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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pickin_grinnin" data-source="post: 7662687" data-attributes="member: 6697674">To put my comments in perspective:I have been doing software development professionally since the early 90s. I have worked on software for small businesses, hobby markets, public libraries, corporations, major league sports teams, the entertainment industry, and more.  For example, I was one of the developers on the Cartoon Network website.  I have been coding since the first Apple II was released, and have extensive experience with extremely large database development and data mining.  I have worked on software for the big telecoms.  I have done individual development, team development (including being a project lead), and every other sort.   I have done professional work in C, C, C++, C.NET, PERL, Python, Java, and many other languages.  I understand the whole "iceberg under what you see" thing, intimately.I have worked on complex software for small companies when I was the only developer, or only one of a handful.  I know all the challenges that come with that.  I have run my own companies, as well.You're a small company with limited funds and a limited staff serving a hobby market.  You can only get so much done at once.  I get that. I have been there before, and it's rough.  That's not the issue, though.My issue is that your software is not as functional as it appears to be on your website and in your videos, but you are charging as if it has all the features in place.  You charge prices that are appropriate for fully-developed software, but not for software that is slowly poking out the basic features you have been talking about since the Kickstarter.  If that's the way Hero Lab was developed (as you indicated), I would have said the same thing about it at the time.  When I bought Realm Works, there was no indication that I wouldn't be able to print things out (pretty basic functionality), or that my data would be locked up with no way to export it to another format (also pretty basic functionality).  If that had been evident in the videos or other documentation, I wouldn't have bought it.From what you have said, it sounds like your business model is to get some initial money, develop the product up to a certain point, start selling the product, and then roll out features over time.  I don't consider that to be a professional business model.  It's more akin to the open source method of doing things, without the benefits of open source.  I don't release software - to a client or for independent sale - that doesn't have all the planned features in place.  I may think of new features later and add them, but the ones that are part of the basic conception of the product have to be in place before I charge people money.  If I were to do that, I would explicitly state what was missing and charge beta-level prices for the product.I didn't buy Realm Works during the Kickstarter.  I bought it afterwards, when you offered it for sale on your website.  I specifically avoid software Kickstarters because I want to give the company time to really complete the product before I buy it.  I'm not into the patronage model.  If I buy software from a website, I don't expect it to still be missing a lot of features that were discussed in the Kickstarter, particularly if it's going to take years to get them.>How would someone go about creating something like Hero Lab?I could create something like Hero Lab.  Most professional programmers/developers could do so.  It would take a decent amount of work, but it's not that complex to write that type of software (for people who have a lot of experience), even if you take into account the need to have it be flexible enough to work with a wide variety of game systems.  I have written extensive software that can work equally well in libraries, archives, and museums, and could even be used for warehouse tracking.  It's not that unusual of a way to do development.>For some perspective, the recent Kickstarter attempt by Trapdoor Technologies >sought a HALF-MILLION dollars for SIX MONTHS.It failed spectacularly because they were asking for far too much.  There was never any chance for it to succeed.  The problem is that they were trying to recover their sunk costs from the work they did when they were still tied to WotC.  Asking people to help pay for failed past business deals is never a good strategy.Getting back to Realm Works, the scope of it is huge.  I can tell that the programming behind it is very time-consuming and more complex than that with Hero Lab.  It would be a big undertaking even if you had a larger team.  I can certainly understand the need to get something out there to bring in money as you expand the product.  My issue, though, is that the way you represented the product after the Kickstarter gave the impression that it was significantly farther down the development line than it actually was.  I don't get the impression that you meant to do this, but in the end it was a form of false advertising.  It's one thing to ask people to be patrons and support your development of a product (via Kickstarter), but once it gets to the point that you are approaching them as regular customers (by selling on your website), you shouldn't expect them to be content to wait for years to get all the features.One of my friends is still very upbeat about it, but only because you keep saying that the Content Market is only a few months away.  I know that he's expecting the Content Market to have all the features in place that have been touted to this point, and that he can load and start selling content on the first day.  I hope that's the case.  I suspect that he will lose all interest in the product if it isn't. In the end, I'm dissatisfied with the product.  I wasted my money.  When people ask about it (online or off), I give my opinion.  I appreciate hearing other people's varying opinions online, and feel that it's important to get all perspectives.  I know a lot of other people (online and in real life) who bought it and have never used it, generally because it's still missing features that they thought would be in place by now.  You obviously have some satisfied customers.  That's great.  You have a lot of dissatisfied ones, too (as is evident from all the online discussions).  I would pay attention to that feedback, too.  I always do when I release software.</blockquote>

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