Interview with DakkaDakka store studio

Hello, Aleksandr. You are the owner of several, I'm not afraid of this word, international companies - DakkaDakka.Store and Taiga Miniatures.

❓ Let's start from afar. How did it all begin?

Good afternoon, Danila. It all started with a virtual reality club. Despite all my efforts, it didn't bring in the income I would have liked. And I wanted to create something useful for society. Some product that would arouse interest and rally people around it. FDM printers were purchased for the club to print various accessories: adapters, stands, holders. We made a list of the most interesting models, studied the market, made a commercial proposal and sent it to the majority of virtual reality club owners in Russia. And we did not receive a single order. This failure and a couple of months of research led us to wargame miniatures.

❓ Why didn't the 3D printing service “of anything” work, but the miniature models did? Did you want to go in that particular direction?

We tried offering different products, but it was the miniatures that got a good response. There are too many printing services. If you are a service, you set the price in rubles per gram of finished product. There is a market and a price ceiling. And if you create a unique product, it's a completely different level and market. In the end, this idea seemed close in spirit. Moreover, the interest of the audience was noticeable.

❓ Do you create the models yourself or do you have permanent employees on staff? Or is it a different person each time, depending on the task?

At first, we took licenses from authors. But there were many such licensees, so we started looking for new authors who didn't have open licenses yet and negotiating with them. But then other stores started taking licenses from them. And it became clear that without our own models it was a dead end. So now we have our own staff, we don't outsource the development of models.

❓ Why two companies at once (DakkaDakka.Store and Taiga Miniatures), what is the secret?

The second company was created quite recently. In the future, we plan to produce board games, and the Taiga Miniatures brand was just created for this niche.

❓ There is a fairly well-known English-language forum with a similar name. Won't there be any problems with the rights?

No complaints about the naming have been received. Including from a well-known wargame company.

❓ Do you sell physical copies of miniatures? Which is more popular - 3D models for home printing or real miniatures?

Initially, we only sold physical copies. In February, it was decided to diversify and enter the digital model market. The market for physical copies is much larger than the digital models. But selling physical copies is much more difficult than the digital ones. It is difficult to say which is more popular.

❓ As far as I know, you have another Kickstarter project coming out just the other day. This is your third one. What will be new and exciting this time?

The project is called Dawnguards Army. It is dedicated to sci-fi miniatures with a touch of steampunk. For the first time the DakkaDakka.Store team is working on such a large project. There will be single miniatures, several squads, various equipment, terrain and a lot of bits. The project launches on Frontiers on June 16 and on Kickstarter on July 15. Only STL files will be available on Frontiers, physical copies and STLs will be available on Kickstarter.

❓ Your previous Kickstarter projects weren't as extensive in scope. How long did it take to prepare for this project? 150 models sounds like a long time.

About two months. The total models came out a lot more if you take all the bits. The time frame doesn't seem that long, but there's a big team working on the project.

❓ Why choose this particular “Grim Dark Future” faction?

Initially, we chose the armies for Patreon with the guys. There were several options, we ended up choosing them and the Renegades. Dawnguard was warmly welcomed on Patreon, so we decided to make a whole army.

❓ Do you personally play? What do you play and who do you play for?

Oddly enough, I don't play, even if I did, I would definitely stop. I just don't have enough time. When I was a kid I used to play Fantasy Battles. I still play various board games, but rarely. Sometimes I play strategy games on my PC. Global, economic, management.

❓ An exciting question for collectors - what awaits the physical miniatures in the future - will only rare physical exclusives remain, historical in metal, and everything else will go to soon-to-be-printed at home? Or it is not so bad, what do you think?

I think there will be more variety and new interesting projects. With the development of 3D printing, miniatures have become more affordable. Just imagine what you had to do 5-10 years ago to produce quality miniatures? Now it is much easier. There are plenty of authors, print shops that are willing to produce the miniatures you need in the quantity you want. That's a good thing, it makes the larger companies not stand still.

❓ What future do you see for your companies and miniatures? Do you have near and far goals that you are striving for?

To stay on the market and continue to please the audience. In August we have another STL models project, and in September we plan to release our first board game. On Patreon, we plan to steadily increase the volume of releases, releasing two full sci-fi armies a month. To start releasing fantasy models also on Patreon. The company went through a serious crisis, we need to recover and continue to grow. I would like to see more talented and creative guys in the team.

Ambitious! We believe in you and we are waiting for the soonest realization of all your goals. Aleksandr, thank you for the interview, we wish you success in your new project on Kickstarter and that this is just the beginning of a great journey :)

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published 1 год 9 месяцев назад by

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