NPC Generator/Designer

[maransreth]

Where will people be able to buy the program? through your site or a site like RPGnow?

If through your site, how will payment be? Lastly will the purchase of said program work for any upgrades, or will they be separate purchases as well?

 

[Vascant]

Let me try and answer all this, since there are some unknowns at this time.

1. Where?. I have a few people talking to me about marketting and handling that aspect so when I finish with those discussions I will know more and have more answers. I have also yet to decide if I will sell it on my site, if I do it will be just for the core product itself since I really do not want to get into running a store on my site and NPC Designer's varies products and product lines.

2. How will the payment be handled, I think most handle things thru paypal. If for some reason someone needs to handle something thru mail I have no issues there just will probably not be a public method.

3. Updates? Right now for certain I can say if NPC Designer is sold it will be for 1.x version. I have not coded version 2 yet and really have not figured out just how vast of a rewrite it will be in some of the engines (Two I know for certain need to be recoded from the ground up). If it takes me nothing to make all the changes needed to reach the goals of version 2, then there will be no additional charges for current owners of a registered copy. Worst case, is I have to do a ton of coding and it gets really wicked, then there may be an upgrade charge.


And all this is if I can convince my wife I am still having fun, after all I am retired. I promised my beta testers I would finish version 1 and I kept my word.

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

Looks like NPC Designer has gone gold!

 

[Vascant]

Gold and Silver for now...

Copper version will be released eventially, which will be a free/demo version. Between working on NPC Designer - Modern and adding new stuff to NPC Designer (Silver and Gold) being my focus for this month it will have to wait. Most who wanted to see what it can do have seen already, so not really something I need to deal with at this moment but it will happen.

I have some really good plugin ideas I want to expand upon as well. By the time I get finished with that area people will probably be loading NPC Designer just for the plugin. We also are working on several script packages to enhance NPC Designer over all. After all, the core idea behind NPC Designer are the scripts and the more you have the more you can do. I personally am looking to tackle Dragons, Demons, Devils and Angels.

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

I personally am looking to tackle Dragons, Demons, Devils and Angels.

Ouch...

 

[Vascant]

Nope.. no ouch at all, just key pieces I want done to achieve my goals. It is more fun then anyone realizes I think.

 

[rom90125]

Well Vascant, I wanted to bump this thread with a quick note:

Just purchased NPC Designer Gold and it is well worth the $15. Outstanding work. Not only did I create a half-demon Bbn16/Blk4 (with plausible skills, feats and gear) in under a minute, but the DM Genie statblock format was dead on. I thank you man...but I doubt my players will feel the same schoolboy enthusiasm after facing this bbeg.

 

[Vascant]

*laughs* My players have also felt the pain of it as well...

If anyone would have told me how much this tool would have changed my game I would have probably thought they were smoking crack. Besides saving myself a ton of time, the clear difference is no longer are normal NPCs merely old ones reused or something I found in a book that would do for the situation, now each NPC is designed to fit the exact situation. I spend all my time now making sure plots and depth of the story behind the NPCs instead of the mechanics of the game.

Best part of all this, is this is only the start of it. For a long time I often said to myself, what I could do if I had the source code to generating decent npcs.. now I do. So lets see

Thanks and most of all, very glad you enjoyed it.

 

[IronWolf]

I must have missed the announcement of the price being finalized and the deal you are running now, so here is a link to the pricing plan and such. I admit, I have not purchased it yet, but I did play with it while it was in development and thought it was a nice, easy to use tool. Coupled with the DM Genie importable stat block.... well that makes it that much better for me.

I have to admit, I had hoped it would stay free as I really think it could have taken off as more word of mouth went on. But I also understand after 11 months of work you deserve some reward for your work. I hope to pick it up by the end of August!

 

[Vascant]

I have to admit, I had hoped it would stay free as I really think it could have taken off as more word of mouth went on. But I also understand after 11 months of work you deserve some reward for your work. I hope to pick it up by the end of August!

I would have loved for it to stay free to be honest, I had that in mind when I started this project. I have nearly begged for the 5 beta testers I had at the end and for each one I prayed they would not get burned out and quit on me. I got very lucky, each had something different to offer and an eye for different things. For the longest, I was the only one even involved.. whats the point of a public project when... the public isn't involved.

My reward, is Rom's statement above.. worth more money then you can imagine to a programmer. I retired from programming and developing a few years ago, I made enough money where I never had to work again. The only thing I miss are the users. Even if someone says.. Hey Vas.. this doesn't work right.. Thats still a good thing, it means he wants this to work and I make it happen. (Yeah I know I am odd.. ask my wife.. she knows it very well).

I am hoping with all this new fresh blood that has joined the NPC Designer user group, they will push for better things, more features. Make me think and figure out new ways to handle situations. I have one simple goal now, to not just give people a choice of which tool to generate NPCs but instead, to create the only choice.