http://www.trapdoortechnologies.com/dungeonscape/

QuoteGreetings friends,

Today, we have news that is both sobering and hopeful. Wizards of the Coast and Trapdoor Technologies will no longer be working together to develop DungeonScape for Fifth Edition D&D, and we will not be releasing the product in its current form. The beta program on all platforms will be shutting down at noon (MST) on Friday, October 31.

Although we can't reveal all of the details regarding the future of DungeonScape, we are happy to say that there is indeed a future—so fear not!

This project, 100% internally funded, conceptualized, and built by our talented team at Trapdoor, has been a labor of love from the very beginning. We set out to change the way RPGs are played at the table—making our game night more about enjoying the adventure than searching for rules. We still hold true to that quest. We believe that our Story Machine™ is a powerful tool for converting information into something more useful and rich.

We're working hard to solidify the details of what's next for DungeonScape, and we'll share that information with you when it's appropriate.

Until then, please continue to follow us on Twitter and Facebook.  We'll do our very best to answer any questions you have through social media or email.

Long live the adventure.

Love,

The Trapdoor Technologies Team

Why is this no surprise?

The "beta" was actually an "alpha" IMHO. Let me explain:

I had an email allowing me access to the testing program. I accepted and downloaded the application for my tablet. I installed it and I was faced with a request to "sign up" to use the program/app.

I did so. I received no confirmation email, no feedback to what I had just done either "in-app" or via email. Was my "signing up" a success? I try to use the application with my email. No go. No feedback as to why, just nothing as I was not allowed to access the program/app.

For me, the program/app was a big full screen (brown!) dice roller. I have better dice rollers, and dice. It might be very nice to use once you are in and up and running, but THE COMPANY FAILED THE BASICS OF USER INTERFACE AND INTERACTIVE DESIGN!!

I left feedback on the G+ group and left, even though I could "email the developers and get my account set up". Rubbish, absolute rubbish. It was a pathetic attempt that didn't work. It left a very bad impression and soured me to the developer and WoTCs decision to try and leverage digital online content in this manner.

And that was my impression. I was happy to be involved and then I left feeling a bit gutted and disillusioned.

#WouldntTouchItWithABargePole

The events that you have described, BarefootGaijin, are quite appealing for a professional work ! It fuels my impression that WotC does not take seriously digital products for D&D !

Quote from: BarefootGaijin;795096The "beta" was actually an "alpha" IMHO. Let me explain:

Sounds like quite a set of fuckups on their part.

Also, sounds like they're just going to continue developing it under a different name.

Now we know why they just fired their development partners.

Quote from: yabaziou;795100The events that you have described, BarefootGaijin, are quite appealing for a professional work ! It fuels my impression that WotC does not take seriously digital products for D&D !

Sounds more like this was some outside indie style company that pitched the idea to WOTC and got the green light. When they had no clue what to do? Fault to WOTC for not investigating further. But there might not have been anything to investigate.

Points to both sides for realizing this was not working as planned and stopping official work before it got to a stage where people were more likely to freak out and feel ripped off.

One reason I like OGL was the ability for independent companies to do their own thing and come up with a good product.

Tying it to WotC for 4e and now 5e... meh.

Yeah, this was sad, but not surprising.  Wizards has a terrible track record with producing code.  Remember Gleemax? (I don't blame you if you drank to forget it.  And I keep hearing that MtG:Online is pretty bad too.  

In this case they were partnering with an outside firm to do the code (and it sounds like said firm is still going to continue developing, just without Wizards' help) and they still couldn't manage the project properly.

If I had to armchair it, I'd say that the rhythm and dictates of written material is drastically different than software development, and basically a publishing company lacks all the tools, rigor, and experience necessary to oversee something like that.

I had the beta of Android and Web. Perhaps the framework was beta but the content was alpha. Consisting of a incomplete character generator. And the design of the UI was questionable at best. I was left with the impression that the developer were unaware of what other were dong with RPG software.

And things looks especially bad when compared to what going on with Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds. I am wondering what the hell they were using when had people play events at Origins and Gencon with tablets in hand. That at least looked like it could have been polished for a beta.

Quote from: estar;795134I had the beta of Android and Web. Perhaps the framework was beta but the content was alpha. Consisting of a incomplete character generator. And the design of the UI was questionable at best. I was left with the impression that the developer were unaware of what other were dong with RPG software.

And things looks especially bad when compared to what going on with Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds. I am wondering what the hell they were using when had people play events at Origins and Gencon with tablets in hand. That at least looked like it could have been polished for a beta.

Pretty much the lesson of not letting anything be actually designed by tech people.

Quote from: dragoner;795136Pretty much the lesson of not letting anything be actually designed by tech people.

Yep. Though I presume the requirements would have been fed to them by the WotC team. And doesn't Mearls have a background in software development?

Anyway, it looks like WotC simply doesn't have the in-house expertise of resources to drive a project like this even at arm's length. They should just give a license to someone with credibility like Fantasy Grounds to make whatever they feel is best and be done with it.

- shrug -

I never quite understood what the point was supposed to be anyway.

Quote from: Haffrung;795139Yep. Though I presume the requirements would have been fed to them by the WotC team. And doesn't Mearls have a background in software development?

Anyway, it looks like WotC simply doesn't have the in-house expertise of resources to drive a project like this even at arm's length. They should just give a license to someone with credibility like Fantasy Grounds to make whatever they feel is best and be done with it.

I recall reading in a class on marketing is that you have seven seconds to grab somebody. With the barrier to entry set that low, you have to be fairly pro-active to grab people.

Quote from: Saplatt;795141- shrug -

I never quite understood what the point was supposed to be anyway.

Indeed. Might be because you and i are old. :rotfl: