http://www.trapdoortechnologies.com/dungeonscape/ (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:
My interest in online material:
I'd love to have an app or site where I have all my 'books' hyperlinked so I can easily refer to stuff, where I can have game materials set up (if I'm a GM, my NPCs and maybe some maps), character sheets, dice roller.
I'd love to have an app where, say, I can tap on a skill and it rolls a result for me.
I'd love to have this linked so that as GM I could 'toss' notes and maps to the other players.
Quote from: Saplatt;795141- shrug -
I never quite understood what the point was supposed to be anyway.
I remember, in high school, having a box on wheels that I would lug around with all the AD&D manuals that I owned for games. Now, given that I probably didn't really need all of them, I thought I did, and having them available on a tablet instead of carting around 30 pounds of books would be nice.
Quote from: One Horse Town;795150Indeed. Might be because you and i are old. :rotfl:
Eh, I don't see much of a point either and I'm quite certain I'm not old by this boards standard (< 30)
I was really looking forward to it.
Mainly for the character generator.
Still there's this:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wgkammerer.testgui.basiccharactersheet.app
An android based app, it has no export character t PDF yet, but apart from that it's very good.
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.
I never got that far!! I was always hoping that the product inside, once signed in, was up to scratch.
Quote from: Saplatt;795141- shrug -
I never quite understood what the point was supposed to be anyway.
This. The market is developing well. Why do I need a system specific solution to play around a table face to face when I have pens and paper? Throwing tablets and laptops at table play is a solution looking for a problem. System quick reference? Release a PDF that is bookmarked and searchable, or use the damn book.
Online play has other system-agnostic solutions, and if you want to organise notes, system data and research (the campaign "stuff") there are other tools that do the job better (spreadsheets, Scrivener for OSX, PDF readers etc etc).
it is unfortunate that what they thought they wanted didn't work for them.
Quote from: BarefootGaijin;795240This. The market is developing well. Why do I need a system specific solution to play around a table face to face when I have pens and paper? Throwing tablets and laptops at table play is a solution looking for a problem. System quick reference? Release a PDF that is bookmarked and searchable, or use the damn book.
Online play has other system-agnostic solutions, and if you want to organise notes, system data and research (the campaign "stuff") there are other tools that do the job better (spreadsheets, Scrivener for OSX, PDF readers etc etc).
IDK, a hyperlinked rulebook could, if designed right, be much more usable than an indexed and bookmarked PDF... but as always, it would cost more money, and RPG companies don't have any of that.
One of my groups does use our tablets for local play, for sending private messages and displaying maps, but we use facebook messenger for private stuff and a chromecast stick for public stuff (Like maps, or anything else the GM wants to show us). We don't need another app, with the "fun" of cross-system compatibility (RPG companies not having the money for proper testing, as has been shown earlier), or having to sign into another account.
Quote from: BarefootGaijin;795240IThis. The market is developing well. Why do I need a system specific solution to play around a table face to face when I have pens and paper? Throwing tablets and laptops at table play is a solution looking for a problem. System quick reference? Release a PDF that is bookmarked and searchable, or use the damn book.
Because the Crawler Companion (http://purplesorcerer.com/crawler.php) shows it's possible to make a really good app that enhances a specific system.
Quote from: estar;795245Because the Crawler Companion (http://purplesorcerer.com/crawler.php) shows it's possible to make a really good app that enhances a specific system.
Very true. Same goes for the Runequest 6 app I have. Useful for effects and speeds up combat (things you remember only later).
I bought Pathfinder core book, then set it aside and used http://paizo.com/prd/ almost exclusively.
Quote from: BarefootGaijin;795247Very true. Same goes for the Runequest 6 app I have. Useful for effects and speeds up combat (things you remember only later).
What the app?
Quote from: Will;795250I bought Pathfinder core book, then set it aside and used http://paizo.com/prd/ almost exclusively.
Yeah, i'm finding that invaluable in converting a PF adventure path over to 5e.
Quote from: One Horse Town;795311Yeah, i'm finding that invaluable in converting a PF adventure path over to 5e.
I used to like d20pfsrd.com, but it's gotten way too cluttered and hard to use.
Maybe this project could fill the gap ;)
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/325749599/digital-d20/
Quote from: estar;795309What the app?
Combat Effects. (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.rpg_time.combateffects) Handy to have running on a tablet while gaming via skype/hangouts on another machine.
Not great on a phone. But it does the job admirably. Undermining my previous point about not using system-specific applications or programs! Though, in fairness the actual gaming is conducted by a GM (and his book) in another country so we can't just pass the hard copy round when needed.
Yes, PDF it. I know.