And they mean turning it into an actual fightstick cabinet that doesn’t require joysticks to place on top.
Like this but with the VLX stick built into the cabinet itself. IE half an arcade cabinet -
Thats another concept i think alot of people have missed, right on my site it says all dimensions are adjustable, As long as I am given the dimensions of the stick you use wether its made by MadCatz, Qanba, Hori, your grandma… I can adjust the top to fit it…
What I provide on the website is just a base design, if you want me to make changes to it I will work with you…
This guy is correct its a glorified table for the stand that provides a better grip for the stick, while at the same time giving you a way to display your Fight Stick instead of shoving it under your bed or setting it on a shelf, in a tupperware bin etc
Thats your fight stick, display it proud, wether on one of my TEFightStands or not…
When I designed the first one for myself that’s what i was doing, I was tired of having to dig mine out of the cabinet I was storing it in.
I personally would not want an item of furniture made from chipboard in my home.
The wood can be changed, but again that’s money, I was trying to do this as inexpensively as possible but still keeping them durable.
I have stomp kicked one of these stands and barely dented it,
where as other tables purchased from stores I have tried usually ends in them exploding into pieces…
Yes, when I play fighting games I have rage issues, dont we all?
When asking for suggestions or advice, you should really prepare yourself for criticism, from your replies you seem to be getting a little defensive about your products. Understandable, since these are things you’ve put time into and created, but at the same time if you’re asking for advice you need to just take it on the chin and take in what the people are saying.
What kids’ parents do you know that would pay the amount of money you’re selling these for? If I were you I would stick to either unpainted stands or only take requests as the consensus so far seems to dislike your art/paint style. This is an individual thing so I can’t tell you what to change, some people like it, some don’t that’s just the way of the world.
Not really getting defensive, explaining the reasoning behind the decisions I made.
My asking price is not that much…considering the work and materials that goes into them, paint is expensive, and you have to factor in everything screws, glue, etc
the prices are set out to include cost and 10$/hr for me to build it, barely over minimum wage, if you cant appreciate that i don’t know what to tell you.
My parents would have bought me one when I was a kid…
You can get it unpainted…
I never said that you didn’t offer unpainted stands, nor did I attack your pricing scheme, if that’s the prices you have to sell them at to make a profit then more power to you, I only mentioned the kids in reference to the [SIZE=16px]juvenile[/SIZE] comment. I can’t call out your marketing scheme or business plan, but I just don’t see too many of these being bought for kids.
Again, my comments are just my opinion and I could be completely wrong, but you asked for input so I’m just giving you some.
There looks like there’s barely any leg room for the single stand it seems like even on a 2p stand you would still hit your legs you need more leg room. I have no actual problems with your stand other then that it looks like a over glorified TV Stand which I kinda like just needs some fixes.
So you still have to put it together when you get it? How long is that going to take you?how much is your time worth? When i worked as an assembler…for furniture we charged the companies we did work at, (big name hardware stores) Half the price of a piece of furniture to put it together so a $500 desk was $250 for me to assemble with its machined parts…
and Its still at least double my price?
How else could I make something adjustable if its not a square in a square to drop down into it? (Not being a rude im seriously open to ideas about this)
To make a generic stand I could buy one $30 sheet of 3/4 MDF take 5 minutes of measurements, cut my straight lines, glue and screw and toss some paint on it with a clear coat gloss and have it done in a day including all prep and paint and I doubt it would be $50 out of pocket and look the same as yours.
Do this, and write down how many screws how much glue everything you use total it out and keep track of the time you spend doing it and then add it all up and tell me what your figure is for how much you should charge for it. Oh and do it without using my design or my adjustment method…I had more complex designs involving a center core that you reached down into and twisted and you could raise the top by pulling up on this center core and lock it into notches cut out on the inside but all of that was way to much to have to redo each time.
larger pictures of the stands and videos are on our facebook / youtube I will work on maybe setting up a link for each one to see a larger picture, or link it to galleries on facebook, would that be ok? Im not sure why this web studio program seems to re compress the images I put into it and make them low res
Your adjustable height is a good idea though. -Thanks
fix your format - give me a little more on what you mean here.
Thanks for this feedback and taking the time to help me out.
-Justin
What types of fixes?
There looks like there’s barely any leg room for the single stand it seems like even on a 2p stand you would still hit your legs you need more leg room
-Ill get some picturesfor you of a side shot so you can see the leg room at a better angle, This has also been improved upon with the new design seen here
http://tefightstands.com/dmg/donationdrive/
Ill get side shots of sitting at both of these. and post them up here later working on something else atm.
I get so many comments about the website but I don’t have any of these aggravating mouse over pop ups that come up get in the way and take up a chunk of your screen and blare ads at you =P
Putting one together I doubt would take anyone competent longer than 30 minutes from unpack to build as it’s usually a matter of twisting some screws. If you’ve built a cheap bookshelf then it’s the same difference.
As far as charge goes that is entirely up to you. My time is worth nearly $50 per hour when I am working so unless I am doing something I really love to do or I’m just doing it on principle I tend to pay for things that aren’t in my best interest to get involved in if I think I will mess them up.
This market is primarily 25+ year olds and a lot of us who buy toys are older with heavy disposable incomes. The average age demographic for gamers in general is 37 freakin years old for 2011.
Speaking personally I have thousands of dollars I can spend every year on misc crap without having dire effects on my retirement or day to day life since I’m in my late 20’s and have no kids and no debt other than my house so if I’m going to spend money I want to make sure that a) I have the best I can buy for my money b) something that is custom enough to where it wouldn’t be worth putting my time into it as my skill set doesn’t involve woodworking etc so the only way of making it a reality is to pay for it instead.
And that is the million dollar question. How can you take functions that are in general a good idea (IE adjustable height) and turn them into highly desirable and customizable option. I’m not in this business and I don’t plan on making anything like that so it’s gotta be your trial and error. I can think of plenty of nesting style shapes that are possible and available in the real world already so you just need to find a way to implement it that is cost and time effective.
Check out some stick builders here that charge upwards of $1k for a single custom fight stick. Arcade cabs that people pay $2-3k for and that doesn’t even include guts. Sure some people want cheap and easy but I think you’ll find people more than willing to pay a decent price for a high quality customizable product otherwise people wouldn’t be doing it. I mean check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMK1Qnbq8bc and tell me that isn’t a labor of love and quality and innovation all wrapped in one and people will pay out the ass for stuff like this.
http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/8466/asdfoy.png - website snip
Your logo isn’t a bad idea but it way too large in an odd format. Your text format is bad and overlaps some. The multiple table layout is extremely dated and amateur and if you are going to put ads on your page do so either at the very top or the very bottom. You can find templates for every kind of website layout you can imagine that are free to use so a small adjustment to make it look clean could go a long way.
My business website consists of one page, no links and is concise and to the point and requires no extraneous navigation. If you’re 2 years old or 92 years old you know what you are looking at since it’s plain and simple and clean.
http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/8466/asdfoy.png - website snip
See that right there, a perfect example of why this software is poo. On the 4 computers/laptops in my house when I open that it doesnt over lap like that… http://tefightstands.com/images/formatting.jpg
I feel cheated by the software i used to build my site…I was pissed when I found out how bad the site looked for like 3 months when it was waaay worse than that pictures overlapped half the shop page. Please if you see anything else like that Screen shot it for me so i can try to fix it =(
Ill see how the page looks with the logo shrunk down I can see that being too large especially for smaller resolutions.
I tried to lay out the page so the ads were off to the site out of sight if someone was using a device with lower resolutions like a netbook, but the important parts of the page would be in view.
I dont see a problem with the floating 3 column layout you say its dated but it its more efficient for a wider range of screen resolutions
Switching to MDF and really learning how to paint those up to a shine would be a great improvement. When done right it comes out looking and feeling like fiberglass and the difference is noticeable in person or in photos. The paint jobs on your site just don’t have that “pop” that you can find on other stick/cabinet/stand builders.
The design definitely needs to be overhauled though. As it is, it looks like two boxes stacked on top of each other with a tray to put the stick on. The look doesn’t mesh with the aesthetic of the TE stick.
It’s a lot of work and you might have to charge more, but people are generally willing to pay for quality.
Oh as for the quality/high end stick building i have been working with a neighbor who is really good at working with a higher quality wood. Ive been trying to show him examples of some of the wooden stick cases people are making, I know he has the skill to make them and he could teach me.That might be something that we eventually do.
I have made fight sticks with a friend as weekend projects which we raffled off at an Arcade BBQ we have annually where we have money matches and a tournament we give away all sorts of stuff from an old pocket watch to one of these custom sticks, or a $20 xbox live card, old ps2 games whatever its all for fun for us, these are after all video games, its supposed to be fun!
Not as amazing as that stick in the video but not bad for a weekend project we gave away…
Again thank you for all this feedback. Ill def check into the MDF Dennis said is about $30 for a sheet? is that a 4 x 8, because the 4 x 8 sheet i use now is under $10 thats one of the least expensive parts…I can understand upgrading that and I guess it isnt clear enough on the website that the material can be changed as well. Ill try and figure out how to have that come across better as well.
If anyone has a design idea of a stand they would like to see built, from MDF. Send me sketch. Anything to give me an idea, im a visual person.
Doesnt need to be a full schematic or anything just a quick rough sketch. I will see if I can make it…
Ill also get back to bugging my neighbor about the custom fightstick shells. thats deffinatly a larger market.
Just remember I am here for you… the people that enjoy fighting games, arcade games, any games, I enjoy them all.
I am just trying to make a living doing something I enjoy, instead of hating life, cant hate me for that.
If you have project you want built and dont have the means to do it let me know ill help you out, and I wont rip you off.
I am not in this to get rich, just feed my family.
http://www.donovanmyers.com/arcade/x24VewlixPlans.pdf
Those are plans for a full sized cabinet but you could adjust as you see fit to just make a base. I also sent you a PM. I made a throw away cabinet based loosely off those plans a couple weeks ago to see how difficult it was and it wasn’t too hard and was under $60 in materials since I had most of the extra crap laying around. I ended up tossing it on craigslist and gave it to some dude for free. He said he was going to paint it and such but who knows =]
It means build a stand alone control panel/stand with stick/buttons built into it
Painted white with black spattered on it looks bad…I didn’t see a single one on there that was astheticly pleasing. Yes it’s objective and maybe someone does like them… Anyone here? Doubtful…especially here in TT where the craftsmanship bar is set pretty high by some amazing builders that frequent these forums.
Someone already mentioned it, but children generally do not have disposable income. And younger children are going to have a hard time convincing parents to spend that much on that stand. I know if MY 14 y/o wanted that, I wouldn’t be convinced.
Tailor it for the target market that has more disposable income, not children.
You don’t need to defend your choices, either take the suggestions or not. You asked some of the most critical folks in the community so expect that.
Site needs a complete overhaul…btw. Even a blog template would look better than it’s current form. Simple and clean…think simple and clean… don’t compare your site to this one… You are trying to sell a product and need to showcase it…SRK is a community site that gets a portion of it’s income from ads… Ppl are going to come here for the content, whereas ppl will go to yours to possibly BUY your product.
Site advice is best kept via PM so if you want some help then hit me up. I am not for hire to build sites right now as I have a big enough workload maintaining the corporates I run as is, but I can point you in the right direction.