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

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[Zaukrie]

I agree with Morrus. I want a cool content tool, but the web beta turned me off, so they need to increase my confidence somehow. They have not done that. Oh, and I do not play pathfinder. I would think to fund to that level, they need Paizo working with them.

 

[Nikosandros]

Hero lab is tried and true. With their announcement they are working on 5e tools, it took all desire away to try this.

I know Hero Lab works excellent for Pathfinder. Having it for 5e would be great, and I rather wait and buy their prodect.

I've expressed my reservations about this project, but to be fair, what they're offering is rather different from Hero Lab.

 

[Remus Lupin]

That's an interesting point: Where is Paizo on all of this? Did Trapdoor contact them at all about this Kickstarter? Try to get some more support or cross promotion? Heck, Paizo has promoted other companies' Kickstarters before when it benefited their line, but to the best of my knowledge there's been no backing by Paizo and no effort to make enlist their support.

 

[Hollow Man]

That's an interesting point: Where is Paizo on all of this? Did Trapdoor contact them at all about this Kickstarter? Try to get some more support or cross promotion? Heck, Paizo has promoted other companies' Kickstarters before when it benefited their line, but to the best of my knowledge there's been no backing by Paizo and no effort to make enlist their support.

There's clearly no backing by Paizo at this point, because otherwise we'd see a big fat PATHFINDER logo across the top of their Kickstarter page, and you can bet that would go a long way towards people being willing to part with their money.

-HM

 

[Doctor Futurity]

I miss the old days when a developer would produce a finished product which I could then buy from them and actually use at that time.

Project Morningstar's crew seem to lack some self-awareness about the impression they left when their agreement with WotC dissolved.

 

[Remus Lupin]

I'd just like to see the producers of D&D just ONCE get their digital tools right off the bat, rather than having multiple false starts. This is 4 editions running where an attempt was made at digital tools that wound up going horribly wrong.

 

[Mercurius]

Yes, I'm basically happy with the status quo. So *bleep* me dead.


Mod Note: "Clever" misspelling to avoid the language filter is not acceptable. Keep your language clean, folks! ~Umbran

 

[Pauper]

When I first heard about Trapdoor and Project: Morningstar, I kind of assumed that Trapdoor was a shingle, not unlike, say, 'Sneak Attack Press' -- in other words, a gamer or a couple of gamers who had an interest in making something cool. The more I learn about Trapdoor, the less I am excited by them, and this last missive pretty much sums it all up.

First off, the message is laden with business-speak phrases that seem to mean one thing but really mean something else. Mr. Matney wants to know if 'the gaming community has a real interest in our technology'. I'm interested, but not to the point where I'm going to help fund the next three months of development of a product that most people still haven't seen and don't know much about. He talks about the Kickstarter being 'the only way to 100% guarantee the success of Morningstar', when all funding the Kickstarter will do is guarantee the success of the Kickstarter. (Ask anybody who pitched in money for Pathfinder Online, which squeaked past its million-dollar Kickstarter goal nearly two years ago and is still only in 'alpha' development.) He talks about 'greenfield opportunities' and 'evaluating the ecosystem' as if he's talking to other executive-level reports rather than an actual community of gamers.

Most importantly, he describes his company that has already published interactive software solutions in other fields. If your product is really going to revolutionize gaming, then talk about how your existing product has revolutionized the other fields you're in. All I can find about their current business is that they're 'revolutionizing' the portfolio of the venture capital firm they belong to (along with the artisinal gluten-free malt producer who also populates the portfolio - http://slingshotcp.com/portfolio-companies).

I feel bad for the folks who work for Trapdoor, but if this is the best that their management can do when put in a tight situation, they'll all be better off finding other employers. Meanwhile, the gaming community will continue to use their 'status quo' offerings and have great fun around the table, with or without revolutionary story-driven multi-media applications.

 

[Umbran]

Did WotC really authorize a million dollar spend and then kill this product with NOTHING to show for it? Somehow I doubt that.

I believe WotC and Trapdoor are both on record as saying that the funding for the project was internal to Trapdoor. WotC didn't authorize any spending, as it wasn't WotC money being spent!

 

[Morrus]

I believe WotC and Trapdoor are both on record as saying that the funding for the project was internal to Trapdoor. WotC didn't authorize any spending, as it wasn't WotC money being spent!

Yeah. It was a licensing agreement, not contract work.