimately, my advise was ignored.

WOTC did take my advise on hiring the correct people to design their Heroscape product. Colby Dauch, Jerry Hawthorn and Chris Dupuis made sure the design and innovation of the WOTC designed Heroscape product was excellent.

[Nukatha]

For what its worthy Craig, I think you played the hand you were dealt as well as you possibly could. But with how big Marvel has gotten recently with their continuous box offices successes, I have to believe that if Marvel 'Scape would have continued, the game would still be on store shelves today.

I would like to know: Did you ever consider releasing the standard expansion packs in cardboard boxes, without the clear plastic bit, to save on cost/be able to ship the boxes more compactly?

[happyjosiah]

Originally Posted by Craig Van Ness

When WOTC took over Heroscape, they had a plan to turn it into a D&D miniatures game. I strongly advised against this plan because I felt Marvel was much more appealing to mass market consumers than D&D. Also, I wanted to keep the Heroscape story pure. I urged WOTC to continue with the Marvel expansions as designed and to not launch D&D Heroscape. I knew they wanted to reuse sculpts. These sculpts did not exactly align with the head and hand scale of classic Heroscape. One thing I will always be is someone who pays attention to detail and quality. Ultimately, my advise was ignored.

WOTC did take my advise on hiring the correct people to design their Heroscape product. Colby Dauch, Jerry Hawthorn and Chris Dupuis made sure the design and innovation of the WOTC designed Heroscape product was excellent.

Thanks for sharing this. I feel so justified in only viewing Classic and Marvel as "real" Heroscape.

[Dad_Scaper]

And I, conversely, feel justified in viewing some of the D&D units as the best that Heroscape has to offer.

[Porkins]

Originally Posted by Dad_Scaper

And I, conversely, feel justified in viewing some of the D&D units as the best that Heroscape has to offer.

Agreed. Whether you like or hate the D&D theme and the figures and all that WotC did, everyone has to admit that the units that Colby, Jerry and Chris designed are really great.

[Majora's Incarnation]

Originally Posted by happyjosiah

Thanks for sharing this. I feel so justified in only viewing Classic and Marvel as "real" Heroscape.

Just as long as you don't screw up the Heroscape wiki with this viewpoint XD

I jest in that matter, but I'm glad to see there's some more perception from the officials made on the concept that cleaved our community in half for so long.