jaappleton
2021-09-29, 02:27 PM
I've alluded to this numerous times over the years on these forums. And I'm finally going to say what happened.
It is a tale I know very intimately. How? Trust me, that's all I will say.
I am not now nor have I ever been an employee of WOTC, nor did I work for or with any of the companies or people involved.
To understand what happened to the original 5E digital toolset, we have to go back to the 4E toolset.
I will NOT state what happened with that toolset in this topic. What I will instead do is ask that you google "Joseph Batten WOTC". BEFORE YOU DO THAT, I must warn you: Its some dark stuff. Content warnings are quite necessary here. Its... grim. Alright? But if you want to know the real story, and honestly what exactly happened with 4th Edition, you should read it. Once you read it, you will likely feel like some missing pieces of the puzzle have finally clicked into place.
Continue reading once you have read about Joseph Batten & WOTC, if you have any interest in doing so.
I asked you to read up about that to gain an understanding not only of what in the world actually went down with 4E, but to give you an understanding of why WOTC may have been a bit hesitant to get a 5E toolset up and running immediately.
Now, to the story of what happened with the original 5E digital toolset.
-----
Trapdoor Technologies. It was a small, tiny outfit out of Colorado. Legitimately, filled with great people. I mean that. And that statement should be... telling. It should answer some questions, I'll put it that way. They wanted to create a digital toolset for 5E. Character creator, magic item compendium, the monster manual. Plans included going to an encounter builder, and then who knows what.
They created a Kickstarter. Before the OGL applied to 5E. The Kickstarter failed.
.....but it got WOTC attention. And not in a bad way. WOTC was interested, they met and Trapdoor showed them a demo. The two sides entered an agreement, and WOTC began funding for the project, with funding tied to development goals and milestones. Standard stuff, as far as funding and contracts go.
Primary focus was to get the app up and running on iPads. Android was an afterthought, with... maybe... not much of a priority... on web browser later down the line.
Trapdoor was showcased at Origins, where it was revealed as Codename: Morningstar. People loved what they saw in the iPad app. Exclusive closed beta sign ups were available.
Things were going fairly well on both sides for awhile.
In fact... This link still works. https://dnd.wizards.com/digital_tools?x=dnd/news/morningstar
WOTC no longer lists Morningstar, because it doesn't exist anymore. But you can how that link ends, right?
Development stalled with the app. The funding WOTC was giving wasn't enough to hire more programmers to ramp up development on the Android version, and the iOS development was going slower and slower because their staff was pulling double duty trying to get the Android version on par with iOS in time for the closed beta... and none on the term were well versed in anything Android. But they were trying like hell.
I didn't have an iPad at the time, but I did get into the Android beta.
......It was a disaster. Crashed constantly, nothing really worked, things didn't add together correctly, it was a mess. It was a real mess. This never should have been shown in any sort of Beta, this was pre-alpha level stuff.
I saw the iPad footage. It was decent. A bit elementary, compared to some of the character builders now like Beyond and FantasyGrounds. But it worked! Didn't quite have everything just yet, as it was indeed Beta, but it showed promise.
However... This was in early 2015 or so? iPads weren't cheap. Lots more had Android, as far as tablets go. So, Android is what more people saw. And what they saw was rough. People immediately wrote it off, and I don't blame them one bit. Milestones weren't being reached in development, and funding became scarce.
WOTC, however, still wanted the project.
WOTC, however, did not want Trapdoor.
In development, there's a term called 'gold discs'. The raw code. The master disc. The original copy. The one ring, Frodo. It wasn't part of the initial agreement, but WOTC wanted the gold discs. Trapdoor didn't want to part with them, instead wanting additional funding to complete the project.
Neither side budged.
Guess which side had a lot more money in the bank to keep going?
So Codename: Morningstar... died. And people lost their jobs as Trapdoor fizzled and went under.
WOTC never got the gold discs.
A few months later, WOTC and Curse (a subsidiary of Twitch) entered an agreement for what would become known as D&D Beyond... and the rest is history.
Trapdoor had bitten off way more than they could chew. That's just a fact.
Simultaneously, I believe WOTC had set some unrealistic goal expectations as to how much time was needed for a project like this, and how much funding it would need.
It was bad management from both sides, in my opinion.
It is a tale I know very intimately. How? Trust me, that's all I will say.
I am not now nor have I ever been an employee of WOTC, nor did I work for or with any of the companies or people involved.
To understand what happened to the original 5E digital toolset, we have to go back to the 4E toolset.
I will NOT state what happened with that toolset in this topic. What I will instead do is ask that you google "Joseph Batten WOTC". BEFORE YOU DO THAT, I must warn you: Its some dark stuff. Content warnings are quite necessary here. Its... grim. Alright? But if you want to know the real story, and honestly what exactly happened with 4th Edition, you should read it. Once you read it, you will likely feel like some missing pieces of the puzzle have finally clicked into place.
Continue reading once you have read about Joseph Batten & WOTC, if you have any interest in doing so.
I asked you to read up about that to gain an understanding not only of what in the world actually went down with 4E, but to give you an understanding of why WOTC may have been a bit hesitant to get a 5E toolset up and running immediately.
Now, to the story of what happened with the original 5E digital toolset.
-----
Trapdoor Technologies. It was a small, tiny outfit out of Colorado. Legitimately, filled with great people. I mean that. And that statement should be... telling. It should answer some questions, I'll put it that way. They wanted to create a digital toolset for 5E. Character creator, magic item compendium, the monster manual. Plans included going to an encounter builder, and then who knows what.
They created a Kickstarter. Before the OGL applied to 5E. The Kickstarter failed.
.....but it got WOTC attention. And not in a bad way. WOTC was interested, they met and Trapdoor showed them a demo. The two sides entered an agreement, and WOTC began funding for the project, with funding tied to development goals and milestones. Standard stuff, as far as funding and contracts go.
Primary focus was to get the app up and running on iPads. Android was an afterthought, with... maybe... not much of a priority... on web browser later down the line.
Trapdoor was showcased at Origins, where it was revealed as Codename: Morningstar. People loved what they saw in the iPad app. Exclusive closed beta sign ups were available.
Things were going fairly well on both sides for awhile.
In fact... This link still works. https://dnd.wizards.com/digital_tools?x=dnd/news/morningstar
WOTC no longer lists Morningstar, because it doesn't exist anymore. But you can how that link ends, right?
Development stalled with the app. The funding WOTC was giving wasn't enough to hire more programmers to ramp up development on the Android version, and the iOS development was going slower and slower because their staff was pulling double duty trying to get the Android version on par with iOS in time for the closed beta... and none on the term were well versed in anything Android. But they were trying like hell.
I didn't have an iPad at the time, but I did get into the Android beta.
......It was a disaster. Crashed constantly, nothing really worked, things didn't add together correctly, it was a mess. It was a real mess. This never should have been shown in any sort of Beta, this was pre-alpha level stuff.
I saw the iPad footage. It was decent. A bit elementary, compared to some of the character builders now like Beyond and FantasyGrounds. But it worked! Didn't quite have everything just yet, as it was indeed Beta, but it showed promise.
However... This was in early 2015 or so? iPads weren't cheap. Lots more had Android, as far as tablets go. So, Android is what more people saw. And what they saw was rough. People immediately wrote it off, and I don't blame them one bit. Milestones weren't being reached in development, and funding became scarce.
WOTC, however, still wanted the project.
WOTC, however, did not want Trapdoor.
In development, there's a term called 'gold discs'. The raw code. The master disc. The original copy. The one ring, Frodo. It wasn't part of the initial agreement, but WOTC wanted the gold discs. Trapdoor didn't want to part with them, instead wanting additional funding to complete the project.
Neither side budged.
Guess which side had a lot more money in the bank to keep going?
So Codename: Morningstar... died. And people lost their jobs as Trapdoor fizzled and went under.
WOTC never got the gold discs.
A few months later, WOTC and Curse (a subsidiary of Twitch) entered an agreement for what would become known as D&D Beyond... and the rest is history.
Trapdoor had bitten off way more than they could chew. That's just a fact.
Simultaneously, I believe WOTC had set some unrealistic goal expectations as to how much time was needed for a project like this, and how much funding it would need.
It was bad management from both sides, in my opinion.