[IC] GMK CYL Shellshocked

[bluntkrayon]

IC Form

Fill out the IC form, so I can gauge if there is any interest in the key cap set, so I can take it up with someone to see if we can get this made!

Being in the hobby for a relatively short time, I thought I would have a go at putting a keycap set together.

This set is inspired by the radical renaissance ninjas.

Without knowing how this whole process goes, I'm hoping for this set to get made with GMK, but we'll see how this pans out.


Kitting





The following kits are just some ideas I'm playing around with - they're quite obscure, so don't think there would be a lot of interest in them, that they would hit MOQ, but lemme know if you're interested in them.



Note:

• The current profile for the bottom row is R5, but if there's enough interest in an Battleship kit, I may change it to R4, so that you can reuse the accent arrows, without needing additional accent arrows to support the Battleship config.
• For the function keys, I'm also toying with the idea of having alternate colours for the F13-F24, flipping the alpha/mod/alpha combo, to a mod/alpha/mod set up - thoughts?

Also toying with the idea of an Alpha Kit, as some of the feedback so far would prefer Latin Alphas only.


Note(s):

• I'm not a fan of novelties, as I find myself not using them all that much, if at all, so I don't think I'll ever design novelties for my sets. [Update] People have requested some novelties - I'm having a crack at them, but still unconvinced about them.
• I'm not a fan of text+icon mods - it's either all icon or all text.
• As for the kitting, it might seem like some bloat in some parts, and skimping on other areas, but I'm taking a guess in the dark of how much it'll be priced at, and I've decided on this kitting so as to make the Accent kit to make sense.
• Personally I never use ISO, (4 key) 40s, and 6.25u bottom row, but have included it in the set, because from what I've read, there's a bit of conjecture of how much removing these parts of the kit will actually save on the final cost, and some people use those keys.
• Same with the numpad - I've read conflicting reports that leaving a numpad in the base, has marginal impact on the overall cost, and in other posts, it's a substantial amount.
  Depending on the feedback received, and if I can get an indication on cost, the kitting may change e.g. moving a numpad into a child kit, or removing/adding support from Base to Extension and vice versa.

Renders
Forgive the amateurish renders - I'm still trying to work through Blender // KRK2, and these are the stock models available.
If you're willing to part with some keyboard models, that I can utilise in Blender, hit me up on Discord.
Even better, if you have some tips and tricks that you could impart with me, that would be very much appreciated!


OGR2 by AKB


F1-8X by Geonworks


M60-A by Ramaworks


W1-AT by Geonworks



Colors
Mods: RAL6002
Alphas: RAL6010
Legends: WS1
Accent: Orange - V2
Accent: Red - P3
Accent: Blue - N5
Accent: Purple - DY2


Vendors
OCE: KeebznCables
KR: GeonWorks
SG: Ktechs
CN: KBDFans
US: TBD
EU: TBD

Follow the Discord conversation

[bluntkrayon]

Now I know why there is "Reserved" lol

[HubertThemad]

@tanghus look! GLWIC 

[baucts]

finally approved glwic

[MartinThePolarBear]

Cowabunga on the IC

[SwearWolf]

GDWIC! Big fan of the theme
"Wise man says forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for a late pizza."

[bluntkrayon]

Ktechs and KBDFans added as their respective regional vendors.

[bluntkrayon]

Have been playing around with a Novelty Kit - will move stuff out of the Extension kit.
Contemplating of having these "novelty" Enters and Esc to replace the respective keys in the Accent Kit.

[bluntkrayon]

Some of the feedback has been around the 40s keys being in kits for users that would never use them, so have been thinking about stripping out all 40 keys into their own set. Thoughts?

[meowoofun]

I don't know which is worse neue font or only text mods.

[bluntkrayon]

I don't know which is worse neue font or only text mods.

What’s your suggested mod style?

[meowoofun]

Icon

[bluntkrayon]

Icon

What's your bottom row look like? GMK WoB Katakana? Or text?

[meowoofun]

Bottom row looks best on text but if you want to get a better feel for community interest just do a poll.

I have a set that has bottom row icons and it's not my favorite but again that depends on the theme.

[Randomlosername]

Bottom row looks best on text but if you want to get a better feel for community interest just do a poll.

I have a set that has bottom row icons and it's not my favorite but again that depends on the theme.

Yeah icon bottom row looks Awful. I do prefer text + icon personally for all other mods tho.

[bluntkrayon]

Thinking about doing an odd shaped deskmat for this too. This is what I'm currently thinking.

[bluntkrayon]

I think I'm getting closer to locking down on the kitting. Here are some new renders, which have been adjusted for lighting, which should be more representative of the colours that I'm aiming for.










The accents really make this set hard to kit for, but trying to make it make sense for anyone interested in participating.

Other changes, that may not be apparent apparent:

• Changed to R4, so cross arrows are possible with the least amount of additional keys required
• Change to Icon mods
• Split out Numpad, ISO, 40s, Spacebars from the base kit

[newzealot]

The original text-only mods look much nicer.

Now you have ended up with some keys being text-only, and some keys being icon-only, and it is honestly quite a confused mess.

I would recommend sticking to the same type of style.

There will always be person preferring text only, icons only, or even text plus icons only.

But i think its quite rare for people to like some here and a different style there.

Perhaps for this decision it would be good to rely on your own designer instincts and preferences.

[meowoofun]

I agree designer gets final pick on mods, but choosing text only mods as a preference is a strong minority as almost every GMK sets ever have either been text+icons or icons only.

Bottom row as icons was discussed previously but was not considered from OP. It was polled previously on the GMK discord, those that wanted text only never showed up to vote.

[newzealot]

I have seen people recommend Icons-only when talking about PBTfans or Keyreative, but thats mainly because they have trouble printing good text.

I thought that GMK will not have this problem.

After seeing your comment, I looked at GMK website and Zfrontier and found some text-only:

• Fabrik
• Metropolis
• Monokai Material
• Parcel
• Colorchrome
• Retrocast

But yes, you are correct, its a minority if you exclude MNTU which seems to default to text-only.

I saw a comment on [IC] DCS Handarbeit about people not liking mixing icons and text, and i agreed, hence my post.

I get that a poll was conducted, but with so many different channels and places, it makes it hard to do.

For example, we already have an IC here, so why not poll here? How about r/MechanicalKeyboards?

I saw polls for KKB Cobalt that are done in Unikeys Discord, perhaps general or keycaps channel, and by the time i even saw it buried among hundreds of other posts, its closed.

It seems that it is a really difficult task in this hobby.