"All Quiet on the Martian Front - The Future?" Topic

Is anyone planning to pick up the rights to the game?

From what I've heard, the models were fine, it was the rules which were the problem.

Found this on another forum,

Hello everyone,
I am posting an update to the state of All Quiet on the Martian Front. I work for a new company, Ironclad Games, that is looking to potentially purchase and produce All Quiet on the Martian Front.

We are working to acquire the IP and inventory for the game. I hope to have more information for everyone very soon, but for now we have plans to release more models at least.

I'd love to hear from the community about any feedback, concerns, suggestions, etc.

One of the things that I'd like to see is more interaction with you, the fans, so please post here or drop me a message directly.

Thank you,
-Joe

Cohort, what forum? How do we contact this guy? There are quite a few fans out there who are interested!

From dakkadakka.com towards the bottom of this page
link

Also from that thread:

Just to be clear, Ironclad Games is in the process of purchasing All Quiet on the Martian Front's inventory and IP. We are not in any way affiliated with Robot Peanut and as a new company, we cannot absorb any of their unfulfilled promises. Once we have everything intact, we can take stock of the game and product available, then re-assess how we can proceed selling and expanding the game.

It's always a shame when a game company goes under. However, publishers and manufacturers in this hobby are almost always operating on the tightest of margins. Some of these companies rely on one or two esoteric product lines which further puts them at risk.

I have seen these come and go many times over the years. When a I see a company offer a niche product in which I'm interested (AQMF is good example of this) I scoop up enough product to make a decent game. This means buying both sides, trying to keep the side relatively balanced.

Many years of club and convention play has taught me that my friends are more than happy to play anything when the toys are provided. So, for these niche games, I'll never lack opponents.

That being said, I'm glad to see that someone has seen the quality of these products. I bought up enough to make a fair sized four player game but more would be welcome. There are a few of the newer items that I missed out on which I'd like to add to the collection.

I had no idea they went under.

"From what I've heard, the models were fine, it was the rules which were the problem."

The models were indeed terrific but the rules were pretty darn good as well. We still play regularly and looking at the Facebook forums about the game it seems quite a lot of others do as well. The problem was overextending themselves in the Kickstarter so that they could never recover. They offered (and mostly delivered) FAR too much for the cost, and screwed up on shipping charges as well.

I played this game a couple times at Millennium and found the rules to pretty good and the miniatures outstanding.

I too got the impression that the Kickstarter pledges were being supported by retail sales. That's a dangerous proposition with a game with such a narrow audience.

I bought in after the KS campaign so I didn't experience the AQMF woes. Unfortunately, I bought into the Prodos AvP KS almost three years ago to the tune of several hundred dollars and, like all the US supporters, have seen nothing at all. They are following the same path as Peanut having had the retail sales up and running trying to raise enough money to fulfill pledges…I am not optimistic.

I also bought into AQMF with two packages, so the rewards were huge. Nazrat has it right, the postage alone just about brought them down. One of the rewards was trench pieces (resin and heavy) and there were lots of rewards. I got about 95% of the total I had coming, much of it was FREE, so I can't complain. They also had problems with the vendors/manufacturing side. Overall they did a good job, I believe all three designers were experience in the business, bot it got away from them. Started realizing there was a bigger problem when they had problems making the LandShips. They were very neat, and I did not buy in on them, was more than I wanted to spend. I hope the company is successful, I also would like a few of later products.

Most companies on KS have realized that the math is difficult, especially when one starts to blow through all previously calculated stretch goals. Giving away too much can be the way to an early demise.

It is kind of like the early days of eBay when the gambling feeling took over. You would bid and place a limit on what you spent. Then you waited for the end of the auction and someone outbids you and your gambling impulse takes over. Before long, you spent a lot more than you wanted but you won the auction.

Not being upfront about KS shipping (and originally not charging for it) is another change the last few years that originally caused major problems for some campaigns. Unmanaged manufacturing supply chain partners is another issue. How does one get into planning a KS and not lock down costs with manufacturers? How does one not figure out the shipping costs ahead of time?
All management, or lack of management, issues that are easily solved with proper planning.

It's always a shame when a game company goes under. However, publishers and manufacturers in this hobby are almost always operating on the tightest of margins. Some of these companies rely on one or two esoteric product lines which further puts them at risk.

Yet people on this forum and others love to bash companies like GW and of late Warlord for "their business practices" as in gosh…they run their companies like a business and not as a fan of the hobby that decided he/she wanted to make money at said hobby.

I find it interesting that another company might be able to purchase the IP rights this soon after Robot Peanut and Architects of War filed bankruptcy.

I will concur with Nazrat that there was nothing wrong with the rules for All Quiet on the Martian Front. While I did not purchase the game or any of the models (didn't need to since Naz went all out) I thoroughly enjoyed the games I played. Now yes I understand there were some tweaks needed for things like machine guns but I think the fan base have corrected that. It is always cool to see a rule set grow organically. Anyway here is hoping we will see All Quiet back in production and the line expanded. The story had a lot of room for expansion and of course more interesting and cool models to provide more scope.

Yet people on this forum and others love to bash

You could have just ended your sentence there. I have been critical of GW, but for other reasons such as allowing third parties to sell their product online but not allowing them to use images.

I haven't seen complaints about Warlord's practices unless you mean the publication in the GW "codex" manner. You might have meant Battlefront which is very much in the GW cast.

I have seen very few cases in which a game died and came back, so sing along with Sid

Don't be told what you want
Don't be told what you need.
There's no future
There's no future
There's no future for you

Rules for AQotMF were fine – minis were fine – cost analysis and marketing post Kickstarter was poor. The KS campaign over-promised, and then decided to go with plastics for several key models (which were great… but ate up a lot of money up front). It was a small company, so they were likely busting their butts to get the product line up and running and honestly never spent enough time to build a presence in retail… which killed them in the long run…

Xray yes I was referring to the "codex" thing which yes aggravates me but I can also chose to not purchase all the army books. And you make a good point about Battlefront which is another successful miniature table top war gaming company, yet still small compared to GW. It just amazes me the amount of vitriol expended and believe me I am not a fan of GW. I've been in this hobby long enough to see many good lines of miniatures, terrain and other related products go the way of the Dodo and always because of bad business practices. We should count our selves lucky we have so many toys to chose from and that the industry continues to be vibrant considering its small market.

Agree with everything except the cause of companies going out of business. While I agree that you're mostly right about poor business practices, sometime they are just a running a business as a hobby sometimes to simply defray the cost of making niche product lines that interest them.

If I'm also interested in these products, I buy them and realize that I may be one a few so I try to buy enough for future needs. I simply don't expect them to be around long. I also don't complain about them; the manufacturer gets what they want and I get stuff that would be otherwise unavailable.

This was the case with AQMF. I was excited to see a well done game on a topic that I love. The rationale for updating it to WWI era was certainly plausible. I bought up what I needed to stage a decent game pretty quickly in the expectation that the niche was too small to last long.

I feel sorry for Peanut. They tried to make a go of it and overextended. It happens. There is a lesson in all this for people considering publishing a game and for gamers.

If you're considering publishing, know your market. Everyone is not going to be as excited about your brainchild as you. Be honest with yourself. If you're doing the Kickstarter thig, you are going to be more successful offering less and delivering more.

If you're a buyer, then understand that everyone isn't as excited about the niche that is your passion. When some offers to publish, then you better jump on it, buy what you need and hope for the best. If it's a real small area of interest, you want to buy opposing forces. You'll never lack an opponent if you have all the toys. Beware the KS that promises tons of free stuff. Either it's a con or they don't know what they're doing--either way you should see the red flags.

We have had additional contact from Joe from Ironclad Games over on the all Quiet forum we set up.

link

Seems hopeful!

This blog post might be of interest

link

The game rules were a problem and may have hurt critical retail sales. They seem fine for a mass game or just a one off pick up game but were too generic for repeat play. Too much depended on working the points and too little on actual game play. Did have some nice cover and command features but sequence of play was dull.

Not suprised it started out great (we bought in) but faded and produced little retail sales. After a few games we stopped buying product.

Since I have lots of minis for WWI v. Martians play to adapt a version of Combat Command to cover War of the Worlds II.

TomT

Thanks for the link Scott – that does sound potentially promising for the AQ future. Hopefully Ironclad Games will be able to get AQ up here in the North as I had a devil of a time sourcing it locally. :(

tsofian – A well articulated article and thus worth the read. Thanks for sharing.

> Yet people on this forum and others love to bash companies like GW and of late Warlord for "their business practices" as in gosh…they run their companies like a business and not as a fan of the hobby that decided he/she wanted to make money at said hobby.

Except that companies like Reaper Miniatures "run their companies like a business" and have good customer relations. Warlord Games I'll cut some slack for since Warlord Factory apparently had an unsustainable business model (take on debt, sell mini's cheap).

I find it interesting that another company might be able to purchase the IP rights this soon after Robot Peanut and Architects of War filed bankruptcy.

Not particularly unusual, really. I mean, filing bankruptcy basically means that ALL the assets are up for sale.

That the IP was relatively unencumbered is a bonus in this case.

Further postings and communications from the buyers confirm that the game has been purchased and we might see the models back in production before the end of the year.

"Running a company like a business" can mean a lot of things.

There are businesses out there that strive to produce a good product at a fair price do right by their customers, and are in it for the long term. And there are businesses out there that try to get as much money as they can for as little product as possible, and can't see beyond the next fiscal quarter. They're both businesses, and you can find both kinds in both the Fortune 500 and in your local downtown.

Sometimes people seem to use "running like a business" as a justification for the latter, as if companies that seek to be fair and honest in their dealings with their customers, their employees, and other companies aren't "real" businesses somehow -- that being a business mandates greedy, selfish, dishonorable behavior.

How, really, do you define "running it like a business"?

Since my company hat is glued firmly to my head in this forum, I can't really talk about the specifics in the same way I could as J. Random Gamer. We've got both the good and the bad in this industry both running their companies "like a business", and likewise both good and bad running their companies like, well, not a business. "Like a business" does not make bad behavior good any more than "like a hobby" makes good behavior bad.

I can talk about my own company. I certainly try to run Wintertree like a business; it is my business. But to me, "like a business" has to do with how I manage money, keep records, plan marketing, and so on, instead of being an excuse to ditch my personal ethics and claim that profit is not just the most important thing, but the only thing. "Like a business" is about professionalism, not greed. Certainly, I'll sell my software for the best price I think I can (and not pass up a chance to plug it: Back the Kickstarter! ) but I want to deliver the best possible product I can, not just "good enough to pass." I want to deliver the best service I can, not just "good enough to get the job done." To me, actually, professionalism and honest, reliable service is what "being a business" is all about.

Greedy people will be greedy whether they're in business or not. Honorable people will be honorable whether they're in business or not. Professional people will be professional whether they're in business or not. So "like a business" no more mandates greedy, dishonorable behavior any more than "like a hobby" mandates professional, honorable behavior. (if it did, I think most of us would rather buy from hobbyists!) It's all about the person doing business.

Well said Wintertree

This strikes me being a bit over the top. link

Do these folks have the rights to the AQotMF vehicles?

I seriously doubt it. The stuff is generic enough that they could probably get away with it, except that they even denote them as being "AQMF" items. We'll see if the new owner takes offense.