Apple users: Would you buy Hero Lab if it ran on Mac OS?

[Scorponok]

Hi everyone,

Ever since we released Hero Lab for Windows three years ago, people have requested a version that runs natively on Mac OS. Hero Lab works great under Boot Camp, Parallels, Virtual PC, etc, but Mac users (quite reasonably) want to run Hero Lab on their native operating system, without having to reboot or buy a Windows license.

We're actively investigating a number of porting options, and some are simply too costly to consider for a company our size. However, there is one option that we are seriously considering, and we need to better gauge the demand before we go ahead with it.

If you are a Mac user, and you don't own Hero Lab yet, would you purchase the product if a native Mac version were available?

Please note that the following restrictions would apply:

1) The application would likely only run under "Tiger" (OS X 10.4), not earlier versions.

2) The application would look and behave exactly the same as it does under Windows, with the exception of things like the main menu. The user interface would not be rewritten for the mac.

3) All features would work on Mac OS exactly as they do on Windows. There would be no functionality difference between the Mac and Windows versions. Hero Lab currently supports Mutants & Masterminds, Pathfinder, the d20 System, World of Darkness (Vampire & Changeling), 4th edition, Cortex System, and Savage Worlds - all of these game systems would be available within the Mac version.

Given these conditions, would you purchase Hero Lab if you haven't already done so?

If you're a Mac user who's interested in using Hero Lab, now's your chance to show it. Please let us know if you'd buy Hero Lab if it was available for the Mac.

 

[Hadrian the Builder]

Hero Lab? No way (I'm now using 4E/DDI), but Army Builder...in a heartbeat.

 

[Alan Shutko]

I would not buy Hero Lab for 4e, but would likely buy it for Pathfinder. I haven't tried the demo yet, but I've heard good things about it and the support for Pathfinder.

 

[Rackhir]

We're actively investigating a number of porting options, and some are simply too costly to consider for a company our size. However, there is one option that we are seriously considering, and we need to better gauge the demand before we go ahead with it.

Are you looking at a WINE wrapper?

If you are a Mac user, and you don't own Hero Lab yet, would you purchase the product if a native Mac version were available?

Maybe I haven't tried the product. Price seems a bit on the high side, especially if you want more than one system. But I assume you have to pay licensing fees?

1) The application would likely only run under "Tiger" (OS X 10.4), not earlier versions.

Doesn't seem like this should be a problem. You've got to have a fairly old mac not to be running 10.4 or later, especially with SL only being $30. If you are going with some sort of "wrapper" solution, that's going to require an Intel Mac in any case.

2) The application would look and behave exactly the same as it does under Windows, with the exception of things like the main menu. The user interface would not be rewritten for the mac.

Mac users tend to get annoyed when something is blatantly "windows" in it's UI, but that doesn't seem to really be the case here. I'd have to poke around with the app though. A couple of screen shots don't really offer a definitive answer to how usable the UI is.

3) All features would work on Mac OS exactly as they do on Windows. There would be no functionality difference between the Mac and Windows versions. Hero Lab currently supports Mutants & Masterminds, Pathfinder, the d20 System, World of Darkness (Vampire & Changeling), 4th edition, Cortex System, and Savage Worlds - all of these game systems would be available within the Mac version.

If someone had a PC version of it with some of these data sets, would they be usable with their mac version or could they "switch" the license to their mac version. Would it require a separate purchase?

 

[Scorponok]

Answering Rakhir's questions:

Yes, it would effectively be a WINE wrapper, although you wouldn't have to install WINE or anything to make it work - it would act like a normal program that you run in a normal way.

We do indeed have to pay license fees for each game system, plus it takes us several months of development time to create each one.

If someone had a PC version of it with some of these data sets, would they be usable with their mac version or could they "switch" the license to their mac version. Would it require a separate purchase?

There would definitely be some sort of "sharing", so that if you owned several games for the PC version you could use those with the mac version. You definitely wouldn't have to buy each game again.

 

[Alan Shutko]

I took a quick look at HeroLab on Windows. I don't think I'd be too worried about the non-Mac UI. Character generators always have idiosyncratic UIs and I've become resigned to that.

If it were ported over, I think it would be a strong contender to PCGen on the Mac. I would probably purchase it, because it has far more frequent pathfinder updates than PCGen. For instance, Hero Lab has Council of Thieves content, and I had to add that manually to PCGen.

The most important items for me would be:

• Performance would need to be good, even on my Macbook Air.
• PDF output would need to work.
• Printing would need to work. I could work around this if PDF output worked, but for a commercial sheet generator, I think this is a core requirement.

I am pleased to see that Lone Wolf offers a secondary license tied to the first so that I could run it on both my laptop and desktop machine. That's important to me.

 

[Remus Lupin]

I would certainly consider it, if it worked for 3.5 and Pathfinder. I would, however, be happier with a "Mac-friendly" interface.

 

[Scorponok]

For people concerned about the application looking too "windows-like", here's a screenshot of a Pathfinder character (click image for bigger):



Hero Lab uses its own stylized interface, not native windows controls, so it shouldn't really "feel like" a windows application. (For the mac port, the menu bar would appear at the top of the screen like all mac applications.)

For people who are concerned about the GUI being too "windows-ish", does that reassure you? If there are any mac users who have had experience of Hero Lab on PC or running in a virtual machine, I'd be interested in hearing your opinions on this.

Thanks for your feedback, everyone!

 

[ShinHakkaider]

I purchased Hero Lab and 2 licenses (Pathfinder and M&M) and run it on my Mac Pro via Parallels.

I'd love a OSX native version of it.

 

[Remus Lupin]

It looks pretty good, and certainly better than a lot of the resources I've been using to generate characters.

Tell me, can it print nice looking character record sheets, or is it all intended to be used on computer?