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  #1  
Old September 13th, 2016, 10:34 AM
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Craig Van Ness Q&A Thread

Do you have a question for Craig Van Ness, the lead designer of Heroscape? If so, this is place to ask!

Since he's new on the site and there may be some pent up demand in wondering about this-or-that, I ask you all to use your good judgement and not flood him with too many questions too quickly. He tells me most any question is fine, but if he can't answer something, I'm sure he'll tell ya that.

Welcome, Craig!

There is nothing more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. --MLK
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  #2  
Old September 13th, 2016, 10:43 AM
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Re: Craig Van Ness Q&A Thread

Hello Craig! Tell us about the genesis of Heroscape. Did it begin as an idea that you conceived and pitched to Hasbro? Did Hasbro direct its creation? Or was there some other path to its inception?
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Old September 13th, 2016, 02:09 PM
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Re: Craig Van Ness Q&A Thread

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Hello Craig! Tell us about the genesis of Heroscape. Did it begin as an idea that you conceived and pitched to Hasbro? Did Hasbro direct its creation? Or was there some other path to its inception?
Many of the designers at Hasbro at the time we were pitching Heroscape were playing miniature games. We had pitched miniature concepts before but Heroclix was in mass market with their DC and Marvel line. I think this is why this time we were successful in pitching a miniatures concept like Heroscape.

We came up with several ideas for Game Systems using miniatures. I think the plastic terrain made Heroscape stand out. Alan Roach created this stop motion video of the terrain being built in different ways, we knew we had something. Stephen Baker, the designer of Heroquest and many other fun games, came up with the idea for the terrain. We worked together on the core engine of the game. We wanted to create an easy to get into immersive mass market miniatures experience. Many miniature games require you to stay in a group or move with a group. I wanted squads, but I wanted the ability to treat then very similar to how the heroes worked to keep the rules simple. We tried to keep it as simple as possible, always making rules that made common sense. All the designers, especially Rob Daviau, and non-designer playtesters kicked in and helped out. With a game system like Heroscape there are so many cards to design and test. Rob Daviau, Chris Schubach and I worked on the story in the beginning.

I hope that answers your questions.
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Old September 13th, 2016, 02:51 PM
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Re: Craig Van Ness Q&A Thread

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Originally Posted by Craig Van Ness View Post
We came up with several ideas for Game Systems using miniatures. I think the plastic terrain made Heroscape stand out.

Given the number of tabletop miniature games that were readily adaptable to the use of Heroscape terrain tiles, was there ever any discussion about marketing packages of just the terrain tiles?
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Old September 14th, 2016, 12:16 PM
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Re: Craig Van Ness Q&A Thread

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Craig Van Ness View Post
We came up with several ideas for Game Systems using miniatures. I think the plastic terrain made Heroscape stand out.

Given the number of tabletop miniature games that were readily adaptable to the use of Heroscape terrain tiles, was there ever any discussion about marketing packages of just the terrain tiles?
Yes, many discussions. I think we could of done a much better job giving the hobby market a piece of the Heroscape line.
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Old September 13th, 2016, 11:03 AM
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Re: Craig Van Ness Q&A Thread

"Welcome back; your dreams were your ticket out."
--Welcome Back, Kotter


Will you be needing any play testers for Shifting Realms, your first product?

It sounds great! ( I note that my board game collection includes Risk 2210, Star Wars Queen's Gambit, Heroscape, and MTG:AOTP.)

Last edited by chas; September 13th, 2016 at 11:24 AM.
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Old September 13th, 2016, 11:46 AM
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He should definitely get that. (#4)
 
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Re: Craig Van Ness Q&A Thread

Hi Craig, and good to have you with us!

I realize WotC still has the rights to HS (to the best of my knowledge), so bringing it back isn't likely. I was struck by an idea though:

Bringing HS back might be out of the question, but what if you were to create a game using minis in the same scale as HS? Then all we/you would need to do is make custom cards for them. Boom! HS is back!

The difference between that and normal customs is that they would belong to a game that is being promoted, meaning they could be bought in stores like HS figures used to be. That way, the game you create would have an instant following, and HS would get restored, at least partially. You'd basically be designing two games with one, and collecting a following for each, rather than for just one game.

Do you think that's viable?

~TGRF, who admits he is a game developer in the realm of the mind only. For now.
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Old September 13th, 2016, 04:27 PM
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Craig Van Ness Craig Van Ness is offline
 
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Re: Craig Van Ness Q&A Thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by The Grim Reaper's Friend View Post
Hi Craig, and good to have you with us!

I realize WotC still has the rights to HS (to the best of my knowledge), so bringing it back isn't likely. I was struck by an idea though:

Bringing HS back might be out of the question, but what if you were to create a game using minis in the same scale as HS? Then all we/you would need to do is make custom cards for them. Boom! HS is back!

The difference between that and normal customs is that they would belong to a game that is being promoted, meaning they could be bought in stores like HS figures used to be. That way, the game you create would have an instant following, and HS would get restored, at least partially. You'd basically be designing two games with one, and collecting a following for each, rather than for just one game.

Do you think that's viable?

~TGRF, who admits he is a game developer in the realm of the mind only. For now.
TGRF
Interesting idea. I think this would be a confusing message for a new game- A new game that can be easily customized to work with Heroscape.

If you want Heroscape back, I would think this would be something that you might try negotiating with Hasbro Inc.
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  #9  
Old September 13th, 2016, 05:59 PM
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He should definitely get that. (#4)
 
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Re: Craig Van Ness Q&A Thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by Craig Van Ness View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Grim Reaper's Friend View Post
Hi Craig, and good to have you with us!

I realize WotC still has the rights to HS (to the best of my knowledge), so bringing it back isn't likely. I was struck by an idea though:

Bringing HS back might be out of the question, but what if you were to create a game using minis in the same scale as HS? Then all we/you would need to do is make custom cards for them. Boom! HS is back!

The difference between that and normal customs is that they would belong to a game that is being promoted, meaning they could be bought in stores like HS figures used to be. That way, the game you create would have an instant following, and HS would get restored, at least partially. You'd basically be designing two games with one, and collecting a following for each, rather than for just one game.

Do you think that's viable?

~TGRF, who admits he is a game developer in the realm of the mind only. For now.
TGRF
Interesting idea. I think this would be a confusing message for a new game- A new game that can be easily customized to work with Heroscape.

If you want Heroscape back, I would think this would be something that you might try negotiating with Hasbro Inc.
The customization wouldn't have to be part of the game promotion. It would be a game just like any other. It would just 'happen' to have figures that could fit in the HS universe. I'd imagine the many custom groups here on HS would be glad to take on the entire customization part if necessary.
This could of course work with multiple games, given how diverse HS is. A game about robots, one about aliens that resemble marro, one with fantasy creatures... then we would take those minis and create custom cards for them. All the HS players on HSers would then buy those minis for their compatibility in HS, and in the process probably get hooked on your other games as well. Win-win.

However, you know vastly more about game design and promotion than I do, so this is just a thought of mine.

~TGRF.
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  #10  
Old September 13th, 2016, 02:28 PM
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Craig Van Ness Craig Van Ness is offline
 
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Re: Craig Van Ness Q&A Thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by chas View Post
"Welcome back; your dreams were your ticket out."
--Welcome Back, Kotter


Will you be needing any play testers for Shifting Realms, your first product?

It sounds great! ( I note that my board game collection includes Risk 2210, Star Wars Queen's Gambit, Heroscape, and MTG:AOTP.)
Shifting Realms is pretty close to being finished concerning the game play. However, we are currently working on the next group of games, one of which will include the first expansion for Shifting Realms. We are looking for playtesters. For now, if you have a group of playtesters and you want to help out contact me through Heroscapers.
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Old September 13th, 2016, 12:01 PM
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Re: Craig Van Ness Q&A Thread

Hey Craig, very excited to have you around. I still show off the Raelin card you signed for me in 2011 all the time. I finally met Rob this year at Gencon, so I'm acquainted with two of the creators of my all-time favorite game.

My question: how much Heroscape do you play/have you played? Did you do a lot of the testing yourself as waves came out or was there a design/development divide like I've heard about in Magic and other games? Did you/do you have a playing group where you play Heroscape for fun semi-regularly?
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Old September 13th, 2016, 04:43 PM
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Re: Craig Van Ness Q&A Thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by dok View Post
My question: how much Heroscape do you play/have you played? Did you do a lot of the testing yourself as waves came out or was there a design/development divide like I've heard about in Magic and other games? Did you/do you have a playing group where you play Heroscape for fun semi-regularly?
Lately, I have been playing mostly the games we are designing for Soaring Rhino. While working on Heroscape, I play tested all the time. Early on, I had a playtest forum that allowed me to communicate with many different playtest groups around the country. We also used the forum to track changes. Many of the people on my original playtest forum are now very successful in the gaming industry and they almost all came from Heroscapers.com.

There was no divide between design and development.

Now, I play Heroscape with my kids. It is so fun to pull out the bins of terrain and let them run wild with their terrain creations. And when I say bins, I mean many bins.
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