[IC] GMK Forge (GB 3/20 - 4/20! - Pricing update and new vendor!)

[driftingbunnies]

The blue is still using the same RAL code as before

Took a closer look. Derp. This is pretty neat. I love orange, looking forward to the GB.
Filled up the IC, all I really want is to split the numpad from the base kit if possible.

I think splitting might be tough given the number of kits already. I'd like to keep most of the essential keys in the base kit.

Definitely digging the dark blue mods with the beige alphas. Kinda wishing it was a separate kit. Finally something without weeb alphas and without icon mods!

One suggestion is to shorten the scroll lock and num lock legends to one line so they fit the rest of the mods.

The dark blue mods and beige alphas would be a nice kit for sure. You'll just have to buy a base and secondary alpha  . That's a good suggestion on those keys. I'll be sure to keep that in mind during our final revision.

OK. I'll buy.
Let's make this quick. 

I'll try. Currently still looking for a vendor.

That's the largest secondary alphas kit I've ever seen.

And... as long as you're adding a second Tab key to allow users to make a full-size keyboard and a 60% one... consider adding a second (mod-colored) R1 Home key as well, so a 65% can be done, too.


Also, R3 #~ ? What's an underwater forge good for?


Also also: given there is a 40s kit (the Axe kit), shouldn't the 2.0U Shift key be moved there from the base kit?

2.0U shift is also in other layouts but I definitely thought about including that in the axe kit. Depending on the responses, the axe kit might get cut (excuse the pun) so we'd want the 2u shift in base.

I'm pretty sure other ISO users would be fine with an underwater forge. Thanks for the suggestion.

[driftingbunnies]

I got excited because I thought GMK forge P3 red on CR was coming back. I loved that set and would buy again.

Still would buy base n bars here too, though

Yeah, wasn't even aware of that one! I got the go ahead from Ryu so I'm going to use the name but you'll have to petition him if you want P3 red on CR to come back. I think sanctuary rebirth might be up your alley.

[IOVERCALLHISTIOCYTES]

P3 red from that set is the color of GMK ceresia (vs GMK demonic which is RO2), wanted to to put ceresia on as mod accents. They can rename it if they want (blackforge, darkforge, whatever) but since it didn’t reach MOQ a year ago I’ve never heard anything.

Love that burnt orange color; looking forward to your buy.

[_rubik]

Finally something without weeb alphas and without icon mods

I agree with the sentiment, but considering a large chunk of this hobby is from various Asian countries, I'd hesitate to call anything not Roman alpha 'weeb'. Food for thought...

[lush_bunny]

Some comments on the novelties, mostly subjective:

Love the Fire Escape Keys 🔥

The Anvil Enter isn’t personally doing it for me. I’d rather see it in a smaller key and replace it with a horizontal hammer, maybe something similar to the Volcanic Hammer card from Magic the Gathering. I tend to smash the Enter key, so iunno a hammer makes sense to me.

On Forge Ahead... I don’t know, maybe a giant stylistic all caps FORGE would be much more commanding than what we have.

As for the rest, I dig the weapons and the dwarf/viking helmet, but I wonder what it’d look like if it had actual blacksmith equipment, like tongs, bellows, furnaces, chisels and the smaller-key anvils.

That’s all I got, chief.

[driftingbunnies]

Some comments on the novelties, mostly subjective:

Love the Fire Escape Keys 🔥

The Anvil Enter isn’t personally doing it for me. I’d rather see it in a smaller key and replace it with a horizontal hammer, maybe something similar to the Volcanic Hammer card from Magic the Gathering. I tend to smash the Enter key, so iunno a hammer makes sense to me.

On Forge Ahead... I don’t know, maybe a giant stylistic all caps FORGE would be much more commanding than what we have.

As for the rest, I dig the weapons and the dwarf/viking helmet, but I wonder what it’d look like if it had actual blacksmith equipment, like tongs, bellows, furnaces, chisels and the smaller-key anvils.

That’s all I got, chief.

Appreciate the feedback. The anvil is pretty essential to forging which is why I decided to add it as the enter. I haven't received that much feedback on the novelties besides the "Forge ahead!" novelty. I'll look into trying to find a font that might make it look more commanding.

We played around with the idea of chisels and tongs but they felt sort of lackluster. I don't think a lot of people would actually use them unless they love forging.

Keep the ideas coming though! Anything is appreciated!

[lush_bunny]

Some comments on the novelties, mostly subjective:

Love the Fire Escape Keys 🔥

The Anvil Enter isn’t personally doing it for me. I’d rather see it in a smaller key and replace it with a horizontal hammer, maybe something similar to the Volcanic Hammer card from Magic the Gathering. I tend to smash the Enter key, so iunno a hammer makes sense to me.

On Forge Ahead... I don’t know, maybe a giant stylistic all caps FORGE would be much more commanding than what we have.

As for the rest, I dig the weapons and the dwarf/viking helmet, but I wonder what it’d look like if it had actual blacksmith equipment, like tongs, bellows, furnaces, chisels and the smaller-key anvils.

That’s all I got, chief.

Appreciate the feedback. The anvil is pretty essential to forging which is why I decided to add it as the enter. I haven't received that much feedback on the novelties besides the "Forge ahead!" novelty. I'll look into trying to find a font that might make it look more commanding.

We played around with the idea of chisels and tongs but they felt sort of lackluster. I don't think a lot of people would actually use them unless they love forging.

Keep the ideas coming though! Anything is appreciated!

Agreed on the anvil being essential. I guess I’m not used to so much vertical space used on the Enter key with so much horizontal negative space. Will you be toying with different anvil designs? I’m curious what a minimalist 2D anvil icon would look on the Enter Key.

With the set itself looking professional or scientist-y (Aperture Science!) I think more novelties on the modifier keys would look nice with the Anvil. The reason why I’m not fond of the weapons on the bottom row is that these are big weapons squished into small keys. Maybe they’d look better in the longer keys. While shields and armor (kinda like the Doom symbol for armor) can go along with the helmets with the bottom row.

I’m rambling, but I love fire, I love orange, I love fantasy, and I’m interested in the base kit anyway but I’m a sucker for novelties.

[driftingbunnies]

Some comments on the novelties, mostly subjective:

Love the Fire Escape Keys 🔥

The Anvil Enter isn’t personally doing it for me. I’d rather see it in a smaller key and replace it with a horizontal hammer, maybe something similar to the Volcanic Hammer card from Magic the Gathering. I tend to smash the Enter key, so iunno a hammer makes sense to me.

On Forge Ahead... I don’t know, maybe a giant stylistic all caps FORGE would be much more commanding than what we have.

As for the rest, I dig the weapons and the dwarf/viking helmet, but I wonder what it’d look like if it had actual blacksmith equipment, like tongs, bellows, furnaces, chisels and the smaller-key anvils.

That’s all I got, chief.

Appreciate the feedback. The anvil is pretty essential to forging which is why I decided to add it as the enter. I haven't received that much feedback on the novelties besides the "Forge ahead!" novelty. I'll look into trying to find a font that might make it look more commanding.

We played around with the idea of chisels and tongs but they felt sort of lackluster. I don't think a lot of people would actually use them unless they love forging.

Keep the ideas coming though! Anything is appreciated!

Agreed on the anvil being essential. I guess I’m not used to so much vertical space used on the Enter key with so much horizontal negative space. Will you be toying with different anvil designs? I’m curious what a minimalist 2D anvil icon would look on the Enter Key.

With the set itself looking professional or scientist-y (Aperture Science!) I think more novelties on the modifier keys would look nice with the Anvil. The reason why I’m not fond of the weapons on the bottom row is that these are big weapons squished into small keys. Maybe they’d look better in the longer keys. While shields and armor (kinda like the Doom symbol for armor) can go along with the helmets with the bottom row.

I’m rambling, but I love fire, I love orange, I love fantasy, and I’m interested in the base kit anyway but I’m a sucker for novelties.

Note taken. We can try to stretch the anvil to hopefully cover more of the enter key. Some of the markings on the anvil might need to be toned down depending on what GMK is able to do.

If I remove the orange legend-ed novelties, we might have more room for additional novelties but I'm afraid it'll be too cost prohibitive if the set gets too big. However, I don't think the small changes to novelties will bring that many more people. The biggest hurdle right now is to get all the orange lovers to come out of the woodwork.

[lush_bunny]

Note taken. We can try to stretch the anvil to hopefully cover more of the enter key. Some of the markings on the anvil might need to be toned down depending on what GMK is able to do.

If I remove the orange legend-ed novelties, we might have more room for additional novelties but I'm afraid it'll be too cost prohibitive if the set gets too big. However, I don't think the small changes to novelties will bring that many more people. The biggest hurdle right now is to get all the orange lovers to come out of the woodwork.

Understood, good luck with the IC and the Vendors, I want that orange!

[wholypantalones]

Finally something without weeb alphas and without icon mods

I agree with the sentiment, but considering a large chunk of this hobby is from various Asian countries, I'd hesitate to call anything not Roman alpha 'weeb'. Food for thought...

You understand what the definition of the term "weeb" is, yes? Finally something without cadet/hiragana/japanese/russian/korean/unneeded sub legends.

Better? 

[spakecdk]

I always hate it when the better looking alphas go into the separate kit.

[driftingbunnies]

I always hate it when the better looking alphas go into the separate kit.

Luckily adding a secondary alpha with the base kit allows you to outfit two keyboards so you can gift the orange alphas with some mods to someone else who might enjoy them.

[J3ff_Leopard]

This set looks better and better every time I check. Great work!

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[MdotMaxson]

I really like this. I’m not completely a fan of orange. But man if this was like burnt green or burner blue haha I’d be all up on/in/around it

[driftingbunnies]

I really like this. I’m not completely a fan of orange. But man if this was like burnt green or burner blue haha I’d be all up on/in/around it

Thanks! Yeah not everyone loves orange but I think it'll be a good looking set even if it's not your fav color. Maybe secondary alphas are more your speed?

[MdotMaxson]

I really like this. I’m not completely a fan of orange. But man if this was like burnt green or burner blue haha I’d be all up on/in/around it

Thanks! Yeah not everyone loves orange but I think it'll be a good looking set even if it's not your fav color. Maybe secondary alphas are more your speed?

True. If I have money to spare while this is out I’d get it for those white alphas and loss. Actually to save money I have white alphas coming from oblivion. I just need your base. Thanks for the idea.

[driftingbunnies]

I really like this. I’m not completely a fan of orange. But man if this was like burnt green or burner blue haha I’d be all up on/in/around it

Thanks! Yeah not everyone loves orange but I think it'll be a good looking set even if it's not your fav color. Maybe secondary alphas are more your speed?

True. If I have money to spare while this is out I’d get it for those white alphas and loss. Actually to save money I have white alphas coming from oblivion. I just need your base. Thanks for the idea.

Yeah that's a great idea! I'm sure there will be more sets with secondary alphas that might not include the tab needed to create another set.

[SunsOut]

Is the color of the alpha kit going to be a bright/pure white? Or like a light cream tone?

[driftingbunnies]

Is the color of the alpha kit going to be a bright/pure white? Or like a light cream tone?

It'll be a light cream tone. It's basically the inverse of the mods.

[divine-_]

Any new updates so far?

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

[keyboardcircle]

would like to see while alphas in base kit.

[driftingbunnies]

Any new updates so far?

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

Vendors will be announced shortly! We currently have the US and EU vendor lined up but will need to confirm for Asia. We also have an estimated launch date.

Kits will be updated as well. I don't think the 40s kit will do well based on how 40s have been doing on recent GBs but we will include it just to get a quote. It's possible that the Axe kit will get the axe  . We will probably remove the novelties that have orange as the legends since it doesn't seem to go as well with the regular mods. We will just include more of the same novelty to compensate.

Deskmat design is coming soon. I've gone through a few designers but haven't found something I liked yet. If this last design doesn't work out, we might not offer one.

I've contacted a few artisan makers and they seem to be interested in collaborating. I've reached out to a few unique ones but it's still a ways out so will do another wave later.

Feel free to ask more questions! I'm sure I'm missing something here.

would like to see while alphas in base kit.

Thanks for the feedback! I think there are already quite a few sets out there that have a white legends/dark mods theme to it so I'd like to stick to the orange alphas to differentiate this set from the others. If you have haragomo alphas coming from oblivion, you could try using those with the base. If not, the secondary alphas and base will let you outfit two keyboards for a very reasonable price.

[divine-_]

Any new updates so far?

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

Vendors will be announced shortly! We currently have the US and EU vendor lined up but will need to confirm for Asia. We also have an estimated launch date.

Kits will be updated as well. I don't think the 40s kit will do well based on how 40s have been doing on recent GBs but we will include it just to get a quote. It's possible that the Axe kit will get the axe  . We will probably remove the novelties that have orange as the legends since it doesn't seem to go as well with the regular mods. We will just include more of the same novelty to compensate.

Deskmat design is coming soon. I've gone through a few designers but haven't found something I liked yet. If this last design doesn't work out, we might not offer one.

I've contacted a few artisan makers and they seem to be interested in collaborating. I've reached out to a few unique ones but it's still a ways out so will do another wave later.

Feel free to ask more questions! I'm sure I'm missing something here.

would like to see while alphas in base kit.

Thanks for the feedback! I think there are already quite a few sets out there that have a white legends/dark mods theme to it so I'd like to stick to the orange alphas to differentiate this set from the others. If you have haragomo alphas coming from oblivion, you could try using those with the base. If not, the secondary alphas and base will let you outfit two keyboards for a very reasonable price.

Thanks for the update! I'm getting excitedddd .

Will the price also be announced along with the vendors?

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

[driftingbunnies]

Based on the tentative timeline, we'll be getting quotes from GMK in a couple months so pricing will be announced after that. The pricing should be similar to other sets with 250 MOQ

[driftingbunnies]

US and EU vendors have been added to the OP 

[driftingbunnies]

Added picture of RAL/Pantone chips and deskmat.

[Champalan]

ne weeb legends avail. asking for a friend

[norb]

holy lord that deskmat is a massive piece of art!

[dvorcol]

Added picture of RAL/Pantone chips and deskmat.

What are the RAL codes?  And nice deskmat!

[fatboycarney]

We will probably remove the novelties that have orange as the legends since it doesn't seem to go as well with the regular mods. We will just include more of the same novelty to compensate.

This is to bad, I really like this idea, was a bit different, I am guessing this was a common point of feedback or limited you in having doubles of some of the novelties?

[driftingbunnies]

It was more of my decision after looking at the renders. It only made sense if you kept those novelties next to the spacebar which I felt was too limiting.

[fatboycarney]

It was more of my decision after looking at the renders. It only made sense if you kept those novelties next to the spacebar which I felt was too limiting.

Fair that is what I looked at so that makes sense

[Mcnos]

[driftingbunnies]

Posted updated kits to feedback. Please provide any feedback on the thread or the IC form. I've tried to remove some keys that I thought were just extraneous or weren't too essential. Thanks!

[yoscartaco]

Questsions/requests for the 40s kit:

• Any chance the 1.75 space could be made convex?
• Can a 1.25 enter be added?
• Can a 1.25 convex space be added?

The overall design looks great!

[driftingbunnies]

Questsions/requests for the 40s kit:

• Any chance the 1.75 space could be made convex?
• Can a 1.25 enter be added?
• Can a 1.25 convex space be added?

The overall design looks great!

I can consider adding those. Could you tell me which boards uses those keys? I think the 1.75u space will be convex but the other two seem to be less common.

[ntw9677]

Beautiful! Reminds me of the anime Haikyu I would prefer the orange to be the secondary colour though

[yoscartaco]

Questsions/requests for the 40s kit:

• Any chance the 1.75 space could be made convex?
• Can a 1.25 enter be added?
• Can a 1.25 convex space be added?

The overall design looks great!

I can consider adding those. Could you tell me which boards uses those keys? I think the 1.75u space will be convex but the other two seem to be less common.

Great to hear for the 1.75 convex space. I agree the other two are less common.

UT47 / UT47.2 use a R3 1.25u enter. The overall width of those boards is 12.5, so together with the 1.25 tab, the 1.25 enter makes up the 0.5. Some recent 40s kits have started including a 1.25 enter -- e.g. gmk cafe, coral, phosphorous, bingsu.  When using keycaps that have R3 profile for the spacebar row (e.g. SA pulse and other), usually there are plenty of R3 mods to use instead.

1.25 convex space would be for boards like the DZ60 that support 2.25/1.25/2.75  and 2.75/1.25/2.25 split spacebars. Incidentally, the DZ60, though not explicitly depicted among its supported layouts, can also accommodate 2.25/1.75/2.25 split spacebars as well.

[nasp]

Would be nice to see white split bars in the alpha kit for those with split boards or 40's. If not, they'd be stuck with burnt orange bars and all white alphas.

[dom]

My whole body and mind love this Sir! 
Can't wait for GB!

[driftingbunnies]

Would be nice to see white split bars in the alpha kit for those with split boards or 40's. If not, they'd be stuck with burnt orange bars and all white alphas.

Thanks for the suggestion! I'll add one of each spacebar to the white alphas kit.

[tex_live_utility]

Summary of my suggestions from the IC + followup from Discord:

• Get rid of the 40s kit entirely.
• Move the 1.25u R3 key from 40s to base (just make it an accent white Fn key).
• Remove the white 40s/split spacebars from the spacebar kit, replace them with the orange ones from the 40s kit.
• Add an orange accent enter and esc to the white alphas kit.

This supports basic 40% compat for a lower price, ortho users and other nonstandard layout users will survive with imperfect legends on correctly-colored/profiled keycaps, and then you can cover 2 whole boards if you purchase the white alphas. The latter point makes the white alphas "good value" rather than a luxury.

Alternatively I'd be in favor of shrunken base and spacebar kits:

• Strip the 40s kit down to the spacebars, 2x 1.5u R3, 2x 1.25u R3, and 1x 1.75u R2. Remove everything else.
• Remove the split spacebars from the spacebar kit.

Anyway this orange is really growing on me. Would look very nice on a black keyboard.

[fatboycarney]

Is it wrong that I want to see an orange accent key that could go with the Molten White Alphas somehow? I love the white + blue look but feel at times I might want that splash of orange in there somewhere. Even an ESC key would likely satisfy my greediness!!  Maybe I am alone in this.. Still love the set either way!

[driftingbunnies]

Is it wrong that I want to see an orange accent key that could go with the Molten White Alphas somehow? I love the white + blue look but feel at times I might want that splash of orange in there somewhere. Even an ESC key would likely satisfy my greediness!!  Maybe I am alone in this.. Still love the set either way!

Thanks for the suggestion! Depending on the cost of the molten alphas, I might consider adding it. The only issue is that generally secondary alphas aren't a cheap kit to begin with so adding something like an enter might be tough. If you planned to buy a novelties kit, you could use the fire as an escape instead. 

[norb]

hey driftingbunnies, is the estimated gb date of march still the plan?

[driftingbunnies]

hey driftingbunnies, is the estimated gb date of march still the plan?

Yep, that's the plan. Similar to a lot of other GMK sets, GMK has been backed up on quotes and pretty much everything else so we're currently playing the waiting game.

[depletedvespene]

hey driftingbunnies, is the estimated gb date of march still the plan?

Yep, that's the plan. Similar to a lot of other GMK sets, GMK has been backed up on quotes and pretty much everything else so we're currently playing the waiting game.

How about them deskmats?

[Zeelobby]

Excited to see the artisans for this.

[norb]

nice lets hope we won't reach SP lead times with GMK 

[ben56k]

that deskmat I love it.