Playable Prints taking over MiniHoarder & Wargaming3D
2022-10-13
TL;DR: Playable Prints, a new company, is taking ownership of MiniHoarder and Wargaming3D. Jon is still reachable, but correspondence regarding the sites will go directly to Piete and Steve of Playable Prints. More information below!
From Jon
I realise the communication coming out of both MH and WG3D has dipped significantly in the past several months, and I wanted to take some time to let everyone know what's going on, where we're going from here and why. I started MiniHoarder as a way to serve the artistic and gaming communities in the 3D printing space. It was also a bit of an experiment to see what one person could accomplish with fairly limited resources and a dream to help a community that I care deeply about.
In a lot of ways, I'd say it was very successful. MiniHoarder and Wargaming3D currently provide a much needed service for an artistic community that is being taken advantage of in a lot of ways by other services. Over the past couple of years, we've helped distribute almost a million dollars worth of models through our support for Patreon and Kickstarter fulfilment, and continue to have a strong customer base.
One thing I did not correctly anticipate was how much time would be needed just to field and address questions and concerns from artists and customers alike once people started using the site. In all honesty, I also had no clue as to the amount of work it would take to build and continue to engage a budding community. Things eventually got to a point where I was not able to spend any time at all on real site development, and instead spent the majority of my time engaging folks and fielding questions from customers and artists. Slowly but surely, the advancements for both sites crawled to a stop.
This is not at all what I wanted (or currently want!) for the sites and communities. I want them to continue to flourish and add services that fill the needs of both the artists, gamers, and 3D printers of the community. The best path forward for that, I believe, is to find some truly unique individuals to lead the charge going forward. Today, I'm beyond excited to announce that those individuals have been found!
Happy Printing! Jon
Who are Playable Prints?
We are Piete (developer) and Steve (product owner), we're based in the UK, and you may have run into us if you've ever heard of the desktop model organiser Orynt3D (was Envoy - we recommend the prerelease!), built under our other company Hyperrational.
A couple of years back we started Hyperrational as a way of working differently. We saw problems with the ways models were organised and shipped around, so started playing with ideas on providing some tools around that. We caught up with Jon pretty early in both our respective journeys, and we've been chatting on and off ever since, looking for a way to help each other out.
We believe in making life easier for people doing great work, and we see ourselves as force multipliers: providing tools and processes to help people do what they do best. Ultimately this goes toward better experiences for customers.
Why is this happening? If you've met Jon, you'll know that this is an individual who is incredibly generous of spirit. While he wants to be able to give everything back, the laws of physics dictate that there's only so many hours in a day. He's worked diligently over the past 2 years or so to build MiniHoarder and take ownership of Wargaming3D in what little spare time he's had, and now with a new job (congrats Jon!), the laws of physics have finally caught up with him and he could do with some more time back to live his life.
We've always wanted to help Jon, not just because of what he's built, but because of who he is. We were flattered when he reached out to us about the idea of taking on MH and WG3D. It felt like a really good fit for our skills and a great opportunity to get more involved with artists and customers. We wanted to make sure that we had a strong structure to build from, and so Playable Prints was born.
What does this mean for you?
Right now, not a lot!
Both sites will continue to operate as they are for the foreseeable future.
Customer service should continue more or less intact as we continue to pick up the reins. If you've reached out to either MH or WG3D over August and September, you may have already run into Piete.
Purchases and payouts will continue to operate as they are, over both sites and we're not expecting any interruptions while we transition ownership. If there are any issues, do bear with us!
What next?
Jon's mission was always to focus on serving the artists, and it's such a huge compliment from him to entrust his hard work to our care.
Step one is very much us making sure things continue to operate as they should, and getting all the financials correct. Given that this is a US-based company moving to the UK, there are some challenges to overcome here!
Step two is a little bit of consolidation and organisation. We want to look at documentation for vendors and customers, but also dig into policies and make sure everything is nicely described.
Step three is where things get a bit more exciting. We have some ideas on what to do next, but we also believe strongly in data driven decision making. You can expect to get updates from us on broad goals and progress, but also surveys to help us explore what's important to everyone. These will be used to help create and prioritise our roadmap.
We're so excited about the opportunity to serve this community, both artists and customers.
Got questions?
We're active in our Discord, but you can also find us with the existing MH and WG3D email addresses and contact forms 🙂
Jon is still around a variety of places and we're not letting him get too far out of touch, but he's definitely overdue some rest!
We wish him all the best with the new job, and we're really looking forward to working with you all!
Happy Thursday,
- Piete & Steve