Back At It

Hey all,

November is over, and my book is... um, unfinished.  It's been a crazy month with work and stuff, and now I'm back to programming.  I'll be splitting my time between coding and writing.

Please offer any suggestions or wants in comments, I'll respond in the evenings (US central time evenings, that is).

ZBott

Post Kickstarter Update

Hey all,

So I seemed to have failed to achieve the kickstart, or whatever it's called.  So I wanted to touch on that before getting back to work.

First and foremost: I will NOT be giving up on the project, in fact I've been working on the latest subversion, and have been trying to cut through a damn snag that keeps me from displaying gifts and rites correctly.  I got some headway, and will be using my time off to try to finish it up for some sexy new pictures to demo.  So long story short, I'm working on the app still, just caught on a bug for the moment.  Short story long: Anything by Dickens.

As for funding, I got two things I can do:
A: I'll still have my paypal account, and to sweeten the deal will take one request per donation per month.  For any donation I get through there at a reasonable amount, I'll push forward a feature to a new version, swap version goals, or add an all new feature to the queue.  So if you want to say have All oWoD game support before tablet support for example, I could do that, with, of course a donation.  If you want to be listed on the special thank's section, I just ask that the name you want listed is appropriate for all audiences.

B: I'm going to retry a funding site approach again in the near future after November so I can take part in NaNoWriMo.  I'll also be using a different service, Indiegogo (the same one used to fund the Nikola Telsa Museum), as they won't charge too much and have an option for underfunded projects to still launch.  Kickstarter has a nice color scheme, but they charge up to 10% of the final amount between them and Amazon, while Indiegogo only charges 7% max with their processing fee included (plus 5% to partial funded projects probably to discourage people from shooting for the stars every time).  I'm going to also have Mobile Grapevine at a much more advanced stage so I'll be looking for a smaller amount for testing equipment, a paid-for website and blog over this free one, and travel costs so I can make it the games where it will be tested.

For everyone who donated, thank you.  It means a lot that you had my back, and I'll try to move a little faster on getting the Android and iOS versions to market.  For everyone who wanted to donate but couldn't, thanks for the support during the Kickstarter campaign.  For all people watching, I'll keep everyone updated on my progress.

ZBott out

PS: I'm also going to start a through-app game after I finish both versions, though I'm still wondering what system I'm going to using.  It might be pan-oWoD, or use any number of published-to-books or online available only systems... or maybe even something just developed strictly for Mobile Grapevine!  Let me know your ideas and thoughts in comments.

v0.035 and Kickstarter Update

Hey all,

The March Toward v0.04
So I've done a few things on the Android version, like make a delete and update, though I'm still getting weird errors.  I haven't gotten the gifts and rites either.  So all in all, I'm at like v0.035, not quite to the next level.  Here are some screen shots for peoples to peruse, I'll be adding them to my Kickstarter update when they work right.

Kickstarter Update
I've gotten a few people to back me, but not enough.  If your sitting on the proverbial bench, please don't.  The number of backers will help me decide how to move if I succeed or not.  If I get 1,000 backers but not enough backing, I can still turn around and use those numbers to help me get something off the ground.  If I get only 10 people backing me, it shows very little interest from gamers.

Lastly, if you would like to see it succeed, help me put the word out.  What I run into as a problem is not having enough time to talk about it to people who would be interested, or good ideas on where to reach out to people.  Just let people know the link and why you think it's a worthy cause, that will help me out immensely.  Here's the link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1220609366/mobile-grapevine

A little Q&A

One question I get a lot is "Why do you need $40,000?"  So I'm going to answer it as I have time and time before, though probably not in such a polished way:
Right now I spend roughly 10 hours a week, sometimes more and sometimes less, working on the app.  With that in mind I feel I can confidently say that Mobile Grapevine will be to both Google Play and the iTunes store by some time in 2015.  The kickstarter will allow me to take off time and work exclusively on designing and programming the app, and I can get both versions done by next year.  It will be like going to warp speed.  I picked that number not out of a hat, but after running some figures, like rent and utilities, as well as testing equipment.  In retrospect I might have been able to do it for half that amount, but when I set up the project, I picked a number that I knew would work, and now I'm locked into that.

Question 2 is "What will I do if it doesn't work?"
Keep going on.  Hopefully I'll have a good number of people trying to back me, but if it falls through, I'll be back at what I've been doing.  I've already made some headway, but not enough, not as much as I've wanted to do.  In theory I should already have v0.10 (Laws of the Wyld version) and working on v0.20 (Laws of the Night version), but I just don't have the time to make it happen as fast as I'd like.

Anyways, let me know any other burning questions in comments, and I'll get to them as soon as I can.

ZBott out!

Kickstarter Kickstarted

Hi everybody,

I finally got my Kickstarter project running, which can be reached here: Mobile Grapevine

It ends October 22nd, and I'm looking to garner $40,000 or more, which will allow me to take off time to devote myself strictly to the project, as well as the testing equipment, maintenance to my vehicle so I can travel to games to do said testing, and upgrading my programming computer because my current one is starting to becoming a little antiquated.  

The real bonus is it makes the app go from taking me years to finish to months.  With any less I'll still have to be working, and that doesn't free up the time I need.  I ran the numbers with my wife and that $40k limit is what we came up with by the end.

If you like the project, feel free to donate, and I'll try to fulfill the pledge bribes as soon as I can.  The UI Vote for the $1 range only counts once, so if you donate like $500 over 500 different entries, I'm only going to count it once.

Later all,

ZBott

Version 0.04 and KickStarter

Hey all,

I've finally got the program to start doing some of the stuff I want, like pass data back and forth from the database.  Officially I'm now onto version 0.04, which means flushing out the character generator, and displaying more data.  It will take a bit as I work out how to store gifts and rites, traits, abilities, and an inventory.  With the amount of work I've been getting done, hopefully I can zip through this a lot faster.

So in the next few weeks I'll be releasing a Kickstarter project, and here is what I want to know from you: What rewards should I offer for donations, and how much should I aim to receive?

So far my scheme is going to be:

$1: Personal thanks and added to the update list
$10: Free copy of the software
$100: Have your name listed on the special thanks page.
$250: Free set up of one game, plus entering in the first 25 characters into your database, or all if they are already entered into Grapevine. (I plan on charging for set up of games in the future to help cover costs for travel, food, and gas)
$500: Set up and desk support for the first three games of one that the donator wishes to run, including entering in all characters and setting up the rules and house rules supplement.
$1000: Same as the $500 level, but for a whole year, also get one of the text bed equipment coming preloaded with the v1.0 of Mobile GrapeVine when completed. (limit 10)

Good?  Bad?  Brutto?

As for my goal, I think somewhere in the $20,000 to $50,000 range should cover me for the first six months to year, however is that a realistic expectation from table top and LARP gamers?

Anyways, let me know in comments below what you think.

Later all,

ZBott

August Update

Hey all,

To those who've talked to me about the production, mainly well wishers, thank you. I'm sorry about the lack of updates, and I'll explain where I've been putting my time and energy (which is sadly neither the App nor gaming). Also some news on two fronts.

First, Time Limitations:
I graduated last May, had my daughter over the summer, and just got married. Naturally, my time has been eaten up, but to make matters worse I'm in a fiscal bind. Most of my time has been put into either working a low paying job, working on the wedding, or looking for work that pays enough to make life, well, work. Luckily, the wedding is over so I can free up time, but that time freed up wasn't as much as I need to make Mobile Grapevine happen.

Second, Good News:
Part A: I've talked to Adam Cerling, the primary force behind the original GrapeVine program, and he's given me the blessing to use the name in my app, so Mobile GrapeVine is now the proper name. Part B: With what limited time I had, I've managed to fix a problem that was making limitations on how much data I could load. I've hit another snag, so hopefully I can get things actually running smartly enough to release a product demo before October.

I plan on making another update in the next week or so with more detail on actual production, so stay tuned!

Lastly, a shout out to people wanting Storyteller updates on spends: The incarnation scale of the app will go something like the chart below.

Version :	Detail
0.10	Werewolf: The Apocalypse Support
0.20	Vampire: The Masquerade Support
0.30	Tablet Support
0.40	All Old World of Darkness Game Lines Support
0.50	Storyteller Toolkit
0.60	Storyteller-to-Player Updates
0.70	Player-to-Storyteller Updates
0.80	Randomly Input Game Support
0.90	Server Managed Character Support
1.00	Fully Tested and Vetted Version, Being Work on iOS Verion

That, my (hopefully) friends, is my battle plan for the next few months. By the time the App is finished, it will allow Storytellers to have explicit control over sheets (v0.60 and v0.90), but also allow players to make new characters and spend experience and traits/points where the Storytellers can keep a record of such actions(v0.70). It will even allow for people to take the same technology over to their Shadowrun or D&D games (v0.80) or run massive interconnect LARPs like The Garou Nation or Minds Eye Society from a central character sheet repository (v0.90). Getting this app to just hold a character sheet and track spends throughout the night is the start.

Anyways, ZBott out.

PS: Not to pester, but really, if you guys can throw some money into my PayPal account, I can spend more time on the app instead of working. It's in the upper right hand corner. Red Coder Needs Food Badly. Red Coder Is Working And Not Programming.

Rebuilt and Reloaded

Over the next few days, I'll be posting a lot more as I'll be focusing much more attention to the program as other classes have let up.

Tonight, though, I've been rebuilding my environment (again) because of installation problems (again) in both Eclipse and Android SDK. I've gotten the issue resolved for the most part, though I'm still rather frustrated at having to redo this for the forth time this semester alone.

Actual Programming Progress: Flushed the program to include all character stats as entries.
Related Problem: It's now not reading the PLAYER_NAME and CHARACTER_NAME correctly onto the main screen. Old axiom of fix one and break another still holds true.

On 6pm Friday, I'll be going to my month Werewolf LARP within the The Garou Nation, an organization that links multiple games together under a standardize set of bylaws for transfer of character, in game properties, and alike. Most of my play-testers for the Werewolf version (Version 0.10) are part of this org, so I can start to show them as well what to expect.

Till the tomorrow,

Zachary

Starting on v.3!

Hey all,

I know right now at the time of posting no one is reading this blog, but for those of you who will be sifting back into the past, this is where I said, yes, I'm starting V.03!

The next phase will include:
-Werewolf the Apocalypse LARP (Laws of the Wyld) character sheet displaying on Android 2.1+ devices
-Character Generator for Werewolf the Apocalypse LARP on Android 2.1+ devices

I'll post more when I do more.

ZBott out.

What is Mobile Grapevine for?

Dear reader,

I wanted to take a moment to better define what Mobile Grapevine is for. Simply put, it's to make it where both Table Top and Live Action Role Playing games can take advantage of smart phones, tablets, and similar devices. As an avid Android user, I've been looking for a good character sheet tracker app for years, but keep coming up short. There are apps for the iPhone, but the lack the function of Adam Cerling's Grapevine, and fall short of being truly innovative.

My long term goal is to provide support to both Android and iOS so they can not only keep track of sheets, but also have game masters/storytellers monitor changes, and allow players and storytellers to activate abilities within the game on each other to speed up the flow of the more mechanical parts of the game.

If you wish to help me, what I really need now is finances. Feel free to donate and leave a message on what you'd like worked on first. Right now I'm quite a ways away from releasing the first live update of the Android side (V0.1), and haven't even started to really work out the iOS version. Any amount helps, but to really get off the ground I think I need somewhere around $350, not a lot, but more than I have right now. At $2000 I can really knuckle down and focus on both versions, and would be able to have them released by July.

Please leave comments and questions, and I'll get back to people as soon as I can.

ZBott out

Version 0.02!

Hey all,

This is my first post on my progress towards V1.0 of Mobile Grapevine.  The name is subject to change when I finally release both the Android and iOS versions!

ZBott