Given that it’s been over a month since the last update, I figured I’d let you know how things are going with Wild Card Creator development. Backer Beta 3 was released several weeks ago with some major changes. One of the most important changes was eliminating the bug that required opening Wild Card Creator with “Run as Administrator” under certain Windows configurations.

The next release has unfortunately been very slow coming, due to some real-life stuff that has come up. That’s not to say that work has not been progressing. Oh no! Here are a few things that I’ve been working on :

Custom Character Sheets (and Better Printing)

Printing in Backer Beta 3 could use a lot of improvement. You can print out in a standard stat block or expanded stat block, but you can’t even print out a character sheet with an image on it.

To improve that, I’ve been working on a method of generating character sheets via HTML and CSS with special syntax to denote concepts for a Savage Worlds character (e.g. what their attributes are). The reason I chose those formats is because the learning curve is relatively easy (compared to some alternative formats, like XSLT) and it allows for a lot of flexibility in creating detailed character sheets that work for a variety of paper sizes. After all, I want to make sure that the users in the United States can make character sheets for those printing on A4 over in Europe!

If you’d like to take a sneak peak at the instructions for creating a custom character sheet, you can check it out here.

Taking an Edge or Hindrance Multiple Times

I’m somewhat embarrassed that this has taken so long to implement, but being able to take Edges and Hindrances multiple times is something very important that will be in the next release. This will allow you to take New Power more than once and multiple Phobias.

More Settings

For Backer Beta 3, I created a list of all the Savage Worlds settings and their estimated time to inclusion for Wild Card Creator. Those of you who have seen the Shaintar: Legends Unleashed Kickstarter may have caught an announcement that the earlier book, Shaintar: Legends Arise will be supported by the end of the month. Other settings will be implemented roughly according to the list linked to above.

So What’s Next?

Next release, you’ll notice that the terminology of Wild Card Creator has changed a bit. Instead of being a “Backer Beta”, it will now be a “Public Beta.” This mostly means that the Kickstarter pledge levels are no longer available to purchase on JourneymanGames.net, but you can still purchase Wild Card Creator for $20, just like on the Kickstarter.

The term “beta” is still being used in the sense that Google uses the term: it’s a product that works, but there are still a few rough spots. The goal is to have a “final 1.0” version by GenCon of this year. What this means is that the price will be raised to $25 and it will (hopefully) be submitted to the Mac App Store and possibly the Windows 8 App Store for wider distribution. And in case you are wondering, I’ll be willing to provide free product keys for any Kickstarter backers wanting to download Wild Card Creator from one of those app stores.

At that point, Wild Card Creator will be considered a feature complete product with most of the improvements from there on out being bug fixes and including more settings. Work will also begin at this point on an iPad and Android Tablet version. Those of you who pledged for a CD copy add-on will get it mailed to you after it’s clear that there aren’t any major bugs in the final 1.0 release.

I’d like to thank you all profusely for your patience as I’ve been developing Wild Card Creator. I’ve heard a lot of great feedback from you all and I’m glad to have made a Savage Worlds product that you all enjoy!