What’s Taking So Long?
Posted by: Ruel Knudson in Campaign Resource Manager, Developer Blog, DPnP, Overall Development, Player Character CreatorYes, its been a long time running. Its also been a long time between posts. A lot has changed in my personal life that is making things run a bit slower. The delays led to some conversations with one of my testers about the progress of DPnP, why things are not finished, and what still needs to be done. Those questions were interesting to me and got me thinking that those answers should be delivered publicly as well. The small Q&A below is paraphrased but you get the idea.
Q: What’s still left to complete?
A: There are still several elements of the character manager left to complete. The ability to manage vehicle equipment and computer elements from modern sagas are the two biggest ones under construction. Also, I am still working on the character sheets. The first set were simply functional. Now, they are being re-written to make them more accessible to the end user. By this I mean that there are easier ways to re-use the code to create custom character sheets. The CRM is all but finished. It still needs polish, and the GM screen, but all the functional stuff is done. If it were just being used in-house, I would call the CRM final and not bother with the final touches.
Q: If the CRM is done, why not finish polishing it up and release it?
A: Because, except for developing content, the CRM is pretty useless. It is a developer’s tool. Sure, it can make game content for GMs, but overall most GMs won’t find that useful by itself. Taken as a whole, with the Character Generator and the GM screen, with other software we plan to release in the future, the CRM is an incredible tool. To me, its like selling a really great engine without having the car it goes in. Sure, you have a nice engine, but you get much more out of it by having something to do with it.
Q: What kinds of things are left to do in the CRM?
Ultimately very little. There are some minor bugs and most of these deal with how some information is displayed. The content creation is perfectly fine. Everything it creates has everything needed and is creating/exporting/and importing fine. However, the way it shows the information needs some tuning and there are some glitches here and there that need some sorting out. Aside from that, I just need to add in the GM screen. As I said before, I would use this to create content now, but I won’t release an unpolished product for commercial release.
Q: So when will it be done?
When its done.
Sometimes it looks like things are just about wrapped up and then I realize that there are still some things not working correctly and these lead to other issues. The thing is that the program needs to present information without errors and in as user friendly way as possible. Most often that is easier said than done. However, no one has tried to do this before, so it is important that it be done right. I could just wrap things up and be happy with less. For instance, I could just forget about the Modern Sagas elements in the CRM and Character Generator and fix those and patch them in later. However, I learned some lessons with the launch of Fantasy Sagas. The primary lesson I learned is that I should commit to a goal and release that goal, rather than commit to a time frame. Is it annoying? Yes. As far as I’m concerned though it is better to be annoyed because it isn’t released versus being annoyed because you bought an unfinished product.
Q: So how is coming along now?
Slow. I was trying to finish things up quickly as some changes were coming in my life that would greatly complicate my progress. Unfortunately I missed this window of opportunity. So now development is crawling. I’m hoping to get as much done during the weekends as possible. Hopefully this means not too much longer. Also, keep in mind that there is some complicated design elements going on as well. The program is being developed with a lot of future expansion designed in. I can’t release these publicly now, but there are some very cool things planned for this, so things have to be carefully implemented with an eye towards how it will be used in the future.
So, that’s about the gist of it. Sounds like a bunch of excuses, I know, but that’s what the current situation. Please, bear with me as I make the slow, but inevitable progress towards release. Until then, Happy Gaming!
