Hey everyone, it's Maslow. This week is an exciting week because we are getting closer to the alpha release of Harpy, the Community-driven Virtual Tabletop platform for tabletop role-playing games (RPGs). I have been working hard on the development, and if everything goes as planned, we should be able to launch soon.
While there are still a few things left to do, such as finalizing the play-by-post feature and adding the drawing and fog systems to the VTT (Virtual Tabletop) interface, I am confident that we are on track to ship this week. I want to express my gratitude to all the users who have been helping me test the alpha version and report bugs. Your feedback is invaluable in making Harpy a robust and user-friendly platform.
Speaking of feedback, I have received tons of great ideas from the community. Although I can't implement all of them right away, I have already made some improvements based on your suggestions. One notable enhancement is the tag system. Now it's much easier to assign and manage tags for your content. You can even batch add tags or create new ones with just a few clicks. These might seem like small details, but they contribute to an improved user experience.
In addition to the tag system, I have also been exploring the integration of DDDice.com, a popular 3D dice platform. Soon, you will be able to enjoy the excitement of rolling virtual dice on Harpy. This feature will undoubtedly enhance the immersive experience of playing tabletop RPGs online.
Now, let’s talk about some upcoming changes to the Harpy platform. As part of a revamp, we will be replacing certain pages, such as the Worlds, Stories, and Games pages, with a more intuitive popover interface accessible from the top menu. This change aims to eliminate the hassle of navigating between different screens and losing your tags and other settings. Once the design is ready, I will share it with you to ensure a smooth transition.
Moving on to some exciting numbers, I have some metrics to share with you. We have witnessed an increase in the number of premium users last month, which is a positive sign of Harpy’s growth. Our monthly recurrent revenues also saw a 6% increase, and while we are still far from our objectives, I believe that the upcoming revamp and the introduction of the character sheet system will attract even more users and contribute to our financial success.
Speaking of users, we have reached a milestone of 16,000 accounts on the platform. Our monthly active user count has been quite stable, with around 1,000 users signing in every month and 2,000 users logging in at least once every three months. These numbers indicate a steady and engaged user base, which is crucial for the success and longevity of the platform.
One challenge that comes with the revamp is migrating the existing data. With significant changes to the data model across various collections, I will be faced with migrating over one million documents. Although this task will require considerable effort, I am committed to ensuring a seamless transition for all users during the revamp process.
Let’s briefly discuss the cost aspect of Harpy. While we are making some revenue, it is not as significant as I had hoped. However, with improvements in the platform and the increasing number of users, I am optimistic about generating more revenue in the future. Additionally, I am actively looking into optimizing our database usage to reduce costs without compromising performance.
Finally, let’s talk about the user interface (UI) changes. I am not satisfied with certain aspects of the scene UI, particularly the left sidebar. I plan to remove the sidebar and make several other changes to improve usability, such as refining menus for assets, creatures, and characters. These changes, along with the upcoming character sheet feature, will make in-game interactions easier and more enjoyable. I will be sharing wireframes and updates on these UI changes, so stay tuned for that.
In conclusion, I am excited about the upcoming alpha release of Harpy and the improvements we have made so far. I want to extend my appreciation to everyone who has been supporting and testing the platform during this development phase. Your feedback and suggestions have been instrumental in shaping Harpy into a user-friendly and feature-rich virtual tabletop platform. If you haven’t already, I encourage you to join the alpha testing phase and explore the new features and improvements.
As always, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to reach out in the comments section. I appreciate your support and look forward to sharing more updates with you soon. Have a fantastic week, and I’ll see you in the next update. Bye!
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Maslow
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