LOAD

To be read (walls of text incoming):
DISCLAIMER: We are in no way affiliated with, employed by or in the pocket of either Archon, Prodos or any other miniature manufacturers and companies associated with this project. Just providing a friendly community service out of a desire for transparency and objectiveness.
So I figured feces have been pretty much hitting the proverbial fan for too long now and the KS comments section has been poisoned with oh-too-happy as well as LOAD-is-the-devil points of view.
Hence, I put this group together.
Within this pinned (for now) post, you'll simply find information, as available to find on the internet, compiled by the group's admins.
Make of it what you will and decide for yourself whether LOAD is worth it or not.
Prodos:
Polish miniature manufacturer mostly known for the AvP debacle (which was two-fold: IP and shipping-related).
In short IP debates caused severe shipping delays and the games made it to stores' shelves before making it to the backers. (in some cases at a higher discount than the backers were getting).
Communication issues made fulfillment harder and people (backers, but outside observers as well) still regard AvP as one of the biggest debacles of recent years, KS-miniatures-wise.
The backers are currently receiving their pledges or are able to pick them up at certain shows.
Prodos has since provided fulfillment services for many other KS campaigns, successfully delivering on promises for third-party contractors while also running their own KS for Warzone Resurrection.
Archon:
The guys responsible for LOAD.
They started the campaign under an NDA, not disclosing who the people behind the game were.
After a reasonable amount of backers got vocal about it, they agreed to lift the NDA off their identity.
Archon shares are owned by Prodos, are the owners of the unicast technology being used for LOAD and have been helping others fulfill KS campaigns and orders in the past.
As per their own words, the following have been stated as related projects:
Ninja Division, Mantic Games, Gates of Antares, TitanForge, MicroArt Studio, White Dragon Miniatures, Riverhorse, Steamforged Games, Freebooter Minatures, Infamy Miniatures, Age of Tyrants, Rycerze pustkowi, Shadowrun, Demigods Evolution, Norsgard, Miniature 13, Perditions Mouth, Wargamer, Hysterical Games, Awaken Realms, Troll Trader, Armoured Syndicate, Fregged Empire, Collision, hint The Game, Modiphius, Dungeon Saga, Apollo, Broken Contract, Joek Minis, Purgatory, Smog Con, Nova open.
They are currently working with other companies as well, yet NDAs prevent them from stating who these are.
As Jarek Ewertowski, an employee of Archon, put it:
"Both companies are linked in shares, however financial they are separate entity. Prodos owns majority of shares in Archon however Archon has a separate management is not liable for Prodos decisions and vice versa.
To put it simply Prodos is an investor in Archon's structure. "
Furthermore, he stated the following, regarding the NDA:
"It's down to two major factors: our innovative manufacturing method of minis, the UniCast, we wanted to be ahead of competition and reveal who is making this quality miniatures at the end of campaign or even later to give us a good start. We are in assumption that it will take competition to copy our process within up to 6 months and by hiding our identity that could extend for another month or so, and even a month in this industry is crucial.
Factor number 2 is : Archon is associated with Prodos, that had a serious bad times with approval on a well know license product, that could unfairness affect the non-license product that we are now Kickstarterring - LOAD.
However, please note, Prodos/Archon has a good record of delivering their other license Mutant Chronicles - Warzone, same as Space Crusade Miniatures range and many many miniatures to the industry for other KS, we have helped to deliver 12! KS in past 2 years.
As for LOAD: I am assuming that you may have 3 potential concerns:
1. Manufacturing - our customers testimonials and a number of partners that we are working should be enough proof that this project is in good hands in therms of production. Same believs are shared with our distributors like Ninja Division or Ulisses Spiele, otherwise they would not put their stamp on it.
2. License/approval - there is no such road block with this project, it's Archon project.
3. Development - as you can see on on KS page this project is in very advanced stage, I think there is currently no KS that is as much advanced on KS that LOAD is. "
Mihajlo Vlaskovic:
Logistics manager during the Demigods Rising campaign, Mihajlo was used as the face of the company on the KS under the as-of-yesterday lifted NDA.
The rules debacle:
It has been brought to the public's attention (by the public) that the LOAD rules are very similarly worded (sometimes word for word) as the Rum & Bones rules.
LOAD took action, took the rules down, and asked CMON if they have anything to object to the similarities.
The rules are currently undergoing a rewrite, pending republishing.
Jarek Ewertowski:
"Wording was plagiarized in some places, not the rules. LOAD is a different game based on same concept that R&B1 is. Those who actually played the game draw parallels to MOBA titles and not to R&B. He did review the rules, but, not being familiar with R&B similarities slipped. Yes, there were a language barrier and we needed to have external rule writer for this. "
Shipping:
This has been brought up recently, as a during/post-campaign debate.
There are pros and cons to each POV, many KS campaigns use either of these variants, be they miniatures or cards-based games, and even other non-gaming projects.
Archon have stated that they have shipping well thought out and have enough elements in place to deal with whatever shipping-related issues may arise. The exact quote:
"Despite lies and half truths flying around these days, we do have this project ready to succeed. Our shipping cost is researched, we know how far we can stretch and not break when giving SG's, we know how to deliver on time."
The BGG thread:
When faced with the NDA, people started digging for info that Archon (then just known as LOAD) wasn't able to make readily available.
As such, they discovered links between LOAD and Prodos, the involvement of Mihajlo Vlaskovic, or the fact that the LOAD website was hosted on a Canadian server with an .EU domain end.
US & GER partners:
Archon are backed by two (some would say major) companies in the US and Germany when it comes to publishing and distribution.
Ninja Division Publishing (whose household design team is Soda Pop Miniatures) will also be taking care of putting tournaments together in the US.
Ulisses Spiel is the company that will take care of Rail Raiders Infinite within the continental EU (another SPM/Ninja game).
The two (NDP and Ulisses) have worked together before, on Super Dungeon Explore. SPM also holds licences for products such as Anima Tactics, Hell Dorado and AvP.
These are two major companies that are putting their faith and weight in and behind LOAD.
Drilling:
Archon Miniatures is not the same thing as Boart Longyear-partner Archon, i.e. http://www.archonspzoo.pl/en/firma.phtml
Jarek again with a more comprehensive post on BGG:
"1,2 and 3. Archon sp z o o is existing for 2.6 years and is providing services to several major companies in the industry.
Here is a link to company check website (N.B. provided in useful links)
Industry, sector, description gry, zabawki, przedsiębiorstwo produkcyjne - in slow translation means: Games, Toys, manufacturing company.
Yes, our Website is registered as Archon-Studio as any other Archon variation was is taken.
Archon we are collecting materials for portfolio, however in last year or so we have completed, only on casting more than 2100 projects for industry customers:
Redmine screenshot (N.B. provided in useful links)
5. Service and Invoices are provided and issued by Archon.
6. Only Michal Pawlaczyk (Prodos investor) and myself are ex-prodos employed by Archon for medical insurance purposes (we are based in Poland where UK insurance is not valid).
7. AVP KS for Prodos was a nightmare, we had a prototype of the game ready to go to backers in September 2014 sent off for approval. The game, however was approved in July 2015 without any changes to the prototype. This is how long we needed to wait. That generated a lot off issues including printing cost increase etc.
As you may know by now, Prodos also own another license Mutant Chronicles, and it was as well on KS, delivered. Post KS we had no issues with that license and we have been constantly releasing new products for that license for 3.5 years now.
Full list of Prodos Products released is long and can bee seen at Prodos website: shop.prodosgames.com
However to answer your question : Yes, I think, Archon has done a lot to the industry, design, production wise in last 2.5 years, that's a lot of experience gained and we would like to have a fresh start with some realistic, non 3rd party dependant, projects.
As for Prodos, it has no loans or any other obligations other than AvP KS which is at the end of wave 2 delivery with a road map to be completed. "
Useful Links:
Prodos website: http://prodosgames.com/
NDP: http://ninjadivision.com/
Ulisses Spiele: http://www.ulisses-spiele.de/
BGG Thread (with Jarek active on it): https://boardgamegeek.com/…/ks-creator-cannot-reveal…/page/6
Archon company info: http://www.infoveriti.pl/…/Archon,Pila,Raport,o,firmie,KRS,…
Archon casting orders: https://gyazo.com/a0572691f2076ecdda137498a8d3c5d5