All good things must come to an end

Written by on December 1, 2017 in Wild Card Creator - Comments Off on All good things must come to an end

It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly five years since Wild Card Creator was first announced to the world! I’m still surprised that my little side programming project became such a well-loved app by so many. And I am especially humbled that it was nominated for the 2014 ENnie Awards as the only non-D&D/Pathfinder software that year.

I’d love to keep making Wild Card Creator forever. But like most people in the roleplaying game industry, this is a side job for me, and Wild Card Creator is a one-man effort. I currently work full-time as a professional programmer and with recent changes to my life, I unfortunately cannot give Wild Card Creator the amount of  time and work it needs to continue to be great.

It is with great sadness that I have decided to end sale and support for Wild Card Creator. No further updates will be released and it will no longer be available for sale after December 31st, 2017. This was a very difficult decision for me, as I am very attached to Wild Card Creator and I know that so many people love to use it. However, I unfortunately cannot maintain it any longer, so I think this is for the best.

Anybody who has already purchased Wild Card Creator, or buys it for $5 during this final month, will still be able to use it “as is” for the foreseeable future and be able to redownload it through your JourneymanGames.net account through at least 2018. However, I will not be adding new features, adding new settings, or fixing additional bugs.

Questions & Answers

Does this mean there won’t be a mobile version of Wild Card Creator?

Unfortunately not. While a mobile version was announced as a Kickstarter stretch goal, I regretfully will not be able to complete this.

Wild Card Creator for Mac, Windows, and Linux was far more ambitious and time-consuming than I ever imagined it would be, with no real “end goal” in sight because there would always be additional settings to support (there are over 120 officially published settings by my count). Adding mobile on top of that, is simply unfeasible with my current schedule.

Will the source code for Wild Card Creator be released?

Unlikely. Wild Card Creator comes packaged with the core Savage Worlds Deluxe ruleset. This intellectual property is owned by Pinnacle Entertainment Group, and I have been paying them royalties in order to have it included. I cannot legally release this content. Content from other published PDFs that are imported into Wild Card Creator similarly cannot legally be included. This means that an open-source version of Wild Card Creator would necessarily be crippled compared to the current version, and would be far less useful.

Will Journeyman Games release more apps?

If I do, it will be much smaller projects, with mobile-only apps being a strong possibility. Wild Card Creator was a far more ambitious project than I ever imagined, and I would want to avoid that pitfall in the future.

That said, those who backed at the “Legendary Wild Card” level in the Kickstarter drive will continue to receive a free copy of everything that I ever produce in the future.

Final Notes

If you have any other questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me.

I want to thank you all for helping to make Wild Card Creator. Without your support, I wouldn’t have been able to make an app that I am so proud of.

Wild Card Creator 1.6.2 Released

Written by on October 31, 2016 in Wild Card Creator - 4 Comments

Another minor but important update.

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed issue with importing recent PDFs downloaded from RPGNow/DriveThruRPG.
  • Custom gear can now be created if core Savage Worlds Deluxe has never been loaded first.
  • An error with preventing some users from printing a character with powers has been fixed.
  • Windows, Linux: Fixed issue preventing Preferences from being accessed.

The app should automatically prompt you to update to this new version. Thanks to everyone who submitted bug reports and other feedback!

Wild Card Creator 1.6.1 released

Written by on August 3, 2016 in Wild Card Creator - Comments Off on Wild Card Creator 1.6.1 released

It may be a minor update, but Wild Card Creator 1.6.1 fixes a few very important issues:

Bug Fixes

  • Horror Companion: Fixed issue where a newer printing of the Horror Companion couldn’t be loaded.
  • Super Powers Companion: Fixing issue where Super Powers Companions could not be taken in some cases.

Rules Fixes

  • Deadlands Reloaded: Stone and a Hard Place: The powers Hunch, Light/Obscure, Mind Rider, Trinkets, Wilderness Walk, and Windstorm can now be properly taken by Hexslingers.

The app should automatically prompt you to update to this new version. Thanks to everyone who submitted bug reports and other feedback!

Wild Card Creator 1.6 released

Written by on July 2, 2016 in Wild Card Creator - 4 Comments

It’s been a long time coming, but Wild Card Creator 1.6 has been released! A few highlights in this release:

  • The ability to create custom gear for a character. Want a picture of his wife? Melee weapon stats for a crowbar you found? You can create them right on the gear page!
  • Support of The Sixth Gun
  • Bundled Java for OS X; no more being asked to download Java 6!
  • Lots of internal bug fixes and code improvements.

Check out the full changelog for more information.

Will Wild Card Creator support Rifts?

I’ve gotten this question a lot over the last few days. The answer is yes, but only after things have settled down a little bit. Those of you who have backed the Kickstarter or been following the Pinnacle forums know that Rifts has had a lot of rules clarifications and errata in the first week alone. It takes a fair amount of effort to add support for a new setting, especially an involved one like Rifts, and I’d like to make sure that I don’t have to redo lots of work a few weeks later.

New Feature: Adding Custom Gear to a Character

Written by on June 15, 2016 in Wild Card Creator - Comments Off on New Feature: Adding Custom Gear to a Character

One feature that has often been requested is the ability to create custom gear for a character. For instance, say that your character carries a sentimental photo. With old versions of Wild Card Creator, you had to write it on your character sheet after the fact. With the upcoming version 1.6, you can now create custom gear:

Custom Gear Mundane Item

This works for weapons as well. Say your character is a space pirate who has grown so attached to a one-of a kind gun that he gave it a name:

Custom Gear Ranged Weapon

You can add this to your gear and treat it like any weapon you would normally purchase. If you give it a cost, it will subtract from your remaining cash like any other weapon.

If you’d like to test this feature now, you can download Wild Card Creator 1.6b3 and try it out! (Note, the beta is only available for Windows and OS X at this time. Linux will be available in the next few days). To enable beta updates:

  1. In the menu bar, select Edit -> Preferences (Windows/Linux) or Wild Card Creator -> Preferences… (Mac)
  2. Go to the “Experimental” section
  3. Click the “Include Beta Versions in Updates” button
  4. Close the window
  5. Go to Help -> Check for Updates
After checking for updates, you can turn off the beta version check if you would like.
This is the first of several blog posts discussing the new features in Wild Card Creator 1.6, which is being finalized now and will be released within the next week or two!

New Developments for Wild Card Creator

Written by on February 2, 2016 in Wild Card Creator - 11 Comments

It’s been quite a while since the last update on Wild Card Creator, but it’s high time to change that. Those of you who are keeping up with the beta releases (in the “Experimental” tab of the preferences) will notice that progress has continued, as Wild Card Creator 1.6 has had a few betas now.

Most of the improvements have been under the hood, but are still valuable improvements for the longevity of the product. Some of these include stability and maintainability improvements. OS X users will be pleased to know that the betas have begun bundling Java, which makes it easier for users of newer versions of OS X to use the app and opening up the possibility of one day adding Wild Card Creator to the Mac App Store. I’ve also been looking into changing how the Linux app is distributed to better match how users expect apps to work on that platform. These changes seem to be going well, and if there are no issues, version 1.6 will be released to the public much sooner than later.

In some unfortunate news, I’m sorry to report that Wild Card Creator will not be adding support for Savage Worlds Showdown as originally planned. You may have noticed that Pinnacle has been very busy with so many new product lines, and there have not been any new releases for Showdown since it’s release in 2009 (with rules corresponding to Savage Worlds Explorer’s Edition). With the future for Showdown being uncertain, I’ve decided to consolidate my focus on Wild Card Creator on other areas where it is more needed, and more in demand. Should this change in the future, I will be happy to reevaluate support for it.

One of these areas is setting support, and there have been some great developments in this area. There are over 80 settings in Savage Worlds and while Wild Card Creator supports many of them, there are still quite a few that aren’t supported. Fortunately, several people have volunteered to help, with the first setting being added thanks to the work of a volunteer being Reality Blur’s Iron Dynasty.

Thanks again to everyone who has used and enjoyed Wild Card Creator. Your suggestions have been invaluable and will help spur the release of the product forward!

Wild Card Creator 1.5 Released

Written by on June 1, 2015 in Wild Card Creator - 10 Comments

Just in time for the summer convention season, Wild Card Creator 1.5 has been released! Here are the highlights for this version:

Check out the full changelog for all the new features and fixes.

I’ll be attending Origins Game Fair in Columbus this week, so if you see me, say hi! After that, it’s back to more development with Wild Card Creator!

Development Continues, Wild Card Creator 1.5 Soon to be Released!

Written by on May 11, 2015 in Wild Card Creator - 2 Comments

One of the dangers of being a solo developer is that if you get sick, have family emergencies, or are otherwise unable to program for long periods of time, development on your projects stops. These last several months have been difficult for me for personal reasons. For those of you who are concerned, I am doing okay and am largely through those struggles. I’m still alive and healthy, still programming, and still enthusiastic about Wild Card Creator!

Work on Wild Card Creator has continued in earnest and I will get another update out sometime in May. We’ll see a couple of new settings, including Pinnacle’s newly released Deadlands: Stone and a Hard Place, some new features, and a lot of bug fixes. I’ve also begun recruiting others to help bring new settings to Wild Card Creator, so you will be able to make characters in your favorite settings sooner.

Thank you all very much to those of you who have submitted e-mails and bug reports! I’m slowly catching up on those and hope to personally address everyone’s issues as I am able to. It’s great to have such an enthusiastic fanbase who is committed to making Wild Card Creator even better!

Now that things are continuing along at a renewed rate, it’s my hope that this year will be a great year for Wild Card Creator!

Wild Card Creator 1.4 Released

Written by on September 20, 2014 in Wild Card Creator - Comments Off on Wild Card Creator 1.4 Released

Earlier today, Wild Card Creator 1.4 was released, adding a number of improvements and rules fixes (especially with regards to Super Powers Companion super powers). Support has also been added for East Texas University and Necessary Evil from Pinnacle Entertainment Group and Thrilling Tales from Adamant Entertainment.

East Texas University is the first setting supported by Wild Card Creator with alternate ranks. When you have that setting loaded, ranks appear as Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior, and Graduate instead of Novice, Seasoned, Veteran, Heroic, and Legendary. Character rank appears this way as do Edges, both new ones and those from the core rules.

Necessary Evil also has something interesting about it: Wild Card Creator will let you load it on its own and use the super power rules within it or load it with the super power rules from the Super Powers Companion (if you have it loaded). So you can create your super villains using whichever supers rules you prefer!

On a more personal note, this is a huge milestone for Wild Card Creator. Back in Spring 2010, I had decided to run a Necessary Evil one-shot at FOPCon in Huber Heights, Ohio. Being ambitious, I decided to create six 40 XP pregen characters. If this were core Savage Worlds, I probably could have created them in about 20-30 minutes apiece. However, the complexities of Necessary Evil’s super powers rules meant that I had to spend a lot more time on it, especially since I wasn’t very familiar with the subsystem, and the characters took over an hour each. It was at that time that I first had the idea of creating a Savage Worlds character creator that could vastly reduce the time it would take to make such characters, and allow for me to create some pretty character sheets at the same time.

One last thing: Wild Card Creator now has a 30-day demo version available on the product info page! If you’ve been telling others about how great Wild Card Creator is, but haven’t been able to convince them to get it, tell them that they now have the opportunity to give it a spin and find out firsthand how great it is!

As always, please let us know your feedback and how we can make Wild Card Creator even better!

Vote for Wild Card Creator in the ENnies!

Written by on July 22, 2014 in Wild Card Creator - Comments Off on Vote for Wild Card Creator in the ENnies!

It’s been almost two years since the Wild Card Creator Kickstarter began and a year since Wild Card Creator was released. Gamers like you have been overwhelmingly receptive to a character creator built from the ground up for Savage Worlds, especially one that allowed you to import content from PDFs you had already purchased and featured an easy to use graphical editor for homebrew content. But ultimately, this project succeeded because of your generous support through Kickstarter and your incredibly helpful feedback.

It’s with great pleasure that I announce that Wild Card Creator has been nominated for an ENnie Award in the “Best Software” category. The ENnie Awards (often times just shortened to “ENnies”) are the equivalent of the People’s Choice Awards for roleplaying games. They recognize the best products in the roleplaying game industry and have the general public vote on which ones they believe is truly the best in their category.

Not only has Wild Card Creator been nominated for an ENnie Award, but other Savage Worlds products have as well including Pinnacle Entertainment Group’s Deadlands Noir and Weird Wars Rome (which were also were funded via Kickstarter), Sneak Attack Press’ Savage Worlds version of Broken Earth, and Evil Beagle Games’Shaintar: Legends Unleashed. All of these products are amazing and I hope that you’ll vote for them as well when you vote for Wild Card Creator!

Since the Kickstarter is long over, updates have been posted on Journeyman Games’ blog and Twitter feed @JourneymanRPGs. However, there are a couple of other things I ought to address since they are Kickstarter specific:

First, Wild Card Creator is currently at version 1.3.1. Version 1.2 added the ability to auto-download updates, so if you using a version earlier than that, download the latest version from Your Account on the Journeyman Games’ website. If you have any issues with that, contact me via Kickstarter messaging or e-mail. Recent versions have added a lot of new features, such as setting support for 20 settings including the Super Powers Companion (Second Edition) and Science Fiction Companion. Of course we’re not done; the next version will be adding 3 new settings to the mix!

Over the next month I’ll be taking care of some of the remaining loose ends from this Kickstarter. Now that Wild Card Creator has been stable for several versions, I’ll be burning CDs and contacting those directly who ordered them. By the way, the CDs look gorgeous:

Wild Card Creator CD

I’ll also be contacting people about any other loose ends relating to their pledge levels, particularly NPC submissions.

What’s next for Wild Card Creator? First off is fulfilling the goal to have every setting supported by the end of Autumn this year (you can see the progress of that here). After that, work will begin on the iPad and Android tablet versions as well as support forSavage Worlds Showdown. Since the vast majority of the code for Wild Card Creator on the desktop can be reused for both of these projects, I am hoping that development should be quicker.

Again, thank you so much for seeing the potential for Wild Card Creator when it was just a Kickstarter. Your support and feedback has made Wild Card Creator into the amazing app that is today!

Vote for Wild Card Creator in the ENnies awards!

← Older Entries