Latest Blamcon Updates

If you’re the individual who posted the long reply about Blamcon on Facebook I would like to reply here since the post is gone. I meant to last night but I was editing the BlunderBusted Video:

The TLDR of his post is about the first video saying Blamcon was coming in August, I keep thinking I should delete or hide that video, it was my bad saying a date at all but here’s the reason why:

First and foremost, we do this for free and fun, so life will always come first. With the addition of Patreon and Blamcon, we are now starting to treat it more like a commitment, but until we started that a few months ago this is literally something we all donate hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars to just for the love of creating.

We COULD have released Blamcon in Aug, the Blamcon as it was was then just another P3D project in a long line of projects. It was running an Arduino, it was very basic, and there was only one gun.

But we saw the potential here to create something bigger. From the concept of the Blamcon core, Craig writing an entire Light Gun operating system, to the over dozen release models, to Mike running a production line that can producing these ongoing at scale. None of this was in the original cards.

The average Props3D project costs me about 400 dollars of extra parts, most of it iterates on what I already have and I always need some new goofy machine-or-other, I can suck that up for the fun and friendship I get back.

Blamcon has cost me over 20,000 dollars and counting. I think Blamcon is the chance to take P3D and make it something bigger. But that requires time, money, and hard work. Something that has to be done in order and correctly if we’re going to deliver a quality and innovative product.

Not taking preorders, not selling until we’re ready, and funding this out of pocket is about keeping stress down and hedging out bets. Do we KNOW this will be the best light gun? Everyone thinks they have the better mouse trap until they actually have to catch a mouse with it. The only way to know is to build, iterate, test, revise, until it’s the best mouse trap WE can make. Then show you as honestly as possible and let you decide. So it’s taken time to get it right. I think we’re almost there, but an animal like this has a life of it’s own: As I build each prototype new issues arise, new optimizations, and new processes. The fact that this has to be buildable by anyone using source your own parts in an apartment, the Props3D creed, is a huge wrinkle as whatever we come up with has to be accessible. Easier said than done.

I could keep going on but I just want to say: Nobody wants this out the door more than I, it’s 7 days a week on a passion project and I’ve questioned my sanity more than once along the way. But if Blamcon doesn’t deliver, what was the point of all this? If you’re planning on building your own or buying, you’re still spending your time and money no matter which option you go with. To respect that we need to make sure that if you’re rolling your own you’ll be successful, and if you’re paying us money you get something that’s a great value.

I’ve taken two weeks off work at Christmas to do my best to bring this over the line. Can I? I’m trying my absolute best. Production of the first run of Vypers is underway, I’m getting ready for the Phazer build video as we speak, but I’m running from task to task as fast and as hard as humanly possible and it will be done when it’s done. I just hope you can trust we’re not dragging our heels but trying our hardest to deliver something we hope you’ll love as much as we do.