Jan’s here – Fireball co-founder & designer. We released the Open Beta version (download here) on January 13th. Since then, players have created thousands of new characters and Game Masters launched hundreds of campaigns. Thank you! It’s nice to see that you enjoy the app, and it inspires us to keep going. 🧡
Beta 2: Community Reaction 😍
Fireball Beta 2 was the first version with basic mechanics, equipment, skill checks, and combat.
A week after releasing the update, we sent out a short form asking your opinion.
It was both exciting and humbling. While most respondents stated that they liked the experience, it became even more apparent that there is still much work to do.
We learned that our primary focus should be adding more mechanics and improving gameplay. The top-requested features were Monsters, Battle Map (square grid), Spell Attack Rolls, Subclasses, and NPCs. On the other hand, you said the Voice Chat feature or 3D dice could wait.
The top-requested content was Ready-to-Play Adventures and Maps.
Your feedback is critical to us. We’re going to do a couple of things differently this year.
We’re Doubling-down On Mechanics ⚙️
We dedicated three developers to Mechanics alone. They’ll be working hard on racial traits, class features, magic items, and other mechanical aspects of the game.
This year, we’ll continually upgrade the underlying system, and things will get better. We’ll be adding more character levels and subclasses too.
More Frequent Releases ⚡
In the last twelve months, we published four versions of Fireball – Alpha 1, Alpha 2, Beta 1, and Beta 2 (Open Beta). This year we want to shorten our release cycle and release more frequently.
Next week you can (most probably) expect a new update with bug fixes and three new features: Editing, Deleting & Copying Messages. We’ll tell you more about it later.
Nearest Months for Fireball
We want to release the features below as soon as possible, not necessarily in this order.
Improved Character Sheets
We’ll add more stats into character sheets.
Ability Modifiers
Attack Roll Bonus
Current Damage
Spellcasting Ability
Spell Save Difficulty Class
Spell Attack Bonus
We’ll also make proficiencies more visible (Armor, Weapons, Tools, and Saving Throws).
Game Master Custom Roll
The Game Master will be able to roll custom dice, too.
Safety Features
There are more people in the app now, so we need to ensure everyone’s safety. We’ll be adding a User Reporting feature & a Contact Fireball feature.
Avatar Builder
You’ll finally be able to customize your characters the way you want. You’ll be able to edit facial features, hairstyles, skin tones, and clothing.
NPCs & Monsters
You’ll be able to create as many NPCs as you want. Customize their look and everything about them; the same way players create characters.
You’ll be able to add them next to players in-campaign. You’ll also be able to make them roll, change their equipment, hit points, let them rest, or change their conditions and exhaustion levels. Later you’ll even be able to send NPC chat messages.
We’ll be adding an extensive bestiary right into Fireball. You’ll be able to add monsters next to players and operate them the same way as NPCs.
Battle Map Grid, Adventures & World-Building 🗺️
We know you’re looking forward to those features! They’re going to be great, and we can’t wait as well. We hope to start working on them as soon as more mechanics, NPCs, and Monsters are in place.
A Lot of Minor Features ✨
When there is a little time left, we’ll also be releasing more minor features soon:
Free Roll: a customizable dice roller for both GMs and Players
Player Names: show player names in GM Actions
Item Detail Upgrade: Show Price & Weight information.
Text-size Settings: Adjust text size in the app.
Character Sheets Outside a Campaign: View Char Sheets when your character is not in a campaign.
Player Tagging: Use @ to tag a player, later even an NPC.
Tablet Version: We’ll improve Fireball on tablets.
And other features you often request on Discord!
New Name for Our App
We want to bring role-playing to as many mobile players as possible. For that, it must be easy to find our app on Google or in-app stores. Unfortunately, the “Fireball” name is already used for various projects.
Many of you filled out a form with ideas on a new name for Fireball. You can still do so here.
We’re not 100% sure what the new name will be, but we’ll probably rename the app in the upcoming months.
Fireball Studio is Growing! 🔥
Two new people joined Fireball last month, and we’ll keep growing. Currently, thirteen people (devs, artists, writers) are working on Fireball full-time. We’re looking for new (less corporate) offices, and I believe we’ll be moving soon.
I feel great about what’s coming this year. Each person in the team has the drive to accomplish this mission of bringing role-playing to mobile gaming. We genuinely believe that the experience of adventuring with your friends is WAY better than crushing candies.
If you have any questions, please reach out to me here or at jan@fireballrpg.com.
Jan