[UPDATED] CODENAME: MORNINGSTAR: Watch the UI Overview

Trapdoor Technologies, who are running the Codename: Morningstar Kickstarter for the electronic tools suite (launching with Pathfinder) has created a short User Interface Overview. This 2-minute silent video quickly shows you some of the functionality in the product, including character generation, party messaging, adventure browsing, product shelf, store, dice roller, and adventure creation and publishing.

The full Kickstarter is here. It has currently raised $19,000 of its $425,000 goal.

The below video has been updated with a new one which contains a soundtrack.

[video=youtube;QwHmy-J6l-0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwHmy-J6l-0&feature=youtu.be[/video]
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[Agglomérante]

They're asking for almost half a million of the community's bucks.

I have faith in digital tools. Before I kick in though, the kickstarter page needs to address, transparently, why the product was dropped by WotC and -- where they agree on shortcomings -- the project's plan to address them.

 

[Frusticolus]

They're asking for almost half a million of the community's bucks.

I have faith in digital tools. Before I kick in though, the kickstarter page needs to address, transparently, why the product was dropped by WotC and -- where they agree on shortcomings -- the project's plan to address them.

I think they're not legally allowed to disclose that information, so I don't think you'll be hearing that stuff anytime soon.

 

[turkeygiant]

Assuming this isn't "pre-rendered" or concept animation I am impressed with the UI...but the features still aren't impressing me to the tune of $50, plus monthly fees, plus the cost of new modules...

I like the look of the Monster/NPC tracker that is something I could use, but most of the other features presented are things I already do with other apps, or frankly just as easily playing pen and paper.

Something else I just don't get is the apparently "groundbreaking" search functions, I think the embedded links might make things marginally easier...maybe...but its not really a problem that I feel was crying out to be solved. I feel like I function just fine using the search function of a PDF, and very rarely do I need to reference multiple books on the fly.

In general I think Trapdoor is trying to sell us on the broad functionality of their technology, but the RPG community is looking for very focused and specific things. I almost feel like this kickstarter would have been better off as a commercial service trying to sell their reader technology as a generic utility any industry or business can use. But RPGs are a real kickstarter cash cow so it might have been tempting to try their luck here first.

 

[barasawa]

probably never happen

They're asking for almost half a million of the community's bucks.

I have faith in digital tools. Before I kick in though, the kickstarter page needs to address, transparently, why the product was dropped by WotC and -- where they agree on shortcomings -- the project's plan to address them.

Sorry, but companies usually have legal agreements that prevent either party from saying anything, so we are going to be left wondering for years if not forever.
Even if they didn't, it's often a bad move to speak out as it tends to make your company look petty. Such outbursts also tend to result in retaliation, which doesn't help you either, not to mention it also makes the other company look like a whiney you know what as well.

Those kinds of things never help anyone so most companies just sign agreements that nobody will talk about it.

 

[lkj]

Well, I think that it looks very cool, and I'd love to have that app for building adventures, characters, etc. It's the content integration that sells it for me. The hard part, for me, is that with no certainty that 5e material will make it in there, I have a hard time deciding whether it's worth it to sink some money on hope. Even if WotC do release a generous OGL, there's still no guarantee we'd get more than what has been released with Basic-- which would substantially decrease its utility. In that scenario, you'd need WotC to sell modules for the app (or perhaps rehire Trapdoor to create them). Ugh.

At any rate, I hope they find a way to get it out, even if I, in the end, won't have a use for it. No harm in other people getting nice things.

AD

 

[lyle.spade]

I wish them all the luck in the world. However, doesn't it seem a little odd that a web technology company would produce a silent movie of their supposedly awesome product-to-be? Look, if they want that much money then their potential customers need to have a lot of confidence in their skills and vision as designers, and savvy as business people. A silent movie of boring, hard to read screen shots doesn't show me any of that. Maybe WOTC dropped them because they just didn't seem to have the chops to make it happen...and their releases since the breakup make me think that that was the case.

 

[Zaran]

Kickstarter is one of the best ideas for gaming companies and third parties like this. They tell the designers what the consumer wants and if they are willing to pay for it. I pledged some money to this cause but I'm thinking this isn't going to succeed. Only getting 5% of their goal after a weekend isn't a good sign.

 

[Evenglare]

I'm with agglo. I need to know what happened and how they are going to address it. If they can't tell me anything then I'll have to rely on their past performance, in this case, what they put out for 5e and how well it worked. Going with that and how faulty it was, I can't in good conscious give them any of my money especially since pathfinder has grown to a ridiculous size compared to 5e's books out.

 

[TDarien]

I'm with agglo. I need to know what happened and how they are going to address it. If they can't tell me anything then I'll have to rely on their past performance, in this case, what they put out for 5e and how well it worked. Going with that and how faulty it was, I can't in good conscious give them any of my money especially since pathfinder has grown to a ridiculous size compared to 5e's books out.

The problem is that the Dungeonscape product people saw accounted for probably 10-15% of their total efforts (that is an estimation on my part), as the bulk of their work was for iOS. So you don't know how well their product truly worked, because nobody really saw it.