An Environmentally Friendly Skirmish Wargame is Launching in 2024 from a new studio Enviro Games LTD.
We love wargames, skirmish games, hobby games whatever you want to call them. These (mostly) little plastic miniatures games have seen another explosion in popularity since COVID-19, and the train isn’t stopping. Launching a new game in the space isn’t easy, however. With the mighty Games Workshop taking up the majority of the pie, how does one stand out?
Well, that’s where Enviro Games is looking to come to the table (top) with their environmentally friendly focus, they’re looking to corner a niche in the market and carve out a slice of the pie for themselves.
What, and who, are Enviro Games
Enviro Games is building its company on five pillars from the outset:
- Use paper-based components derived from sustainably managed forests
- Leveraging printing processes which avoid oil-based feedstocks
- Removing oil-based plastic components wherever possible and
- Using miniatures produced from less harmful printing materials, moulds with multiple production cycles and the ability to re-use mis-casts and sprues (which are typically otherwise discarded).
- Teaming up with local design, printing and manufacturing partners in the development of our game, not only supporting the local economy but also reducing the need for travel between sites!
“Roll the dice, but not with our planet”
It’s a catchy tagline, but more importantly, it’s just a good idea. Enviro Games will launch its first game, Novus Malum open to pre-orders for anyone looking to get involved. The product will be made in Siocast, an injection moulded system, which means that companies on a much smaller scale can make a product on a much larger scale than they could normally. Also, as Enviro Games stated in its five-point plan, Siocast can be reused after, so the unused sprue can be repurposed into the next kit to go into production. The key here is, that while Siocast can produce the minies for you, with a well-trained employee you can do it yourself.
Specifically, one downside to the product that has to be mentioned is that Siocast IS the product, it’s the company’s brand, which means they control the price. But, for a smaller-scale wargaming company, Siocast is a fantastic place to start.
You can get a better idea of the entire process in the video below from the ever-wonderful Goobertown Hobbies.
Novus Malum, the company’s first game
So, what exactly is Novus Malum, that’s A New Evil in Latin for those who did not brush up on that at University. For now, Novus Malum has one product (which you can see at the top of the post) for now, but there’s real potential for it to grow.
We had a brief chat with Daniel Phillips, Founder and Innovation Director at Enviro Games about the product and what the future holds for Novus Malum:
” We’d like to do both (expand Novus Malum and do other products). We understand that creating a brand that people recognise is important. What we’d like to do is build on the map that we’ve created and included in the rulebook. This first set takes place in just one part of that world, so we’d like to expand that with more armies and to flesh that out across the continent (of the game). In the meantime, we can come up with additional campaigns to get more out of the product for people.”
So, the game has scope to grow in future for those that adopt early, or what to come in at a later date. We plan to sit down with Daniel, and the other three founders of Enviro Games in the new year when copies of the game are in people’s hands, and, when we have had a chance to play it.
That’s all for now, but expect more content from us over the holiday period on Novus Malum;
- We’ll take a look at the game itself, the systems and how it plays.
- A look at the models in the first release
- The story and setting for this game