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]

​

 

[Nikosandros]

I think the displeasure with Trapdoor Technologies' position is valid, based upon the history of how we got here and the hubris embodied in the response.

I actually agree with you on almost everything that you say. I'm just saying that all of this, simply made me decide not to back the project, but it didn't make me angry with the company.

 

[InexplicableVic]

Yes, I personally only back projects I'm convinced will deliver a product. If one isn't convinced, then back if you truly believe in what the project is trying to accomplish, because if you don't get your reward, there's no guarantee you'll get your money back.

-HM

This is important. Erik Tenkar has a pretty good list of "Wayward Kickstarter" projects that couldn't deliver on their promises after funding. Check out www.tenkarstavern.com for a whole bunch of failures. I've only backed 2 Kickstarters -- Dwarven Forge's Cavern Tiles (because I missed out on Dungeon Tiles) and Reaper Miniatures Bones II (missed out on Bones I). I'd back others IF the person behind it had proven success in the past (not necessarily on Kickstarter). Unfortunately, Trapdoor's past record is limited to the very weak beta that WOTC shut down...not good. So, when it comes to Kickstarter: CAVEAT EMPTOR.

 

[Curmudjinn]

What Trapdoor needs is a new project manager. Matney is clearly unprepared for the many aspects the project and kickstarter are failing at. Proper financing, team size, clear strategy and goals, etc.

The whole thing has been very seat-of-pants. They need to hire a real business manager.

 

[fjw70]

One interesting thing is they say that the rules don't matter and it is all about the story for them. Then they talk about character creation taking too long and spending hours per game session looking up rules. This tool is suppose to mitigate those issues but a simpler way to handle those things is to play a simpler system, which shouldn't be an issue if it isn't about the rules.

 

[nerfherder]

That's how Kickstarter gets you, Nerfherder. Unfortunately there are dozens if not hundreds of ways for a company to demonstrate that their product is the best thing since sliced bread and then mysteriously not deliver that product.

Back if you want to back, but don't do it because it is a win/win. That's a damn clever illusion.

Actually, I think you're right. I'll probably stick with my original instinct.

 

[Cergorach]

Same issues here:
1.) unclear what the product does exactly
2.) pricing is unclear and seems high if it's a cloud based system that will probably require annual fees.
3.) currently not supporting a system that I actually play (currently 5E)
4.) the intro movie is just a pain to watch, no real information on the KS
5.) the previous deal with WotC and 5E might be iffy, especially when combined with the above

I have absolutely no problem with cloud services, I'm a Spotify, Marvel Unlimited, Adobe CC subscriber. And I feel I'm getting value for money, I have absolutely no feeling of that with this KS. I've backed a ton of KS (20), with some I spent way to much money, but again, I always felt I got value for my money or I really, really wanted something to get made. Again, no feeling of that here, because it's quite unclear what's happening here.

They either have abysmal marketing or their just incompetent and that doesn't bode well for that application their selling (if we ever figure out what it does exactly)... When I look at the Lone Wolf Development website, I know exactly what kind of product their selling, learn from that.

I'm actually quite happy with the current status quo in RPG world. There's actually a ton of different apps out there, some are free, some are paid for. But most start relatively small and set more realistic goals...

That said, might just not be an app that's aimed at me or my crowd of players. We all have tablets, mostly iPads, but the only reason we use ONE at the table is because someone forgot to print out the maps we where using... Might be a cool idea if there's an app that allows you to do fog of war easily, but not for character sheets, not for messaging, not for dice rolling. We're a high tech crowd, but even we want to look at each other instead of our tablets (we do that the rest of the week!) during a pnp RPG evening.

We use apps for character creation, looking up rules outside of the game, I've used apps to prepare as a DM (Roleplaying Master, PCGen, etc.), even used to use RPM to track complex combat during high level 3E games on a laptop. Don't want to see players with tablets and laptops out during a game, don't really want my laptop/tablet out during play as a player... We have a ton of MMORPG and classic cRPG games for that that don't require complex planning schema's to get the whole gaming group together once a month (if that).

 

[Dausuul]

Man, if it's one thing Codename Morningstar is teaching me it's that being open with all the behind the scenes stuff is a mistake apparently. This community sure is turning on Trapdoor Technologies fast!

What "behind the scenes stuff" have they been open with? They say a lot of words, but the words don't say much.

 

[Dausuul]

What you really want-- in this age of digital information-- is a content management system in which all the pieces of information you need are always one touch away. Essentially you want all the information you need in one place all the time, no matter what you are doing. And, finally, we have sufficient technology to make that possible.

We've had the technology for many years. What you're talking about boils down to little more than hyperlinks and search bars; d20srd.org on steroids. And d20srd.org did not take a 16-person team and a million-two to make. To the best of my knowledge, it was built by one guy working in his spare time.

I keep hearing good things from people who've actually tried the software. So I assume they do in fact have something solid built for 5E using iOS. However, I don't believe it's anything revolutionary, as they keep suggesting with stuff like the "status quo" comment. I hope we do get a 5E OGL and they put the iOS version of CN:MS on the market. I'd be willing to pay decent money for a good set of 5E e-tools. What I'm not willing to do is pay up front for a set of e-tools whose quality I can't judge for myself (even if it weren't targeting Pathfinder). I can run just fine with no electronic tools at all, using Ye Aulde Pencil and Paper; it's a convenience, not a necessity. Since Pathfinder fans already have some decent e-tools, I expect they'd be even harder to convert.

 

[trancejeremy]

Another problem with it that occurred to me, is that you are presumably locked into their ecosystem when it comes to adventures. Yet most people, especially those in the current target audience (Pathfinder), probably have a large host of PDF adventures.

Presumably you would be able to somehow enter in those adventures manually, but that would be a lot of work.

 

[frankthedm]

We already know that WotC (having had bad experiences previously), finally wised up and dumped them at the nth sign of trouble (we don't know if n is 1, 2, or some larger quantity of missed deadlines or functionality).

This can't be said loud enough.