It didn't even take two days for the funding goal to be surpassed

Jan 20, 2014 13:08 GMT  ·  By

This isn't exactly a Kickstarter project for a 3D printer, but one that offers to turn your game characters into real figurines you can then play with, or use in board games. And it's a very popular project indeed.

And by popular I mean that the funding goal was reached in just a couple of days, and the side-goals have pretty much been attained as well.

Well, the necessary $95,000 / €70,000 were accumulated fast, and then the sum was overcome by 30% in about two days, and now the amount is just shy of the $150,000 needed to ensure that the Sci-Fi Genre Addition comes into the picture.

The concept behind the idea is simple: The Hero Forge project will use an editor tool similar to the ones used by online games to make 3D printable miniatures for tabletop strategy games.

Okay, so it's not really the same thing as 3D printing your favorite games on command, but it's close, and who knows, maybe someday that'll be possible too.

Although, come to think of it, there will probably be copyright issues involved. If not, though, it shouldn't be too hard to track down the 3D model in the game files and send it to a 3D printing service to be made and delivered to your home.

So far, the team of artists behind the Hero Forge includes video game designers, artists, movie 3D modelers, animators and game experts.

All of them have worked on games, video games, cartoons and movies, like Pacific Rim, South Park, Dungeons & Dragons, the Uncharted Series, etc.

When making an order, gamers should be able to choose race, build, gender, facial expression, armor pieces, hairstyles, etc. In fact, it should be possible to swap out armor pieces even at a size of 30 millimeters.

“Hero Forge is a service that lets you design custom tabletop minis, have them 3D printed, and delivered right to your doorstep. By using a sophisticated parts system and web UI, we're bringing the flexibility, ease, and control of a robust video game character creator to the tabletop,” the team wrote on Kickstarter.