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- The Lone Wolf Development Team
Any recent updates on the progress of Content Market
- Thread starter joepacelli
- Start date
Came here to say pretty much this. This very thread has many posts begging for LW to give updates even if the update said nothing. Well seems like BJ is trying to do exactly what was requested.
Thirded. Thanks for the update!
To those who have shown support, thank you, the positives mean a lot right now.
Dark Lord, I think I do remember the conversation, though admittedly it's a vague memory given how all over the place I was last year between being a guest of the show and all my other commitments. Thank you for attending one of my panels! I'll be doing a similar panel this year with Satine Pheonix, Dr. Megan Conell, and Amy Vorphal that I think will be a lot of fun.
For everyone else, I understand your frustration, I share your frustration. I will continue to extend my apologies for the amount of time you've had to wait because I feel it's the right thing to do and respect that many of you need to vent no matter how demoralizing that may be to myself or the LWD team.
I shared a general summary of the past months yesterday elsewhere and I wanted to share a summary again here for any who have missed the bits and pieces scattered throughout this incredibly long thread. So, here is a general recap:
Regarding the Content Market, I initially pushed very hard for release back in November/December, but we discovered the API items we needed from Paizo weren’t done and we had no control over that. They were understandably busy at the time with their own technical difficulties, the new Playtest, and rebuilding their website so we had to wait.
We haven't been able to reasonably backtrack for a variety of reasons, everything was built to work with Paizo’s API that we were under the impression was done a very long time ago. Unfortunately, when we were finally ready for it, it wasn’t usable for us and adjustments needed to be made.
While it may not be visible to the outside world, I promise you we are not just sitting around. We’ve worked on what we can, had a lot of personnel changes, replaced our entire customer service staff, hired more devs etc. We’ve had 5 new devs since the CM push stalled at a company that only employs 8 devs total, one of which is the owner. As you can imagine, training new devs, reorganizing more than half the company and instituting new policies has taken time and I’ve focused on what we could accomplish while we waited so as to be prepared when Paizo finishes on their end.
I promise you if I could force the release of the CM or could have at any point in the last six months, I would have. It is and has been my top priority. I even went so far as to offer to fly our top dev to Seattle to fix the API ourselves late last year. For very understandable security reasons, they declined.
Like everyone else, I just want the product to move forward and the company to succeed. If the promised adjustments are made this month as I was assured they would be at Paizo Con, we will hopefully have the CM out by Gen Con and finally be able to move away from this depressing state. I’ve been incredibly open about our trials and probably risked my job more than once to push for what I felt was the best path forward for the company or in defense of our consumers. There really isn’t any more to it than that, no hidden secrets or planned doom for Realm Works, the quiet is just us working and waiting for what we need to move forward.
To add to that, Paizo just rolled out the initial API changes we needed today. Before anyone gets too excited, it's the first run, there will absolutely be some testing required, and very likely a few tweaks before we can make use of it entirely, but they did keep the commitment they made to me at Paizo Con. I am incredibly grateful for that and thrilled to be moving forward again in any capacity. It won't happen overnight, but I have my fingers crossed we will see the Content Market in time for Gen Con.
Dark Lord, I think I do remember the conversation, though admittedly it's a vague memory given how all over the place I was last year between being a guest of the show and all my other commitments. Thank you for attending one of my panels! I'll be doing a similar panel this year with Satine Pheonix, Dr. Megan Conell, and Amy Vorphal that I think will be a lot of fun.
For everyone else, I understand your frustration, I share your frustration. I will continue to extend my apologies for the amount of time you've had to wait because I feel it's the right thing to do and respect that many of you need to vent no matter how demoralizing that may be to myself or the LWD team.
I shared a general summary of the past months yesterday elsewhere and I wanted to share a summary again here for any who have missed the bits and pieces scattered throughout this incredibly long thread. So, here is a general recap:
Regarding the Content Market, I initially pushed very hard for release back in November/December, but we discovered the API items we needed from Paizo weren’t done and we had no control over that. They were understandably busy at the time with their own technical difficulties, the new Playtest, and rebuilding their website so we had to wait.
We haven't been able to reasonably backtrack for a variety of reasons, everything was built to work with Paizo’s API that we were under the impression was done a very long time ago. Unfortunately, when we were finally ready for it, it wasn’t usable for us and adjustments needed to be made.
While it may not be visible to the outside world, I promise you we are not just sitting around. We’ve worked on what we can, had a lot of personnel changes, replaced our entire customer service staff, hired more devs etc. We’ve had 5 new devs since the CM push stalled at a company that only employs 8 devs total, one of which is the owner. As you can imagine, training new devs, reorganizing more than half the company and instituting new policies has taken time and I’ve focused on what we could accomplish while we waited so as to be prepared when Paizo finishes on their end.
I promise you if I could force the release of the CM or could have at any point in the last six months, I would have. It is and has been my top priority. I even went so far as to offer to fly our top dev to Seattle to fix the API ourselves late last year. For very understandable security reasons, they declined.
Like everyone else, I just want the product to move forward and the company to succeed. If the promised adjustments are made this month as I was assured they would be at Paizo Con, we will hopefully have the CM out by Gen Con and finally be able to move away from this depressing state. I’ve been incredibly open about our trials and probably risked my job more than once to push for what I felt was the best path forward for the company or in defense of our consumers. There really isn’t any more to it than that, no hidden secrets or planned doom for Realm Works, the quiet is just us working and waiting for what we need to move forward.
To add to that, Paizo just rolled out the initial API changes we needed today. Before anyone gets too excited, it's the first run, there will absolutely be some testing required, and very likely a few tweaks before we can make use of it entirely, but they did keep the commitment they made to me at Paizo Con. I am incredibly grateful for that and thrilled to be moving forward again in any capacity. It won't happen overnight, but I have my fingers crossed we will see the Content Market in time for Gen Con.
Thank you. One can hope!
BJ while I do appreciate your post, and Rob's position of nothing is good enough.
It's that everything else is held up by one thing. It was stated Paizo was clearly the road block, and yet, nothing, nothing else was produced in that time frame. That's what so frustrating. Why would you hold up everything else?
There are a ton of features your customers want, need, voted for... How long ago was that now? Yet nothing has come of the time.
Surely even Rob can understand that if CM is to be delayed by outside forces, spending a little time on other customer wanted features would have been a good way to bridge the gap?
Or maybe a few bug fixes for long over due issues?
That's what is most frustrating.
I think you may have missed this part of BJ's post:
This is why RW took the back seat for a while, they didn't have the devs, HL and HLO pay the bills, RW won't pay the bills until the CM is out and that is waiting on Paizo.
I didn't miss it, its implication is that Paizo was not the road block as we were told. I just wanted someone else to bring it up, as I have been nothing but negative for some time here...
Hard to be positive about RW.
dungeonguru
Well-known member
I don't think we missed that dev turnover was also a big part of the problem instead of just Paizo API issues but I promised to step away as long as the page that promised ready made content was removed - and it was. I think the biggest negative for me at this point are the personal attacks by the "crusaders" that will tout an excuse for LW while tearing down anyone complaining. I'm not going to say anything negative about RW or the time delays anymore, just set my reminder to August 2 (Gencon) before I check back for any forward motion.
For the record LW must be supported by HLC, HLO doesn't pay any bills until they start charging for it although it might drive some sales to HLC in the meantime by people thinking that they'll get a discount for the new product as an "upgrade". Same for the free cloud for the realms created, that hardware doesn't run for free so one positive is you get free storage for several Gigs of data right now. Take what you can get.
They are charging for it: $35 for Starfinder (+3 months service), $15/6 months or $25/year for ongoing service, and there's a couple of add-on products you can buy. Whether it's bringing in enough to pay for its own ongoing development yet I have no idea.
True, but storage is pretty cheap. If/when they do get the Content Market up and running, though, they'll start the timers again.
dungeonguru
Well-known member
I missed that - but then again I'm not interested until they announce another game system beyond Starfinder that I'm involved enough in to want to join in on.
Honestly, historically, non-IP sci-fi games have been niche and small market. Even the established universe products seem to have a revolving door on publishers, versions and lifetimes - how many Star Wars version have come out so far? Which Traveller version is your favorite?
According to Roll20's Q4 Orr Report for 2017, around 1% of games and gamers are playing Starfinder although the game did only release in August 2017 and they say that it's increasing in popularity.
Still if only 1% of one of the most popular VTTs is playing a game, I can't imagine it's a huge number for the rest of the world either.
Then again, HLC has the market cornered for Pathfinder 1 and HLO will likely lead the market for PF2 when PF2 stops playtesting. If they could only secure a full 5e license they'd smack down dndbeyond because that product needs some severe loving before it compares to LW's polish.
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I think we'll just have to agree to disagree about the quality of DDB. I find it to be a stellar rules reference, and a great way to make a character. Though I'll agree it doesn't have campaign management tools yet (and so would the devs)/
But the license is not exclusive. Fantasy Grounds and Roll20 both have licenses. Both have a way to reference rules. And Roll20 has just rolled out the first look at a character generator. DDB aren't the only game in town. But for rules reference and character generation, I'd say they are the best of the licensed three.
AD
That is not correct. Fantasy Grounds and Roll20 both sell electronic versions of the Players' Handbook, adventures, etc. They are absolutely not just using the SRD. DDB does have the right to call themselves the 'official' toolset. But their license is not exclusive.
Look here:
https://marketplace.roll20.net/browse/publisher/242/wizards-of-the-coast
And here:
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/?sys=16&hidecore=1&sort=1
Both Roll20 and FG have a license, and they are selling licensed material.
AD
Also, they don't call themselves 'the' official toolset. The site says:
'An official toolset for . . .'
AD