Five years ago I did an interview with Andrea Angiolino, the designer of our beloved game. That interview focused on how the game came to life and the canvas and bolts of the game mechanics.
Fast forward 5 years and the game as come a long way. With so many new minis and a new company producing the game, I wanted us to take a closer look at the continued life of the game in the form of production and game advancement. For this interview I contacted Roberto Di Meglio...
1. To begin with, can you tell us a little about yourself and what duties you perform at Ares Games?
I am working professionally in the game industry since 1991, first as editor-in-chief of the most important Italian RPG magazine, then as a publisher. Since 2011, when Ares Games was founded, I am wearing multiple hats – the most important one being “Director of Production”. But we are a small company, so I have to multi-task!
2. Is gaming a big part of your family life?
I have always played board games with my kids (I’ve got three of different ages), even if it’s hard to find something that all of them like! My wife was very passionate about games when we were younger, less so now... I wonder why! ?
3. What do you feel are the biggest advantages that Ares has producing the Wings of Glory line over Nexus back in the old Wings of War days?
Mostly, it is a matter of focus. Nexus was both a publisher for the Italian market and an international publisher. Only a small fraction of our energies was devoted to the production of original games. This has changed with Ares, as the company is now completely focused on our own original creations, including Wings.
4. Any drawbacks or challenges to being a small company with this product line?
There are many challenges. Keeping the quality high is very time-consuming, and each production run with high-quality items like these ones is very costly. I would also like to have more resources to devote to OP and marketing, to take better care of our community. Fortunately, people like you and many of the Aerodrome and Anchorage members are a great help to “fill the gaps” of things we can’t do.
5. Have there been any changes to how the miniatures are designed or produced since Ares has taken over?
The main difference is that our suppliers in China have transitioned from traditional sculpts to CAD processes. From the point of view of research behind the design, development of the paint schemes, and how the models are produced, there is not really any significant difference.
6. In a previous interview, you mentioned that Ares would like to get away from the Series style of releases and perhaps move to a single miniature released every couple of months. Is that something that Ares still wants to do?
Yes, but financially it is a big challenge – the best way to manufacture this product is in batches with multiple planes and colors, so a different release mode means that a lot of product must stay in our warehouse for several months, delayed artificially to accommodate a different release schedule. On top of that, I am sure our fans would be very sad to know that a lot of planes are sitting on our racks rather than on their gaming tables…
7. Would a single mini released every couple of months allow Ares to switch to a single aircraft per mold and release more than three paint schemes of the more popular planes at a time? Fans could see this working really well for planes like the Fokker Dr.I or D.VII, Sopwith Camel and SE 5A in particular.
No, the best production model is still with multiple planes in each mold. If we switched to one airplane per mold, the production cost would be much higher, and that would end up in a higher SRP for our airplanes.
8. What goes into the selection of planes for a new Series?
Many things – first and foremost, game play. Are the new planes a good addition to the opposite sides in the conflict? Do they provide a chance to explore different periods, theaters, scenario styles? Balance within a release was also a concern in the past, but it’s more relaxed now, with so many airplanes out there. Then, we also have to look at the historical importance of an airplane – was it produced in large numbers? Last but not least, we have to look for planes which are interesting and that people love, because of the airplane model, or the people who flew them, or their achievements… A lot of different elements to juggle!
9. Speaking of new releases, everyone is always excited to hear about them and they generate more discussion than any other topic on the site. But very few us know much about the process that Ares goes through to bring a new miniature to the game. Can you walk us through all the different steps from aircraft selection to final packaging?
It’s a complex – and lengthy - process! Roughly, we can summarize pre-production as follows:
- Choice of the model, and variants of the model
- Gathering documentation to create the prototype
- Creating the 3D prototype, optimizing it for mass production
- Creating the injection molds
- Testing the molds and approving the models
(Parallel to this, we have been researching and developing the color schemes – another challenge, where we have to balance beauty, differentiation between models, historical importance, gameplay differences in some cases.. And creating the 3-views (actually, 5-views in most cases!) of each model.)
Then, we can create the PPS (pre-painted samples) based on these schemes and the models we created, and refine them until we are happy of the balance between quality and cost. Only at this point, mass production can begin. Until this point, the gaming stats of the airplane can be developed and tested. When we launch mass production, the design of the airplane card and maneuver deck must be over, as we run the production of the cards and packaging parallel to that of the models.
And all these steps require QC and approvals, so it’s very rare that we go through these steps in a straight line!
10. I understand that the Ares warehouse is located in the US and that all products are shipped there and then on to other countries for distribution. This cause players in many other countries to get the new releases several weeks after the US players do. Has Ares looked into a way to make release dates closer worldwide?
At the current size of our company, there is nothing we can do, honestly. A company of our size cannot afford multiple warehouses across the world. Even companies like FFG or Steve Jackson Games, who are at least an order of magnitude larger than we are, do not have a warehouse in Europe. I know this is a step back from the way Nexus operated – at the time, FFG was a customer of Nexus, and they received the product at the same time as the other international distributors. Now, the situation is reversed and the European distributors are not large enough to buy our product directly from China.
11. Ares has moved from a card-based game to a miniature-based game, and yet there always seems to be a demand for the old packs of aircraft cards and for alternative colour schemes. Are there any plans for card only expansions in the future?
The question comes up from time to time, but our assessment is still that the market for a card-version is too limited to create a second version of the line – but at the same time would cannibalize and endanger the main product.
12. Would Ares consider additional game mats for different theatres - perhaps an African theme for Mediterranean theatre, or one or two with a trench system for WW1?
Definitely! We love game mats, and apparently, our players do as well. Expect more game mats to come in 2015 and beyond.
13. Ares recently added the excellent miniatures from Sails of Glory to their line. Are all the miniatures produced along side of each other and how does that effect the release schedule for the various games?
The process we follow, and the suppliers we use, are essentially the same, but there is not that much interaction… except that everything passes through my desk and the hands and brains of the same authors and graphic designers. In production, our suppliers can handle all these products without much problems.
14. In recent years, Ares has used Kickstarter to good effect for other game lines. Could this be an avenue that Ares would use to further advance the Wings of Glory range? One would think that it could reasonably open up options for “Specials” like larger planes (Zeppelin Staaken or PBY Catalina flying boat) or factory paint scheme miniatures with a decal sheet to allow players to easily make different schemes?
This is something we are considering. Kickstarter is an important marketing tool, and we think that Wings of Glory might benefit from the same kind of visibility that Sails of Glory got. We have to look into ways to do this and still be fair with our distributors and retail customers, though.
15. With the emergence of 3D printing on a much larger scale, how does Ares view this new technology?
At the present state of the technology, it is still far behind our needs in terms of cost and quality, especially when our goal is creating a high-end, assembled and painted model. Of course, we have to see how it develops. As a comparison – digital printing has been around for many years now, but still it’s not competitive with traditional printing for the kind of items we produce.
16. With the Wings of Glory miniature line several years into its existence, do you see the future of the game as being primarily a single night’s gaming session, or is the focus shifting to campaigns that can span multiple gaming sessions?
We are actively at work on expanding the game modes for Wings of Glory. We have a final draft of a WW1 Campaign and Scenario Pack that we are currently editing and playtesting, and it will add a lot of new modes to play, until now only possible with house rules. I don’t have a release date yet, but our goal is to get it done in 2015.
On behalf for the Wings of Glory Aerodrome members and all the players out there, I would like to thank you for taking the time to talk with us and answer some of many behind the scenes questions we have. It has been a pleasure talking with you and we look forward to the second part of the interview where we discuss WGF and WGS in more detail.
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