Hero Forge
A household name in the TTRPG space, Hero Forge approached us in 2024 to support its creative production pipeline - but a $620,000 Kickstarter later, our partnership has evolved in new directions...
Project Details
Client:
HERO FORGE
Project Type:
LONG-TERM/RETAINER
Services Provided:
MARKET RESEARCH
STRATEGY & CONSULTING
ADVERT ANALYSIS & PLANNING
PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHY
VISUAL DESIGN
VIDEO PRODUCTION
COPYWRITING
Key Achievements:
$620k+ KICKSTARTER
Blurring the lines between digital and IRL with the world's leading producer of custom TTRPG products
Hero Forge arrived on the scene in 2014 with its innovative custom minis. Providing an easy-to-use online interface, Hero Forge allows users to design their perfect characters and tell their own stories via high-quality 3D-printed figurines. Over the years, Hero Forge’s technology has developed, allowing for an expansion of its product range.
We began working with Hero Forge in late 2024, initially with a remit to support their creative production pipeline – delivering a larger volume of static and video assets to be used for advertising and social media purposes.
However, our partnership quickly evolved into a strategic retainer, with Game If You Are supporting across a range of disciplines. In early 2025, our focus shifted primarily to a planned Kickstarter for an exciting new Hero Forge offering…
Hero Forge Custom Dice will allow players to embed their own custom miniatures into dice of all shapes and sizes. We began to hatch a plan with Hero Forge’s own internal marketing team for how to give the campaign the best possible chance for success. We undertook market research to identify the ideal audience segments; we analysed past Hero Forge ad campaigns and made strategic recommendations for future ad planning. Meanwhile, our creative production team established a clear pipeline for the development of a clear brand identity for Custom Dice and a full set of creative assets.
Working across still and video content production, we even spent several days in the photography studio located within our office building, meticulously capturing samples of the dice and turning them into attractive compositions to be used on social media, in adverts, and on the Kickstarter page itself.
“The perfect dice set for your favourite miniature.”
Throughout the project, we were continually communicating and consulting with Hero Forge’s internal team, in what was a truly collaborative effort. We established a bespoke project workflow including shared documentation and tracking systems. With weekly check-in meetings, all stakeholders were kept abreast of developments and the backlog of work could be effectively managed and reprioritised on the fly. A Slack Connect channel allowed for fast-flowing feedback and iteration – a vital part of ensuring the pace necessary to deliver such a complex project against such a tight timeline.
Game If You Are additionally hosted a number of consultation sessions and produced a variety of research and strategy reports for Hero Forge, as well as providing advice on how to seed into the video game media space as well as the tabletop space, seeking to maximise the impact of both the Kickstarter and other campaigns and projects in the pipeline. The key to our successful work together has been the ability to cooperate, iterate and adjust priorities on the fly in what is a fast-paced and disruptive business within the TTRPG landscape.
When Hero Forge launched its Kickstarter on 6th March 2025, it took just 45 minutes to achieve its initial funding goal of $120,000. From there, the campaign truly took off – with both specialist and mainstream media coverage, a superb response to the digital ad campaigns, and substantial word of mouth. When the campaign ended a month later, it had raised in excess of $620,000 – more than five times the original target – allowing Hero Forge to expand the scope of the project and deliver an even more impressive toolset and product than previously anticipated.
Our partnership with Hero Forge didn’t stop with the Custom Dice Kickstarter. Watch this space to see what we’re working on together next…
Partners
We’re proud to be a founding partner of the LevelUp initiative from Safe In Our World – a charity that works to promote mental health in the video games industry.
For more information or to get involved, visit safeinourworld.org.
