Over a year and a half ago, I decided to begin a very ambitious project: I wasn’t satisfied with the other Savage Worlds character creators out there and I decided to make my own. More than that, I wanted it to be built from the ground up to support supplementary content from published settings and homebrew settings. And I wanted it to be able to add content from purchased PDFs for free.
After I’d worked on it for about 6 months, I had a prototype ready. I showed it to some friends and they were very impressed by it, encouraging me to publish it so that other gamers could use it. I started a Kickstarter drive for Wild Card Creator in order to raise the money I would need to work on it. I set a goal of $4,000.
The response was overwhelming! Over the course of 30 days, 375 backers pledged $10,000 to make Wild Card Creator a reality, with even more pledging through PayPal! I was floored by the response and I was glad that I struck a chord with Savage Worlds gamers everywhere. I created Wild Card Creator because it was what I wanted to see, and others wanted to see it too.
Over the last year, I’ve put many, many hours into Wild Card Creator. I ran it through a series of closed betas for several months and then at the end of May, it was finally released to backers. I received a lot of great feedback and many, many bugs were fixed. Along the way, I steadily started adding more settings and more features. And now:
Wild Card Creator 1.0 is released!
This my friends is a proud step of the journey: I’m at a point where I feel that Wild Card Creator is “ready” for the real world. Highlights for this release:
- Support for Deadlands Noir, Agents of Oblivion, and Shaintar: Legends Arise
- Homebrew Arcane Backgrounds
- Special Abilities
- Improved character sheet output
- More character art from Cheyenne Wright
- Output to the newly released Fantasy Companion Character Sheet
- See the changelog for a full list
And because it took a bit longer to get this out to you than I’d wanted, I’ve decided to add another thing to make up for it:
Support for Weird Wars Rome!
That’s right, Pinnacle’s newest setting that was recently Kickstarted and released to backers about 2 weeks ago is now supported by Wild Card Creator (with the most recent errata). This will begin a tradition of many newly released settings being supported almost immediately after their release, with some being supported the day of the release.
How Do I Get It?
The backer downloads webpage we’ve been using to distribute Wild Card Creator is going to be retired. Journeyman Games now has a proper web store on its site where Wild Card Creator can be downloaded from. All backers will receive a coupon code to download Wild Card Creator 1.0 for free from the store. This will also be how you will receive updates from now on. The whole system is a lot nicer and more professional than what we have been using. Because I have to send the codes individually, this will take some time to do over the next few days. I’ll post an update when I’ve sent out a code to everyone.
What’s Next?
Just because we’re at a 1.0 release doesn’t mean that work is done. Within the next week or so, a supplemental download will be available containing the Heroic and Legendary Tier characters from backers. If you are a Seasoned or Veteran tier backer, I will be getting in touch with you with instructions for submitting your character. I’m gathering a few more pieces of artwork from our artists and then you will also have a supplemental download for artwork from Cheyenne Wright and Storn Cook for use as character portraits, as part of the stretch goals you achieved.
The next big step in Wild Card Creator development is Super Powers Companion/Necessary Evil support. This will join the Fantasy Companion and Horror Companion, along with seven other settings that you can import if you own the PDF. Today also marks the start of the one year guarantee: within one year from today every Savage Worlds setting from the 23 companies that have pledged their support to Wild Card Creator (and hopefully a few more!) will be supported. Check out the Setting Support List for an ETA on each product.
Work will also begin on support for Savage Worlds Showdown (the $6,000 stretch goal), which will most likely be spun off into its own app (free of course for all backers). I’ll also be starting work on the iPad and Android Tablet ports of Wild Card Creator. I do not have an estimated release date for either project at this time (I’ve learned the wisdom that Pinnacle has shown in just saying “when it’s done” or having Joel Kinstle give an ambiguous reply).
At any rate, you all have helped me reach this point. Thank you for helping me to make my dream come true!