D&D 5E Really want access to DungeonScape

[Johnny Angel]

Will this excel spreadsheet be something that could be posted for others to sponge off your hard work and bask in your programming greatness?

Oh, yeah. That's the point. Years ago, I did a chargen for d20 Future, and then later during the public playtest of Pathfinder I put out a chargen for that called sCoreGen. That latter project became very difficult to support due to time constraints and particularly after the glut of new feats and character build options that came with the Advanced Player's Guide, but another guy stepped in and put a lot of work and his own stamp on the project, re-launching it as ScoreForge.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/scoreforge/

Unfortunately, sCoreGen was designed for the d20 family of games, and 5e is different enough that it would be nearly impossible to clear out all the legacy crap that no longer applies, so I've started working from the bottom up again. In theory, it should be a lot simpler to design for 5e than the d20-era rules. And indeed, with a lot less free time, I'm pretty close after only a month from the release of the PHB. Once a new core is out in the public, I hope it'll be relatively simple for people to customize it for the needs of their own campaigns, or use their own talents to create custom character sheets for it.

 

[TheSwartz]

Oh, yeah. That's the point...

Awesome, you rock.

 

[Aurick]

Since it's already been submitted to Apple for review, theres a possibility the app could pop up as soon as this Wednesday or the next one (Wednesdays are the day when most apps release in the iOS App Store) unless for some reason it receives special attention from Apple and they decide to set it up for an App of the week promo, which could delay the release based on when Apple can fit it into their promo schedule.

 

[mechascorpio]

Since it's already been submitted to Apple for review, theres a possibility the app could pop up as soon as this Wednesday or the next one (Wednesdays are the day when most apps release in the iOS App Store)...

Very, very small possibility for a number of reasons. Submissions are rarely approved the first time. Large, complex apps generally require a more extensive review. And the wait time for reviews has nearly doubled over the past few weeks, possibly due to the pending release of iPhone 6 and iOS 8 this week. I'm speaking generally, not specific to DS. I just don't think anyone should be camped out on iTunes or the DS site at midnight on Tueday, hitting refresh.

 

[Aurick]

Very, very small possibility for a number of reasons. Submissions are rarely approved the first time. Large, complex apps generally require a more extensive review. And the wait time for reviews has nearly doubled over the past few weeks, possibly due to the pending release of iPhone 6 and iOS 8 this week. I'm speaking generally, not specific to DS. I just don't think anyone should be camped out on iTunes or the DS site at midnight on Tueday, hitting refresh.

Totally agree! I doubt the release will sneak up on us without some kind of heads up from the Dungeonscape team, I was just trying to provide a bit of hope that it could happen sooner rather than later. I'd be somewhat surprised if October comes without the release. Though, if theres unforeseen problems, that date could definitely push back a couple more weeks. I guess time will tell.

 

[transtemporal]

Personally sad they are doing iOS first as it means I will have to wait even longer.

It doesn't fill me with confidence that they decided to tackle iOS first. That makes no sense. Surely you would try to get the most bang for your buck first and do a web version as you said. Just bizarre.

 

[TDarien]

It doesn't fill me with confidence that they decided to tackle iOS first. That makes no sense. Surely you would try to get the most bang for your buck first and do a web version as you said. Just bizarre.

Two things.

1. It was a core constraint by WotC that the tools be designed for tablets first. Tablets are the form factor that works best around a table (laptops take up too much room, and phones are too small).

2. They're lead developer had a background in iOS, it's what they know best. Besides, as anyone who develops for mobile knows, iOS gets about 5 times as much app revenue over Android.


The web and android beta will likely be mere weeks behind the iOS release, and will probably be nearly as polished as the released iOS version.

 

[agentc13]

Two things.

1. It was a core constraint by WotC that the tools be designed for tablets first. Tablets are the form factor that works best around a table (laptops take up too much room, and phones are too small).

While this may be a constraint put on them by WotC, I don't know that I agree with it. A web app works on a tablet, phone, or laptop. It's killing 3 birds with one stone and gets everyone started instead of a select bunch (which happens to be iPad users in this case). From the sound of things, much of the work is on the back end and helps with the other versions so designing for web first doesn't hurt them.

2. They're lead developer had a background in iOS, it's what they know best. Besides, as anyone who develops for mobile knows, iOS gets about 5 times as much app revenue over Android.

Background of the lead dev, yeah, I get that, but the revenue from various platforms is probably irrelevant in this case. You're going to need to login to an account for this and the access will cost the same regardless of platform. The normal pricing/revenue structures for whichever of the popular games/apps you want to pick are not going to be how this one works (at least I don't know of any popular apps that will have comparable pricing), so the argument that iOS apps normally make more money is irrelevant. The people that want this will want it, and they will buy it or not based on the pricing structure that this will end up having, not based on which OS usually makes apps more money.

The web and android beta will likely be mere weeks behind the iOS release, and will probably be nearly as polished as the released iOS version.

Yes,

 

[TDarien]

While this may be a constraint put on them by WotC, I don't know that I agree with it. A web app works on a tablet, phone, or laptop. It's killing 3 birds with one stone and gets everyone started instead of a select bunch (which happens to be iPad users in this case). From the sound of things, much of the work is on the back end and helps with the other versions so designing for web first doesn't hurt them.

Yes that's true, but there are performance issues to consider as well. Not to mention that the web app will require an active internet connection while the tablet apps won't.

I'll point out what mechascorpio said earlier:

As for the mentions of "web based" and HTML5, a few things about that. As an aside, I used DS hands-on at Origins a few months ago. To replicate that user experience with HTML5, JavaScript and CSS would be... challenging. To have that render with any consistency across the universe of tablets, PCs, OSes, user input methods and browsers would, to me, be inconceivable at this time. In addition, HTML5 is SLOW, and in and of itself limited as to how it can manage sessions and storage, or access device functionality. There are very legitimate reasons why developers take the native app approach, especially for tablets and mobile. If you don't believe me, ask yourself: why are most of the apps on your smartphone and tablet are native? Why did Facebook back off its HTML5 roadmap for its apps? And in the PC world, why are we still dealing with Flash, Shockwave, Java and Silverlight?

The main argument is that a web app would not perform nearly as well on a tablet as a native app would. The people at Trapdoor have said that the actual performance of the web app (in its current state) on tablets matches that expectation as well.

 

[Mercule]

The main argument is that a web app would not perform nearly as well on a tablet as a native app would. The people at Trapdoor have said that the actual performance of the web app (in its current state) on tablets matches that expectation as well.

I'm a web developer and pretty hard-core Windows/.NET. I've got an iPad, but it was something of a "hold my nose" purchase because I'm not particularly smitten with Apple. Doing iOS first is the right call. There's a reasonable case to be made for desktop/PC first, or even web, but only if the target is to use it between games and/or limit it's paying audience to DMs. Even then, it's probably a coin flip, at best.

Any other answer comes only from wishful thinking.

There was a period of time that developers tried to do HTML5 apps for iOS -- Amazon, in particular, tried very hard to build an HTML5 app to get around Apple's payment requirements for buying things via apps (like, say, Kindle books). I used it. It sucked. As motivated as they were, and as many resources as they had, Amazon still failed. Doing this right, as a universal web app is so far out of Wizards budget as to be laughable. Android users are cheapskates and unreliable for an income stream (statistically speaking, not impugning anyone). To get this on tabletops -- and prove to the purse that it has sustainability -- they need to start with iOS. The iPad purchases will pay for the Android port, which will probably be a break-even. Desktop and/or web will (hopefully) follow and be useful to DMs and players who really like numbers or who don't have a mobile device but want to print out sheets between games.

Honestly, even as a MS fan, I'd prefer to work on a touch-based iPad app than a mouse-and-keyboard web/desktop app, unless it includes more adventure planning tools than I'm expecting. Even better would be a Windows Store app, for my Surface, but I'm a realist.