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Craig Van Ness Q&A Thread

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.
 
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.
 
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?
 
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.

Thanks for sharing this. I feel so justified in only viewing Classic and Marvel as "real" Heroscape.
 
And I, conversely, feel justified in viewing some of the D&D units as the best that Heroscape has to offer. :p
 
And I, conversely, feel justified in viewing some of the D&D units as the best that Heroscape has to offer. :p

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.
 
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.

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.
 
I would claim that one of the great tragedies of the Heroscape story was the fact that we never got to see the final member of The Nine (the Elf Wizards) or the Raptorians.
Can you share any information about those two? I especially would like to know whether any artists had made sculpts or concept art, and especially what abilities were considered for the final Wizard.

Nukatha,
We had plans to grow many armies. I probably should stay away from specific card stats. We had not started the sculpts for additional elf wizards or the raptorians.
 
How involved were you in Arena of the Planeswalkers?


I kind of picture the decision to not have commons as being the kind of thing you might want to avoid by taking things into your own hands....

I was involved, and yes our initial plans had common packs.
 
CJtheMighty said:
^ I'm sure I can speak for anyone who's tried HS customs ever, we would love to hear how you would cost customs, and if you have a formula, or if there were any official formulas.
Hasbro owns the formulas.

CJtheMighty said:
And, can we get a sneak peek at what Soaring Rhino is planning next?
Yes, my brother responded to this. We will be launching a video about our first game very soon!

CJtheMighty said:
And, would you ever consider buying the licences to HS? Even if just to say that you have them? And what would you do with them?
Yes. If Hasbro would entertain this idea, there are many things I could do with the Heroscape brand...
For now, I need to start small and grow Soaring Rhino.

CJtheMighty said:
And finally (last one, I promise*), in relation to the last one, would you ever consider reprinting older HS sets?
Yes. But the retail prices would be very high.
 
I'd like to hear a little about Battleship Galaxies. How much was planned, what was the reason it didn't survive, do you truly feel the two fleets were balanced in the base game?
 
This is a silly question, but its one that I've debated with a few people. When you pronounce the name "Krug", do you have a short u sound like bug or a long u sound like dude? Btw, there is an excellent French champagne called Krug which uses the long u sound.
 
This is a silly question, but its one that I've debated with a few people. When you pronounce the name "Krug", do you have a short u sound like bug or a long u sound like dude? Btw, there is an excellent French champagne called Krug which uses the long u sound.

I also remember seeing a college volleyball player with that surname, but I don't remember if I even heard it spoken.
 
;) I have to admit that I'm surprised and pleased to hear about even the vaguest possibility of a future for Heroscape. Because I've disliked Hasbro for its tight hold on its IPs, even when they have no plans themselves for development, I've been shaking my head at younger folks asking you about this since you opened this thread, not long ago. Hasbro has ruined the prospect of development for many a game such as my admired designer Richard Borg's Battle Cry 150, for example.

But if you have an in with them and can work something out in the future, hey, more power to you--and us all!
 
This is a silly question, but its one that I've debated with a few people. When you pronounce the name "Krug", do you have a short u sound like bug or a long u sound like dude? Btw, there is an excellent French champagne called Krug which uses the long u sound.

I also remember seeing a college volleyball player with that surname, but I don't remember if I even heard it spoken.

If we are still on this topic, there's a player for the Boston Bruins named Torey Krug. His name was pronounced with the long "u" sound like dude. There's highlight videos on youtube where you can hear this particular name pronounced. His brother played college volleyball, so it's likely that this is the volleyball player you were thinking about. He had another brother who used to play for my local minor league hockey team.
 
As much as possible, let's try to leave this thread for questions and answers, and not the chitchat that we are glad to have everywhere else.

I recognize that my own hands are not completely clean in this regard, but let's try anyway.

Thank you.
 
Wait if it's possible to purchase the rights to Heroscape could we Crowd fund this? that way Craig or a public entity could own the rights and then any previous sets could legally be released for 3D printing, as well as reprinting, and continuation of lines? Then any sculptors who wish to produce further expansions could, instead of stealing miniatures from other games. I guess that would be my question to Craig, can something like this be worked out?
 
Hi Craig,
Firstly - thanks for the great and enduring game that Heroscape is! I look forward to seeing your next gaming endeavours... My questions are about licensing; I see the original fluff of Heroscape as being perfect for pulling any license into the universe. As a big He-Man fan (check out my Castle Grayskull in the custom terrain forum) I imagined MotU, as well as other 80's franchises (Transformers, Predator, Thundercats, Judge Dredd etc) as having great potential.

How much control do you have re design when working with licensed products? For example, were the Marvel designs (sculpts/powers etc) your HS version of the characters, or Marvel's version of their characters in your universe?
 
Hi Craig, thanks for your involvement in so many awesome games! I doubt you remember me, but I asked you to sign my Heroscape themed Chedwick and Sven Comic t-shirt at Gencon a few years ago. You did, and the ink is still visible (don't worry, it's been washed several times).

I had one question, one of the games that you worked on was tragically cut short of reaching its full potential, and that game was Battleship Galaxies. I really loved that game. It really needed some more expansions but we never got them. Did you guys actually get around to designing some more stuff and are you able to share any of that information?

Heroscape was cut off and that was a huge shame, but at least we have plenty enough to keep going. I couldn't feel that way about Battleship Galaxies.

I hope someday your new business can make a space battle game at some point. The ones that are around are way too complicated and require either modeling or measuring, which I personally don't like. I would love a space game similar in level to Heroscape or Battleship Galacies. I hope that dream can come true some day.

In the meantime, thanks for taking the time to answer questions! And thanks in advance for your answers!
 
@Craig Van Ness First of all thanks for all your fun work on Heroscape and other games and for joining this site and answering questions now that 1/2 your NDA agreement is null.

I wanted to ask you since it has been 10 years if you can let the cat out of the bag:
Who was responsible for "Hot Lava Death" going on the Volcarren Wasteland box lid tab and how long did it take for Hasbo to find out?

I know it must have made someone at the company mad enough that they ordered it to be covered it up with a sticker at the factory. AFAIK, in a BoardGameSpeak 2004-12-07 Podcast (cannot find a download for it now) someone yelled "hot lava death" and I guess it became a running joke among the Heroscape creators, but who decided to put it on the box and did the actual graphic design for it? I don't know if either your exiting NDA or just whoever did it's pride prevents you from telling, but was hoping you can let us all in on the joke.
 
Thanks for all your work on the creation of such an awesome game.

As for a question:
Do you have a go to unit or army type you used in games?
 
When do you consider a game successful?

Just curious. I know you must consider 'scape to be successful...but why?
 
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