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PSG: The Crawler's Companion Kickstarter is live!

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2012 3:10 pm
by tovokas
Once more into the breach!

I hope everyone isn't exhausted at this point by the excellent DCC-related Kickstarters recently launched. :) I'm supporting both the Brave Halfling and Tales of the Fallen Empire efforts, and you should be too! Our community is growing, and it's the work of the great people here that is making it happen.

Here's the link to the Crawler's Companion Kickstarter:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/475 ... on-for-all

The goal of this Kickstarter is to make the Crawler's Companion (our dice-rolling, rules-referencing, table-crushing DCC RPG utility) available on as many mobile devices as possible, starting with iPads and Android 2.2 and higher tablets. I'm committed to keeping all the Purple Sorcerer DCC utilities free, but this effort will require some equipment/tool purchases - thus the need for the Kickstarter. I've tried to include a number of fun rewards along the way, so you'll get more than just a cool utility and the warm and fuzzy feeling that will come by helping our community expand!

Check it out, tell your friends, lets make this happen. :)

Thanks to everyone for your support.

Re: PSG: The Crawler's Companion Kickstarter is live!

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2012 8:59 pm
by hawkwind
Well I am backer no 7. Your apps make playing this game really easy.Without them I would be getting flashbacks to when I used to play Role Master!
Would out be possible to combine your low evel and high level generators into this app if you get enough backers?

Re: PSG: The Crawler's Companion Kickstarter is live!

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2012 9:29 pm
by tovokas
Thank you Hawkwind!

I think it would be great to roll the character generators into the Crawler's Companion, but there are some hurdles there. Currently the generators use a web server to create PDF's for printing and saving of character sheets. Doing this 'client side' on a mobile device is a whole different ball game (not even considering the issues of printing from a tablet or phone.) But I guess about anything is possible with enough support! I'm certainly researching the topic. :)

Re: PSG: The Crawler's Companion Kickstarter is live!

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2012 10:13 pm
by hawkwind
Perhaps a random sword and dragon generators

Re: PSG: The Crawler's Companion Kickstarter is live!

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2012 10:20 pm
by tovokas
hawkwind wrote:Perhaps a random sword and dragon generators
Very good ideas, I'll add them to the list. :)

Re: PSG: The Crawler's Companion Kickstarter is live!

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 5:21 am
by ravenspoe
Supported! This is Bad Ass!!!!!!!

Re: PSG: The Crawler's Companion Kickstarter is live!

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 9:14 am
by tovokas
Thanks James!

Re: PSG: The Crawler's Companion Kickstarter is live!

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 9:41 am
by HiroTsukasa
Out of curiosity, would the iPad app be Universal or compatible with iPhone/iPod Touch? Personally, I only own a Touch but having something like this in my pocket would be great. Regardless, this is a brilliant idea. A lot of the gamers in my group already have tablets so an app like this would be really useful. Best of luck with the kickstarter!

Re: PSG: The Crawler's Companion Kickstarter is live!

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 10:18 am
by tovokas
HiroTsukasa wrote:Out of curiosity, would the iPad app be Universal or compatible with iPhone/iPod Touch? Personally, I only own a Touch but having something like this in my pocket would be great. Regardless, this is a brilliant idea. A lot of the gamers in my group already have tablets so an app like this would be really useful. Best of luck with the kickstarter!
I designed it to work on lower resolution devices, so certainly the hope and expectation is that it will work on the iPhone, but we'll have to see if there's any unforeseen hurdles when we get to testing. I'll have to do some research on the Touch!

Re: PSG: The Crawler's Companion Kickstarter is live!

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 4:00 pm
by bholmes4
hawkwind wrote:Perhaps a random sword and dragon generators
Love it

Re: PSG: The Crawler's Companion Kickstarter is live!

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 4:05 pm
by HiroTsukasa
tovokas wrote:I designed it to work on lower resolution devices, so certainly the hope and expectation is that it will work on the iPhone, but we'll have to see if there's any unforeseen hurdles when we get to testing. I'll have to do some research on the Touch!
Awesome, great to hear! As far as the iPod Touch goes, if it the app can run on an iPhone then chances are it would be just fine on one. I am sure someone more into the specs could say specifics, but they're little more than an iPhone with the phone and GPS stripped out. I get a lot of use out of mine with the i4e app for 4th Edition (got tired of killing trees for the multi-page character sheets, very thankful DCC can fit all the important stuff to one page).

Also +1 on the sword and dragon generators; I love it!

Re: PSG: The Crawler's Companion Kickstarter is live!

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 5:03 pm
by screenmonkey
Any way we could just tap a die to get it to roll? I just tried 43 times in a row to get a percentile roll, but it just kept rolling d20s. Maybe I need to go to touchpadfingerswipe school. :mrgreen:

Re: PSG: The Crawler's Companion Kickstarter is live!

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 5:10 pm
by tovokas
What computer/browser are you using screenmonkey? The program really is written with a touch device in mind, with the current web version as a "here's what it works like!" version. :)

Once the dust settles, I'l modify the web version to be more "desktop specific" to get around some of the strangeness some browser/platforms experience.

Re: PSG: The Crawler's Companion Kickstarter is live!

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 5:20 pm
by reverenddak
On a computer, I have no issues using the dice roller, or scrolling pages, with a mouse or the touch pad. With the touchpad on my laptop, it probably helps to have "tap to click" enabled to do the "swipe" motion, it works really well. With a mouse, it's "click" "swipe" and "release". But I'm sure just tapping, or clicking, on the die would be even easier.

Re: PSG: The Crawler's Companion Kickstarter is live!

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 7:44 pm
by screenmonkey
tovokas wrote:What computer/browser are you using screenmonkey?
Asus Transformer prime TF201. Android 4.0.3. I'm hoping to use it for a variety of things at the gaming table and the Crawler is one. My guys have been playing Savage Worlds for the last 10 years, so if play isn't quick our first DCC session will be our last. I know the Crawlers Companion will dramatically reduce page flipping, so I'm really excited about it.

Re: PSG: The Crawler's Companion Kickstarter is live!

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 8:35 pm
by tovokas
screenmonkey wrote:
tovokas wrote:What computer/browser are you using screenmonkey?
Asus Transformer prime TF201. Android 4.0.3. I'm hoping to use it for a variety of things at the gaming table and the Crawler is one. My guys have been playing Savage Worlds for the last 10 years, so if play isn't quick our first DCC session will be our last. I know the Crawlers Companion will dramatically reduce page flipping, so I'm really excited about it.
Ahhh... Android devices don't deal well with the web version: that's what the Kickstarter is for, to build for tablets, etc. If you're capable of sideloading on your Transformer, contact me and I'll hook you up with the beta APK to test.

Re: PSG: The Crawler's Companion Kickstarter is live!

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 8:46 pm
by hawkwind
I would like to try your beta apk. I have a Samsung galaxy S2 & a cheap Chinese tablet and side loading is not an issue. In my opinion your current Web cession is superb and greatly improves the game experience. Goodman Games should be paying you to develop it!

Re: PSG: The Crawler's Companion Kickstarter is live!

Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2012 5:56 am
by dstack
Played with the beta apk a bit. Works fine on the Kindle Fire and Galaxy Nexus (ICS). This really deserves its Kickstarter to succeed - it's making my life so much easier. I pitched it in my blog today.

Re: PSG: The Crawler's Companion Kickstarter is live!

Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2012 6:52 am
by tovokas
dstack wrote:Played with the beta apk a bit. Works fine on the Kindle Fire and Galaxy Nexus (ICS). This really deserves its Kickstarter to succeed - it's making my life so much easier. I pitched it in my blog today.
Thanks Daniel, that's awesome!

And I'm excited that most of the supporters testing it on their Android devices are already having good experiences. As we move along I'll post testing results for specific devices in the wild. :)

Re: PSG: The Crawler's Companion Kickstarter is live!

Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2012 9:39 am
by tovokas
We're almost a third of the way there. :)

I've had lots of great feedback in terms of testing on Android devices, as well as stretch goal feature requests.

Devices that are successfully testing the Crawler's Companion include the Kindle Fire, Nook Color, a "cheapy momo9-ish" tablet, and smaller format devices include the Samsung Galaxy, Motorola Atrix, and Archos 32. The Kickstarter will allow us to devote time and resources to testing many more!

On the stretch goal front the most popular request so far is adding a simple initiative/hit point tracker. Of course, we have to reach our basic goal before we can even contemplate stretch goals, so I've made a decision: If we reach our basic goal, I'll add the hit point/initiative tracker as part of the initial goal, no stretching needed!

I have exciting plans for the tracker, including adding both locally stored and remote combat encounter data - so you'll be able to connect to the Purple Sorcerer site and download encounter data from DCC RPG adventures and mods directly to your device. Then in-game you'll be able to select a particular encounter, and the monster/hit points/initiative info will automatically merge with your player data. "Roll initiative" has never been so easy! You should even be able to add your own adventure data to the website using your computer to avoid having to enter lots of data on your phone/tablet, and you'll be able to share your adventure data with the DCC community!

Let's reach our basic goal so we can make this happen. :)

Re: PSG: The Crawler's Companion Kickstarter is live!

Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2012 12:08 pm
by Harley Stroh
Embarrassed to write that only just now watched the KS video ... brilliant!!!

Mac users, unite! We need to get this puppy going.

//H

Re: PSG: The Crawler's Companion Kickstarter is live!

Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2012 12:47 pm
by reverenddak
Some cash came in, and so I'm diverting a bit towards this Kickstarter! I'm excited to see the full release.

Re: PSG: The Crawler's Companion Kickstarter is live!

Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2012 1:17 pm
by tovokas
Thanks Harley and Rev!

Glad you enjoyed the video Harley. My kids (especially my daughter) love being in front of the camera. (And a couple weeks back she actually did make a spontaneous joke referencing the corruption tables: she's read them with her older brother trying to decide which was the ''coolest." I'm afraid I've warped my children...)

And Rev, I'm looking into publishing to the Nook store for our non-rooted Nooksters. ;)

Re: PSG: The Crawler's Companion Kickstarter is live!

Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2012 7:21 am
by hawkwind
It's great that a combat tracker is going to be added. What I have always wanted from combat tracking and dice apps Is the ability to push the dice result to other players using the same app over a local wifi network or better still the internet.

Re: PSG: The Crawler's Companion Kickstarter is live!

Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2012 8:13 am
by tovokas
hawkwind wrote:It's great that a combat tracker is going to be added. What I have always wanted from combat tracking and dice apps Is the ability to push the dice result to other players using the same app over a local wifi network or better still the internet.
That would be a fantastically useful feature and I'd love to pursue adding it if we reach our goals! Already got my mind churning....