Should I put my chess set into production?

Well, it's on a website with 7 million members!

Hey, if it doesn't sell, at least he can play with one he likes.

Maybe a little something for the pawn to hold for some more value? Maybe reduce the knight's hair(?) and maybe then it will look bigger.

I really like the change to the king's crown! Again, the set looks really good put out there together. Is there a chance to see some positions set up with the software? Like maybe some light and dark pieces mixed in a sort of " game in progress?"

To me the lack of a cross on the top of the king makes it look too similar to the queen. I always prefer the standard staunton design but this to me is the only flaw (at least to me) i see in your set. The knights are interesting.

you have definitely removed the pendulum effect from the pawns. Congrats. Totally. And the changes to the base and torso of the bishop are def noticeable, and positive improvements. I see that there's a whole lot more of comments to read, so I'm going to go and read them now, and then post again. But pendulum is totally gone from the pawn, and the bishop is much improved, and yes, you have not solved the moustache problem from the bishop's arms yet. We'll get there. 

I Did see that one of the 'calculators' told baddog to stop criticizing him. I went and reread the 'criticisms' and didn't read them as criticisms. Hey you guys, we're doing this for fun and to do something collectively. Cheers!

ok, I read all of it. LoveMagnet, please ignore the assholes; we seem to have yet another new one on here who claims to know about egos (!!!). 

LoveMagnet! Ignore them! Really! We're working too hard here to get sidetacked by little twerps. Forget about people who question your motives, forget about people who question your intentions. Let's stick to design! 

I looked at the bishop again. Yes, the change in the bishop's elbow has made a bit of an improvement, but not enough. I'm not a designer at all, but I'm guessing that removing the separation between the two 'hands' so that it looks like one unit will solve the 'moustache' problem. Maybe. I"m guessing this because a moustache has a characteristic line between the two sides of the moustache, corresponding to the cleft above our upper lip. If you remove that line between the hands I"m betting that the 'moustache' will magically disappear, and you will have what you want, i.e. hands clasped in prayer. Let's see. 

Thanks for giving all of us the opportunity to participate in this with you. Obviously some people do not enjoy this kind of collaboration; one wonders why they bother to participate in it to the displeasure of others and, apparently, themselves. But that's as far as my interest in them goes. It ends there. I think they're called trolls, and I think that's an appropriate term, and sufficient explanation. Its in their nature. Being trolls. nuff' said. 

I like what you wrote about the possibility that the king's crown is unmakeable by 3d printing, and that you may have to leave it up to the imagination. I like that. But I think that such things are moldable. And I'm totally talking without any knowledge whatsoever. 

Radio

Actually, I just looked at your new pawn again. I'm the one who was the harshest constructive critic of the earlier pawn. Many others liked the earlier pawn. I hated it. And frankly, altho I didn't say so, I didn't like the dot at the top of the pawn, but my biggest criticism was the overwide base and the pendulum effect.

I believe you have solved all of the problems of the pawn. And even tho I didn't like the dot at the top, I now like the pawn very much. I congratulate you for winning over this pawn hater to become a lover of this new pawn, that indeed has your personal touch on it, and also has the dignity that a pawn deserves. Awesome. 

Radio

i guess you like going along with the ego trip, well i don't lol.  i guess you feel important by imagining an 'us against the world scenario' with the OP.  well, whatever makes you happy.  By the way, thanks for calling me an asshole, asshole.

Protip: Don't be such a try-hard.  You aren't winning internet points by being so dramatic, son.

not us against the world. just us and one little asshole. 

yeah i know, you feel important by calling someone an asshole and being a brown nose (in a very over-the-top exaggerated fashion, might I add).  I know that there is no reasoning with you, so I will let you have the last word.  

Make it count...

The set has become less and less inspiring the more you've tweaked it, IMO. Also, have you considered building your own boards?

the competition?!

LoveMagnet, I just spent twenty minutes and looked at all 33 pages of chess offerings on shapeways.com. If I was going to buy any set, yours would be the only one I would consider. There isn't one single chess piece on shapeways.com that I'd consider buying or even displaying were it a free gift! 

Radio.

and re: The Heat Miser's comment about loss of inspiration from more tweaking. I looked at the initial images you gave for your set from page one to see what Heat was talking about. Initial imaging had more inspiring lighting, shadowing, angles, etc. I believe the current set is a marked improvement from the initial images. Maybe you could supply more inspiring images of the current set, if you wish to put more time into tweaking the images, lighting, shadows, etc? I don't need it, but some might appreciate it. 

You will aso want to sell the set as a glass set, a wood set, and most of all, a plastic set.

Radioarno: You don't read them as criticisms because you didn't pour hours of work into it. Forgetting the felt? Okay, I'll add that. Telling me that the felt I found was "too cheap" for a well designed $20 set? That's critism. And I am not only "a calculator", but I am the only one who has attempted to come up with numbers for our lovely friend here. I was merely protesting that baddogno should come up with his own calculations before telling me that my calculations are bad simply because he complains of cheap felt on a $20 set.

and ps. I don't think a 3D printer (or the $600 one I found, at least) will be able to print something like that and make it strong enough. It might not be able to period, because a 3D printer is just pouring melted plastic really precisely

LoveMagnet: another option would be to make a much more expensive set out of CNC'ed metal or expensive wood, although you may end up having to assemble pieces. It does mean your king's crown can stay though. You would also have to sell them for ridiculous prices to make a profit.

that's fair legilmens. I must say I was impressed and moved by your calculations, and the work you put into them. I wasn't using the word calculator derogatorily at all;  I just didn't want to go back and find your name among the many posts, and risk losing what I had written already, so I referred to you as 'calculator'! Sorry, no slight intended.  I wrote that particular post quickly, after a night out at the chess club, and hadn't read all the posts on this thread, but caught that one from you to baddogno. You and baddogno have put lots of sincere thought into your posts, and I wanted to 'help' you not get into an ego-state about baddogg's input. I think s/he was saying that good billiard felt was appropriate for this set; I think s/he wasn't thinking of this as a $20 set, and neither am I, although I think LoveMAg is asking us mostly to comment on design issues, and you and baddogg have gone way beyond the call of duty :)  Radio

Sorry the discussion turned cantankerous.  Life's too short for internet arguments.  Good luck one and all.

hero of the internet, radioarno

It's looking great. Excellent work. It's such a good idea to throw it on here and get some excellent feed back (well some of it anyway). This site is a good market analysis kind of tool for 'opinion'.

The pawn base is a little different to the rest - could almost be from a different set. Overall, it's great stuff.

Like any artist knows, the work is never finished but there comes a time to move on. The set is great.

Wayne

Very offbeat and classy design, I think these would make some wonderful plastic pieces on an old wooden chessboard. I'd buy it!

I kind of get what you mean. Maybe the observation comes from the fact that every time I "improve" something, the design steps towards better balance, more "familiarity" between the pieces and better playability. And since the classical chess sets already achieved all those things, it may be natural that my set tends to look more and more like them.

So yes, I may lose some of that freshness and rebel spirit, but in my own opinion I arrive at a better chess set.

Also don't forget that I changed the texture to be much less shiny. I've seen a lot of 3D models of chess sets where my first thought was "wow! That's some nice transparent pieces". But then when you look closer the models are very crude. The wow effect comes simply from a cheap trick with "glass" materials. I'm trying to do it the hard way, and make the pieces look beautiful, even if the material is fairly unspectacular.

Today I have been working a bit more on getting a better commonality between the pieces. Make them look more like they belong in the same set, so to speak. The curve on the rook now meets the base at an angle that is more similar to that of the king and queen. The bishop lost his "love handles". The pawn was tweaked a bit. I also made the changes to the crowns that I talked about earlier.

Anyway, here are a couple of new pictures. Let me know what you think.