What Happens If CODENAME: MORNINGSTAR Doesn't Fund?

With 2 weeks to go, and only 13% of the $425,000 raised, and those two weeks being Christmas, the odds are that Codename: Morningstar won't fund. There might be a last-minute turnaround, of course, but the prognosis right now does not look hopeful. Trapdoor Technologies leader Chris Matney addressed the possibility, saying that "not pledging is telling the industry that you are happy with the status quo."
[lq]...if there does not appear to be a sufficient market interest our continued investment in the gaming industry is not assured.[/lq]

Below is what Chris Matney said on the subject. You can find the Kickstarter here.

What If We Don't Fund?

Yesterday, I addressed the question about why Trapdoor needs $425,000 to fund the completion of Morningstar. Today, I want to chat briefly about what happens if we don't fund via our Kickstarter campaign. The answer is somewhat more complex than you might imagine, so please bear with me.

First, we need to assess whether the gaming community has a real interest in our technology. The response to our Kickstarter is part of that answer - and I won't deny that the role player in me will be disappointed if we don't fund.

Our decision to jump into the gaming market was not made lightly. Trapdoor is a software company that builds interactive publishing applications. This technology is at work in commerce, education, and other fields. Role-playing games are complex and thus a perfect showcase for our interactive technology which simplifies prep and play. This is a greenfield opportunity for us and the industry. No other gaming company provides digital distribution beyond PDFs.

Your pledge to our Kickstarter campaign is the best way to express interest in bringing a remarkable, captivating and new experience to our hobby. It is the only way to 100% guarantee the success of Morningstar.

If we don't fund (and assuming there is demonstrable interest in the technology), we will need to reevaluate the current gaming ecosystem: looking for publishers who are interested in leveraging Morningstar into their gaming system, assessing the OGL for D&D 5e (if any), combing the feature set in Morningstar to see what can be pushed back, etc. With $1.2M invested in the project to date, we would obviously like to see Morningstar launch. However, as with any business if there does not appear to be a sufficient market interest our continued investment in the gaming industry is not assured.

The community and you have some decisions to make in the next two weeks. If you share our vision, pledge. Even if you don't think we will fund - throw your support behind our cause. Kickstarter collects pledges only if the funding is successful. It's a no risk proposition - at worst, you will show your support. Not pledging is telling the industry that you are happy with the status quo. Hopefully, you elect to be on the ground floor of a truly remarkable journey.

Respectfully submitted.
Chris Matney
Managing Director
Trapdoor Technologies


[lq]...not pledging is telling the industry that you are happy with the status quo.[/lq]


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I think you might be misunderstanding how Kickstarter works. You're not an investor.

You're a customer. You're not buying shares.

You can take me to task on my use of the word investor. But the fact is that unlike buying from Apple, I'm not 100% guaranteed a product, and Kickstarter won't help me in case a project doesn't deliver. People shouldn't look at Kickstarter as an e-store, like Amazon.

-HM
 

You can take me to task on my use of the word investor. But the fact is that unlike buying from Apple, I'm not 100% guaranteed a product, and Kickstarter won't help me in case a project doesn't deliver. People shouldn't look at Kickstarter as an e-store, like Amazon.

-HM

I'm not trying to take you to task, I promise.
 

if anything, this just restores a bit of my faith in the gaming public. they've made it clear that you need more than a PR team and a sales pitch to get money from us.
 

When I hear they have went through a million two and are still in this kind of dire straits I think of the PC gaming companies in the late 90's who were headed by big names and seemed to be more into having posh offices with all the latest distractions and whatnot than putting out a product.

And I guess they think non PF gamers should buy this just to...make a point to the RPG industry?

oooooooooooooooooooook.

Best of luck guys.
 

For me, its not the cost or the team size. Ive been in software 15 years so that seems reasonable to me actually. Its maybe... the language thats putting me off? Overpromising and underdelivering is a common tactic for companies that dont have any faith in their product, or they just want to get it out the door as quickly as possible or they know its a bad product and they want to cash in before word spreads. Steam is LITTERED with these products.

On top of that, the wotc thing has hurt the product. Theyre naive if they think it hasnt. Sure, we know wotc are a bunch of clueless idiots when it comes to software but still, falling out over commercials doesnt look good. In addition, if they do complete the product without wotc blessing, wont wotc just issue a C&D?
 

I think you're misunderstanding why people are saying that.

They're not saying "it is the most popular RPG with you and your friends and therefore you personally must back the Kickstarter"; they're saying "it's the most popular RPG in the world, so there should theoretically be enough Pathfinder fans to replace the lost 5E fans with the correct marketing".

At this point I don't know if its really safe to say that Pathfinder is still the bestselling/most popular RPG system out there, I have a feeling that once the numbers come in from the release of 5e it will well and surely be back on top. The only reason WotC ever dropped down the list in the first place was because they slowed down 4e production in favour of developing 5e. A company willingly putting a line on hiatus may lower their sales, but doesn't mean they are any less popular. I don't think sales can ever be the absolute measure of a game line's popularity.
 

I think you might be misunderstanding how Kickstarter works. You're not an investor.

You're a customer. You're not buying shares.

Actually you are a "Backer", there is a reason kickstarter uses that word, It's very clear in their fine print that you don't have any of the protections/rights of a Investor or a Customer. The well run Kickstarters that gain positive community following more often than not will treat you as a Investor or Customer anyways despite not being obligated to, they know goodwill goes a very long way!
 

At this point I don't know if its really safe to say that Pathfinder is still the bestselling/most popular RPG system out there, I have a feeling that once the numbers come in from the release of 5e it will well and surely be back on top. The only reason WotC ever dropped down the list in the first place was because they slowed down 4e production in favour of developing 5e. A company willingly putting a line on hiatus may lower their sales, but doesn't mean they are any less popular. I don't think sales can ever be the absolute measure of a game line's popularity.

Meh. We use the most recent figures. We'll use the new ones next quarter. If you want to get into the "my personal guess about the figures in-between quarters is more accurate than the figures at the end of the most recent quarter" game, that's fine. :)

I predict D&D will have the #1 spot next quarter (I may be wrong but that's my bet), but the data we have so far has Pathfinder up until now.

I don't think sales can ever be the absolute measure of a game line's popularity.

I prefer tea-leaves myself. What measure do you prefer? :)
 

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