If you like buidling 10th Edition 40k army lists, help speed up development on Rosterizer, a universal list-builder app, via this Kickstarter!
The way they are building the app is so it can be used for basically any game, share lists with friends, track RPG characters, and so much more. However, building apps with these many features takes quite a long time. So, they decided to run a Kickstarter to speed things up and bring way more features.
The app will also feature a fully free mode for list building, but if you want to share lists, build your own games within the app, sync rosters, or have different list output styles, this is where the KS comes in.
Or, if you want an alternative where the developers care about the app, this is worth supporting! Let’s take a closer look.
Rosterizer Universal List-Builder App Launches Kickstarter to Speed Up Development!
First, let’s hear a little bit about the app.
Rosterizer is a webapp and therefore works on, and shares lists across, iOS and Android devices as well as Windows, Mac and Linux computers. All that’s required are the manifests (game data files) for the game system and/or army faction for which you want to make a roster. Many manifests are created and maintained by members of the gaming community—any that you’ve found while searching the internet can be linked to your account. Alternatively, you can make your own manifest with the easy-to-use editor interface.
Some features of Rosterizer that elevate it above competing products:
- Dynamic (editable) stats, enabling the kind of tracking common in skirmish-style games or campaign play modes
- A powerful and extensive rule/conditional system that makes it easy to evaluate complex list states and raise errors
- Sync rosters between various device platforms
- Share rosters with friends, or clone theirs to make improvements
- Multiple view and output options (card view, outline, text list, etc…)
- Edit history
- Simple roster storage format makes updating stats via new manifests trivial
- Rename and describe any asset, as permitted by the manifest
Already, the app works pretty well, but this project is helping get the app over the hump and fully launched.
What the Project is Trying to Achieve
This kickstarter is going to run a bit different from most, because instead of discrete goals, we’re seeking funding for software developers to help with various aspects of the project. The more we fund, the better the help we can hire. That said, below we’ll provide a breakdown of what’s still to be done before launch (the core funding goal), as well as some immediate feature enhancements we’d love to implement (“stretch goals”) if we exceed our funding target.
Core tasks preventing launch:
- Completion of automated testing (so we have confidence that everything works correctly)
- Code cleanup (so we can publish the source code and have it make sense to others)
- Processing optimization (it gets the job done but acts sluggish for some users)
- Re-skin the UI (it works now but could look better)
- Subscription processing (have to have some way to collect payments)
- Accessibility (keyboard navigation, screen reader integration, etc)
- Offline mode (users shouldn’t need internet access or an account to use the app)
- Security audit (to make sure no holes remain unpatched)
Additional features we’d love to have ready:
- Print output (most people use apps like this digitally, but analog printouts can be useful)
- Drag & Drop (being able to move units around by dragging is important)
- Manifest theming (so a roster can have a unique visual style that matches its game)
- Roster sorting and tagging (to make it easier to manage dozens or hundreds of lists)
- More user-onboarding features (such as a site tour, faq, data recipes, tips dialog, etc.)
- Data tools to help data authors create and debug complex rule interactions
- Localization (display the site in a user’s preferred language, and allow non-ascii usernames)
- Social sharing (in addition to just copying a url, share to social media outlets or via QR code)
- Favorite assets (to let users add their preferred loadouts to a roster easily)
- Roster import/export (your data shouldn’t be locked; you should be able to save it elsewhere)
If they can get all this done, it will be one of the most robust apps out there with all kinds of features for tons of games, not just 40k!
Stretch Goals/Features
If they can get even more funding than the bare minimum, a ton more features will be put into the app.
Additionally, we have some lofty goals for the future. These will likely require an additional kickstarter (or multiple!) when the time comes but if funding goes bananas on this round, we might be able to begin working on these sooner rather than later:
- Friends list (to allow teams to share notes on lists without prematurely leaking their “super-secret tech”)
- External API (so third party apps can hook into our system for their own purposes)
- Table view (to accompany the builder, card, and text views)
- Native app alongside the webapp (likely bundled with an app-wrapper like Ionic)
- Collection management (track the models you own and match against your rosters)
- Match mode (to allow players to keep notes on their rosters, and reference their opponents’, during a game)
- Event mode (to run multiple related matches concurrently, with bulk roster validation and judge-role privileges)
- Game prototyping/typesetting (create the printable resources for your in-development tabletop game)
So, if you want a super robust app with all kinds of features, go support the Kickstarter below!
Click Here to Support the Project!
Will you be supporting the Kickstarter? Do you like the idea of a very robust app for 40k and all tabletop games?
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About the Author: Travis Pasch
Travis Pasch
Job Title: Head Writer & Editor
Socials: @paschbass
About Travis Pasch: Travis has been a Warhammer 40k hobbyist since the 1990s, playing the game since Third Edition. Through extensive traveling, he’s seen a lot of the miniatures hobby from across the world, giving him a unique perspective on the latest gaming topics and trends.
Travis’s brother even owns a commission painting studio, where he’s picked up a lot of good advice and techniques for painting Warhammer and tabletop miniatures over the years, as well. Travis joined the Spikey Bits team in 2019 and has been the lead writer since 2020.
Currently, he’s working on converting all his 40k Adeptus Mechanicus models and becoming a true tech enjoyer, complete with both sad and happy robot noises!
