STARSIDE ARMORY

​​​Starside Armory operates under the following guidelines. This is not an exhaustive list, nor is it a guarantee that covers all possible scenarios. This is just here for the curious visitor because I'm not sure my values are effectively communicated anywhere else, but I don't want to start a whole blog section either.

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• LIGHTWEIGHT - Operations are efficient and nimble. Having witnessed the folly of corporate bloat and foolish expenditure, I prefer to run lean. This makes orders affordable and shipped quickly. It helps ensure a work/life balance, and keeps life support online.

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• INDEPENDENT - The vast amount of labor is performed by me. My immediate circle occasionally assists with logistics, staffing, and assembly. I don't like to outsource anything that I can do myself. It should go without saying that AI is not trusted nor used in any products.

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• TRANSPARENT - Products are presented with information, not marketing malarky*. This is NOT "the perfect accessory for anyone and everyone, made of top-quality-cutting-edge-but-unnamed materials, guaranteed to transform your social score. It's not about X - it's about Y!"
  
  Yeah naw - the main point of a Starside Armory product description is to list the features, materials, controls, and intended use. Photos are taken on a cellphone, edited to remove distracting dust, and arranged with just enough effort to meet the bare minimum of an attractive thumbnail. Potential issues are communicated to temper expectations. Its effect on your life is unknowable by the manufacturer. Make up your own mind.
  
  Shipping costs are ALWAYS separate in order to keep product pricing clear and consistent. I NEVER run special sales events, solely so that the shopper doesn't have to factor that pressure into their decision. If you feel FOMO, it should only be because of a product's rarity rating, which basically means how quickly I'm going to get sick of making it.

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• EXPERIMENTAL - Starside Armory products are always changing. I'm not trying to perfect a single product and ride it to retirement, even though I recognize that that's a wise and respected path. No, I just want to spend my day seeing what kind of neat new things I can make. I have an ever-growing list of sci-fi objects that seem fun to make and/or have, and I'm always trying to get to the next one.
  
  The typical process of designing a product starts with a function or form-factor. In the design phase I work on how to balance an object's cool/fun/new-ness against manufacturing reality. In the prototyping phase I refine those factors and deal with new manufacturing realities. In the production phase I finally discover the market viability, and the limits of my skill/patience.
  
  Many products don't make it through all of those phases. Sometimes I quickly realize that an item is way too much work or way too niche to keep producing, but I make it anyway because I think it's something a space armory should carry and I really want to have one. For those items I only make a few so that I'm not investing too many resources, I give it an appropriate rarity rating, I probably discount the price substantially so that it doesn't feel like a ripoff, and then I stick the leftover components deep in storage just in case I want to revisit the project.

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• FUN. - Starside Armory was established with the goal of making my everyday life more enjoyable by doing something I actually wanted to do every day. Back then I didn't know streaming video games was viable, so the only marketable skill I had that might work was making cool stuff.
  
  All of my work has revolved around making video game objects in the real world. Even as I transitioned from replicas to my own designs, I wanted to maintain that feeling of holding an item from a video game. I'm slowly leveling up the skills to fully realize that goal.
  
  I try to communicate that playful nature through all supporting infrastructure as well, from in-universe product descriptions to gamified aspects of this website. Did you know there are hidden pages, secret coupon codes, and open contracts? Not many people have claimed any, even though they're not very deep or well-hidden. It's no ilovebees-level ARG, but I do like to reward visitors who spend a little time poking around (it's not in the source code so don't bother, that might even be considered cheating! Just read and keep a sharp eye out).

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Seeya starside,

Crater

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*Some elements of this site are clearly fictional for the sake of entertainment; the first paragraph in a listing is typically an "in-universe" description.

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