Whether we’re designing an enormous terrain set like Forest Moon Village or a much smaller addition to your gaming table, the overall design process follows the same basic steps. We find that these same steps are repeated later in the terrain life cycle when we go from print to table-ready terrain, so even if you’re not interested in the design side of the hobby, this lends itself to the “hobbying” side of the hobby.
As of the writing of this blog post in December, 2024, we’re preparing to release a small terrain set for sci fi or ultra-modern gaming with the working title of “Field Comms.” This small terrain set is intended to invoke the feeling of a communication array for intrepid explorers or front-line troops. We also wanted to create a “playset” feel that transports many of us back to the days of action figures and making up our own sci-fi stories.
It all starts with inspiration. We find inspiration everywhere, including many of the places you’d think like movies, video games, the internet, and books. There are less obvious sources of inspiration too like conversations with customers and everyday places that have interesting patterns or aesthetics. My phone’s camera role is full of pictures of boxes and cables and, most recently, the patterned ceiling of a domed subway station.
In this case, inspiration came while paging through one of our great books in the studio library: “Futuria - Art of the Sci-Fi Age” by Victionary. In the background of one of the book’s beautiful illustrations was a dilapidated antenna. For us, this brought about the idea of transportable and deployable communication systems for the troops.
Inspiration is not the same as duplication, and that’s where the design process begins. Grabbing our favorite mechanical pencil and a wire bound notebook, we began making sketches. Maybe paper and pencil sounds old-school, but we find that it’s the fastest way to do what we call “visual brainstorming” – no rulers, no compass, and no judgement. We just start with crummy sketches to bring out the “feel” of the terrain, and this is how the inspiration evolves into a new design.
Eventually, we put down the pencils and switch to the mouse or tablet and pen. It should be no surprise that 3D-modeling is where we spend the bulk of our time creating new terrain offerings. Unlike the sketches, the modeling is often rigidly constrained by straight lines, perfect arcs and specific angles. It’s how we balance aesthetically pleasing designs with the limitation of FDM printing, especially printing support free. Since we pride ourselves on creating terrain that customers can print without supports, the limitation drives some design decisions and often challenges us to find innovative ways to balance the vision and the mechanical limitations.
As soon as the first designs are saved, test printing begins. This is where the process becomes iterative, and test prints often drive improvements to the designs. Our shelves are full of unique versions of different terrain sets that never made it outside the studio walls, but they are visual reminders of the evolution to the products on players tables around the world.
Finally, it’s time to render the designs, paint and weather sample pieces for photographing and prepare the website and file distribution server to get the new designs onto your print beds. BUT, and this an important “but,” the design process doesn’t always stop here. Much like playtesting a new game mechanic, once people start putting our terrain onto their tables, we occasionally get feedback that drives a design update or addition. So, the design process is never truly finished.
The whole process takes time, but we love every minute of it and are inspired each day when we see our designs being used as the backdrop for amazing games that create memories among friends across the table.
Happy printing and gaming!