Rejoin Protocol Scenario (somewhat anthropomorphized)

The Game Organizer gets disconnected when his cat pushes the reset button on the Uninterruptible-except-by-cats Power Supply. That’s okay–he boots back up, launches EpicTable and is seamlessly reconnected to the game. But his EpicTable believes it has to tell everyone about the state of the game, and as of this writing, everyone listens. It’s supposed to be a little more collaborative than that. Something more like:

Game Organizer’s EpicTable: “Hey, I just rejoined. Last I heard, we had three tabletops and a map, and they were this version.”

Participant 1’s EpicTable: “No problem Mr. Organizer. I’ve got all that.”

Participant 2’s EpicTable: “Really? We had a map? Let me see that.”

The campaign save is the most complex because it references all the other pieces. You can think of an EpicTable “campaign” as analogous to an html document in the sense that it references other things, characters, tabletops, maps, notes, etc., just like an html document references images or YouTube videos or whatever.

By the way, for those hyper-interested in day-to-day EpicTable work, I’ve been posting EpicTable status updates on Twitter. The tweets aren’t 100% EpicTable related, nor are you going to miss out on anything important if you don’t read the Twitter feed, but for anyone who really wants to poke their head into my office each evening…there you go.

Once this process starts, I’ll post a list of features in/out of the alpha, so you have some basis for deciding whether to participate in alpha 1 or wait for a later release. I plan to have automatic updates built in for alpha 1, so we should all be able to take advantage of new features as they become available.

The tabletop is working and auto-save is hooked up. Access to the catalog of saved items is still not there, so if you were to close the tabletop, you’d have no way to retrieve it. Suboptimal. The catalog is pretty necessary for alpha-1, but maybe not for this week’s game.

The features left out of this first alpha are no longer visible or accessible, which I’ve found has a marvelous focusing effect on me. It was too easy to worry about things not actually targeted for the alpha when they were staring me in the face.

Messaging (i.e., the new “forget port forwarding” messaging) is working, in the sense that message are getting back and forth, and this evening I’ll be reintroducing the message handlers and the participant join protocol.

I’ll keep you guys posted.

First off, I know a lot of different companies have different ideas about alpha, beta, and general-availability releases, so let me give you my take on what an “alpha release” means for EpicTable.

What is the EpicTable Alpha?

What are the distinguishing characteristics of an alpha release?

• It’s not “feature complete”—that is, some features are missing. This doesn’t mean that those features won’t be there for the final release—they’re just not there yet. The typical reason for a feature being “cordoned off” like this is that there’s something about it that I know will change, or there’s some bug in it, and I know I’m not going to get valuable feedback on it because of that.
• It’s a “wet paint” release, meaning it went from my development machine, through my build server, and almost directly on to you. I’ve done some sanity-checking of it, but it’s basically what I’m running in my development environment.
• There’s no documentation. If something’s not clear from the UI—and hey, it might not be, since you’re seeing it for the first time, and I’ve probably been looking at it for months—you’ll need to ask me about it via the forum or the email or skype. This is really useful, because it can guide my documentation effort and maybe result in some changes to make something more intuitive.

Why will there be an EpicTable Alpha?

What do alpha test participants get out of the alpha?

• An opportunity to shape EpicTable 1.0 while it’s still “kinda mushy”.
• An early look at EpicTable and a gauge of how far along it is.

What do I (i.e., John Lammers, the EpicTable developer) get out of the alpha?

• Valuable feedback from you folks.
• Pure, terror-driven adrenaline at the thought that one or more of you will mistake the alpha for the final product and get the wrong impression.

How do you know if the alpha is for you?

Are you your group’s “technology scout”?

If you are your gaming group’s “technology scout”, the EpicTable alpha is a good opportunity to see how EpicTable fits or doesn’t fit for your group. Keep in mind that some things may be missing or just plain broken, so please, please, contact me with questions and suggestions. Now’s a good time to talk about what you need and to influence the final phase of EpicTable 1.0’s development.

Are you a virtual tabletop enthusiast?

I think EpicTable has a lot to love. If you can bear with me through some missing or lightly-tested features, the EpicTable alpha’s an interesting preview. If you’d rather see it in something closer to final form, you might be better off waiting for the beta.

Are you a game designer?

If you’re a game designer and you want to talk about the capabilities of EpicTable, see some first-hand, and talk to me about features needed to run your game in a VT, the alpha’s a good place for you. Keep in mind that some things you need might be planned and just not in the alpha, but now’s a good time to start talking to me.

Do you just want to run your weekly game?

You shouldn’t rely on the alpha as the virtual tabletop for your gaming group unless your group is interested in virtual tabletops and willing to let the technology be a distraction from the game. As much as I’d love for the alpha to be really solid, and as much as it’s going to pain me to get reports of problems and confusion, that’s just the nature of an alpha. If you’re just trying to get some gaming in, wait for the beta. As soon as it seems like the alpha is stable enough and feature-complete enough, I’ll make it a beta. That’s my signal to you that while EpicTable is still unfinished, it’s stable enough for you to use for gaming with minimal disruption.

Updates and the Road Ahead

How often will the EpicTable alpha release be updated?

Pretty often. Weekly-ish, or quicker, depending on what’s going in. I’ll make sure the update mechanism is in place before the alpha is out, so I can get automatic updates to you easily. As I finish chunks of functionality, address issues, or make changes in response to feedback, I’ll release an update.

Will you have to update?

Yes and no. The fact that you’re participating in the alpha will, I hope, make you want to take the updates as soon as they’re available. The auto-update mechanism won’t force you to take an update. However, the alpha license is time-boxed. By the time the beta is out, you won’t be able to use the alpha. This is just so I don’t still have alpha users to support during the beta or after EpicTable is released.

Will updates be backwards-compatible?

For the alpha, “usually”. I won’t make backwards-incompatible changes on a whim, but I won’t let concern for backwards-compatibility slow me down. My main goal for the alpha is preview-and-feedback, not ongoing game support. Of course, the beta period will be less likely to introduce backwards-incompatible changes, and by the 1.0 release, the time for backwards-incompatible changes will have passed.

Beta? What’s the beta?

Like the alpha, it’s pre-release software. Unlike the alpha, it’s feature complete. Features may still change due to feedback, but there won’t be large chunks of the product simply missing. It will also be more stable—that is, I’ll put updates through more rigorous testing before I release them.

And then the real release?

Yeah, once the beta has been out long enough to have generated enough feedback to convince me that EpicTable is a stable, viable virtual tabletop. I’ll release it “for real”. …And then, I’ll start talking to you about some things already queued up for EpicTable 2.0.

What’s on the tour?

All four demos contain the same content:

• 30-minute “guided tour” of EpicTable
• 30-minute Q&A session

I’ll be using GoToMeeting to share my desktop and for voice chat. GoToMeeting has worked out really well for me. It allows me to share my screen and has integrated audio and recording capabilities. As an attendee, you normally don’t need to install anything as long as your browser supports Java. Information about joining the demo is available below.

Demos On-Demand!

Okay, maybe not on-demand…how about upon polite request? If none of the demo times work for you, please let me know. I’d be happy to schedule a demo for you and your gaming group. Also, I hope to record some of these sessions and make them available after the con.

EpicTable FUMcon Fall 2009 Sessions

Demo starting times are as follows. Please allow yourself an extra couple minutes to get GoToMeeting setup and watch your timezones carefully. There’s a link below for each session. Use your microphone and speakers – a headset is recommended. Or, call in using your telephone.

Session #1: Nov 7, 2009 5 AM GMT (Nov 7, Midnight Eastern)
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/join/347093138
Phone Info:
Dial 217-287-4117
Access Code: 347-093-138
Audio PIN: Shown after joining the meeting

Session #2: Nov 8, 2009 3 AM GMT (Nov 7, 10 PM Eastern)
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/join/904466987
Phone Info:
Dial 213-286-1200
Access Code: 904-466-987
Audio PIN: Shown after joining the meeting

Session #3: Nov 8, 2009 4 PM GMT (Nov 8, 11 AM Eastern)
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/join/398190587
Phone Info:
Dial 712-338-7101
Access Code: 398-190-587
Audio PIN: Shown after joining the meeting

Session #4: Nov 8, 2009 7 PM GMT (Nov 8, 2 PM Eastern)
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/join/401136547
Phone Info:
Dial 213-286-1203
Access Code: 401-136-547
Audio PIN: Shown after joining the meeting

Google Calendar of EpicTable Demos

First off, a little clarification based on questions and feedback from the mockup: This is a tree of campaign-specific resources. It’s not intended to manage a huge library of objects, but rather to give the GM a means to organize the resources—NPCs, maps, handouts, etc.—for the current campaign.

What you see here (and you may want to click on the image for the full-sized view) is a set of four cropped screenshots of the resource tree. These four show small vs. large icons for the nodes of the tree, and folders vs. themed icons (treasure chests). Allowing you to choose between small and large icons is a no-brainer. It’s easy and it already works.

I like the resource-specific icons, like the comedy/tragedy masks for characters, the notepad for notes, and so on. Less obvious to me is whether the themed folder icons—in this case, treasure chests (complete with lids that open when the node is expanded)— are cool or hokey.

Those who saw the last round of demos know that I’ve toyed around with the notion of game-specific or genre-specific themes for EpicTable, so you can imagine other things in place of treasure chests for sci-fi games or horror games.

Good old folder icons have the advantage of familiarity, and maybe professionalism. I’m weighing that against the fact that this isn’t a business app. One thing I can say is that a little of this goes a long way. I experimented with having the folder icons reflect their content, and that created an awful lot of visual noise.

Thoughts?

The image at the left shows a couple mockups of what I’m currently working on. These are example trees of EpicTable resources, and as you can see, my core assumption is that different games—different GMs, even—require different organization of resources.

The notion is that you can organize your resources—by which I mean images and other handouts, maps, player characters and NPCs, notes, whatever—in a set of folders. After much pondering about the “right” hierarchy for such a tree, I realized that there’s no such thing. Every game, every GM, has a different need. So, you’re going to have control of the tree. Rename folders, remove them, add them, drag resources and folders around to reorganize them, whatever you have to do. When you want to use a resource, drag it onto the playing surface.

These two trees show a Primetime Adventures game called “London Below”, and a D&D 3.5 campaign called “Black Sails”. Notice that the PTA game is organized into episodes and has notes for the pitch session, a series arc, even a “series promo” splash screen; while the D&D game has things organized into chapters and encounters with setting notes and a map of Charnel Valley.

It’s important to note that no matter how you rename or reorganize these resources, you don’t have to worry about broken links. Each resource remains available to players with whom it’s been shared, and any internal links from one resource to another (e.g., a map with a link to a note) remain intact.

One thing I’m not sure about is the difference between the GM’s view and the players’ view. Typically, the GM has access to more resources, but I could imagine the GM wanting to share parts of the tree…. I’m not going to ponder that too much, because I think some of that will get into post-1.0 territory, but I’d be happy to discuss any ideas you have.

Credits and Sources: Mockups done with Balsamiq.

Along the way to finishing the “Arrange” (i.e., z-order) context menu for the tabletop, I introduced a short-lived but extravagant bug. One of the things you can do with objects on the tabletop is duplicate them. Last night, you could duplicate them…a lot. Imagine my surprise to see pieces of eight spilling out across the tabletop. By the time I stopped it, I had more than 9,000 coins on the tabletop! They were multiplying like tribbles.

Now, if I could just figure out how to do this on my physical tabletop….

Here’s a shot of the current context menu for Arrange with a sufficiently tamed Duplicate function. To the folks from the forum who have weighed in on this, let me know what you think. I’ve not forever ruled out something more elaborate, but my thinking is that this is sufficient for version 1.

Credits and Sources: Background texture and Pieces of eight from iStockphoto.

Tomorrow, I’ll add the ability for you to move objects up and down in the stack. I’ll planning on using the context menu (i.e., right-click menu) for this, and will add a keystroke that will do it as well, as discussed in the forum.

Credits and Sources: Fanmail images by Brennen Reece. Leather texture and coins from iStockphoto.