I’m finally taking some time to keep you all updated about Harpy’s development. I’m sorry for going silent for so long. From now on, I will try to send at least one newsletter per month (and maybe post a couple Devlogs here and there on the Youtube channel)
I’ve always wanted Harpy to be Community-driven and I feel like transparency should play a big part in that. So I’ve decided, a few months ago, to start building Harpy in public.
This means several things:
1️⃣
Monthly Metrics
From now on, I will be sharing 📈 Monthly metrics including number of accounts, active users, paying users, monthly revenues, server costs and documents counts (worlds, stories, posts, etc)
(see January’s “January Metrics” below)
2️⃣
Public roadmap
I’ve also added a 🛣️ Public roadmap on which you can see the long-term vision of what Harpy could become.
If you support Harpy you can also add your votes 🗳️ on your most-wanted features.
Their estimated complexity is represented by a color-coded diamond
Ok, before we jump into features, here’s January metrics snapshot. As you can see we’re not profitable yet. But we’re getting there. Slowly but surely 😊
📝 Character sheets
Character sheet preview from D&D Beyond
One of the most exciting feature is coming…
Character sheets are likely to be the most challenging yet thrilling feature planned for development. I had recorded a video a while ago to talk about the current (at the time) vision of the character sheets system. If you want to have a look it’s here!
It’s divided into 2 parts:
Datasets (Already done ✅)
Widgets (Work in progress⏳)
🧮 Datasets
What is a dataset? Let’s take an example
So your 🤺 Warrior has a Strength of 20? and 13 HP? Ok, so where do we store that info?
Well, in a dataset obviously 🎉
Datasets are a collection of data (number, text, choice, formula) that is available for every creature and character in your Codex. You can create as many as you want and assign them to either an entity type or a tag.
“Ok but my 🧙♀️ Sorcerer has Spell casting data and they have nothing to do in my 🤺 Warrior sheet.”
You’re right, so we can simply create a new Dataset (let’s call it “Spell casting”) and assign it to any entity with a given tag (for instance the “Caster” tag). That’s what it would look like. That way you can add the tag to all your spell casters.
Dataset for Casters (Spell casting, spell save, etc)
Here’s what the formula dialog looks like
“😩😩 Yeaaah… that looks super complicated, dude!”
Don’t worry, it’s not as complex as it looks!
I tried to create a system both flexible and easy to use, but what seems simple to a Developer might not be for everyone (not that we’re incredibly smart 🤓 but we’re just used to thinking in formulas and algorithms).
🙋 Good news is… Anyone can export their Datasets as files and share them so you can import them in your own Codex. For now it’s a manual task but soon anyone will be able to simply publish their datasets (and character sheets) on Harpy. So 99% of GMs won’t have to write a single formula since the one of your favorite game will probably exist already.
🎲 Widgets
“Cool but I just want a Character sheet. You know with the pretty widgets and all?” 🥺
Yup, that’s the next step ⏳
Now that the data is available, it’s just a matter of displaying it in a pretty sheet.
If you want a complete explanation, watch this video, but to summarize, we’ll simply create a ton of mini widgets and let you connect any data to it.
And once you have your pretty widgets, you will be able to drop them anywhere on a grid to compose your Character sheet. Here’s an ugly mockup of how it could look like.
🤩 What’s new?
Many new features have been shipped since last time
😻 Mentions in RP chats
RP and OOC chats inputs have been updated. It’s now possible to:
Link an image from your World gallery to any post
Mention a Codex entry from the RP section
Roll dice in the middle of a sentence
🎲 Party rolls + Initiative
You can now create party rolls! Ask for a Perception check or Roll initiative. If you do so, you now have an option to automatically start the Turn order based on your players rolls.
👅 Fantasy languages
You can now create fantasy languages (elvish, dwarven, gloogloo, poopipah, …) and assign them to your Characters. That way they can speak in those languages in the Play-by-post and only the players whose character can speak the language will be able to read it (they will see a weird font of your choice)
Dialog to create your Languages
Select the language while speaking
If your active character doesn’t speak the language they’ll see the special font instead
🫓 Hide HeroForge mini bases
On the VTT, you can click on a button to toggle HeroForge bases. Quite useful when they don’t match the battlemap 🗺️
📙 Codex new UI
The new UI is heavily inspired by Notion. Hovering a block will show a “+” and a menu button. Also sorting block and pages should be easier now 🙏
🎸 Dynamic players groups
Permissions have been quite cumbersome to maintain on Harpy. So we’ve added dynamic groups. So you can now give permission to a group instead of a player. That way if you add or remove a player from a group, the permissions will be automatically updated 🪄
👁️ View as
As a GM you can see the Codex from any of your players point of view
🧜♀️ Play as a creature
As a GM you can now assign Creatures (and not only Characters) to your players.
🧠 Block history
Harpy now keeps an history of your Codex updates. Could be useful if you mistakenly erased some content.
👯 Token duplication
Simply hit “D” while dragging a token to duplicate it
🙋 An army of one
A tiny team working on a huge project…
🙆♂️ Farewell Naiyo
As some of you already know, I’m currently working alone on Harpy. Sadly, Naiyo had to leave the project because of the lack of revenues. We’ve been working with passion on Harpy for a long time but we have to admit that we’re good devs but not great business men. We are super proud of what we’ve accomplished but making and selling are very different things, and both are required for a product to be successful. For now I can keep working on Harpy but without a significant revenues increase, I might have to take another job soon.
💸 Cheaper pricing tier: $1.99
I’ve added a new pricing tier for players who want to enjoy Harpy’s Premium experience without paying for unused GM premium features.
Every subscription buys me a couple baguettes 🥖🥖, so please consider feeding me and my kids (french people only eat baguettes)
☕️ Kofi page
I’ve created a Kofi page for those who want to support Harpy in addition of their Premium plans. Huge thanks to everyone supporting this project.
🔦 Spotlights
Some initiatives deserve a lot more visibility, so here are this month spotlights
“Welcome to Dungeons and Darlings, a public and community discord server for all women and nonbinary individuals in the D&D community. We are dedicated to providing a safe, inclusive and fun environment for everyone!
We have weekly events and activities such as roleplaying, campaign sessions, game nights and more! We also have a variety of channels for discussion, advice and support, as well as a marketplace for selling and trading D&D related items.
We are an open, friendly and welcoming community and would love for you to join us! We look forward to seeing you around and having fun together.”
🇫🇷 Restaurant Gaming à Paris. Basée sur des références de jeux RPG et de Heroic Fantasy, découvrez une taverne faite pour les Aventuriers ! Des produits de qualité, un endroit chaleureux, des jeux à disposition, laissez vous entrainer dans un monde où la magie est chose fréquente chez nous ! 🇫🇷
I’ve been there, it’s awesome. Also the Innkeeper is the best. Highly recommend 🍻
Alright that’s it for this month’s newsletter. It was long, sorry about that…
Future newsletters should be way shorter (as they won’t have to summarize 8 months of work)
As always, be kind to each other.
“Holding onto your anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die”
- Buddha
