A glimpse behind the curtain | our new look

Dear friends and backers of YARPS!

This is us. A charismatic wizard and a shady merchant about to embark on a special adventure. A three-day social event where we would represent YARPS to hundreds of roleplaying veterans, publishers, cosplayers and Pen & Paper lovers.

I don’t know if you can tell from the picture, but: We were really excited and really nervous at the same time about the upcoming RatCon 2023 and our first YARPS booth. Normally we wouldn’t go to RPG conventions just yet. But since it was hosted by our friends and partners of Ulisses Spiele there was no way to resist it. And, boy, are we glad we didn’t!
The convention felt like a big get-together of likeminded friends within a welcoming community. We were lucky enough to introduce YARPS to some people that had never heard of it before. There were also several of our longtime supporters among those stopping by at our booth and we really appreciate the nice and fruitful talks we had. Since we knew we would meet some of them, we did not show up empty-handed: In the run-up to the RatCon, we had decided to reveal some of our new screens to sweeten the time until the new release! Thanks to everyone at the convention and to our friends from Ulisses. We did enjoy this adventure a lot.

And now, back in the office again, we want to share these reveals with you as well. Enjoy!

All screens still may be subject to change.

Library

The design overhaul of the prototype aimed for a more modern, dynamic and user friendly app layout. Following our UX survey Lena rearranged the general app layout to ensure a more intuitive handling and an atmospheric look.

Click images to enlarge.

Of course you’re always free to choose your own color sets, icons and images, switch to a darkmode or change the contrast manually. We will include some default options fitting your game evironment genre. For the RatCon we went with classic fantasy elements to go along with the content of DAS SCHWARZE AUGE / THE DARK EYE.

Editing Entries & Entry Types Layout

The direct comparison shows how much easier it is to store information compactly on an entry (like the character sheet) now! Our goal is to offer you a software that provides maximal customizability, enabling you to perfectly adapt it to your game style and needs. The challenge is to keep the handling simple while providing all these opportunities to you.

We also wanted to make sure you have all the freedom in changing the layout of an entry type without having to leave the screen. The current entry (Geron’s character sheet in this case) will provide you an example of how all other entries of the same type will look like with the changes.

Interactive Maps

While working on the interactive maps we especially looked at suggestions from the Idea Hub. It’s a great way to rework mechanics while including the numerous innovative ideas our community provides. These screens show not only a map directly embedded into an entry, but also how much space you will have if you want to use or edit a map going forward. Some changes may look like small details, but they will make maps even more powerfull.

We hope this small glimpse can show you the immense improvements that we are working on at the moment. The RatCon convention motivated us once again, maybe even stronger, to involve you as a community as soon as possible. That being said: We’d love to, but we can’t give you a release date at the moment. Development is a step by step process, sometimes randomly following the lyrics of Lou Bega’s hit Mambo No. 5. With all the „Take one step left and one step right. One to the front and one to the side.“, there’s always a lot of movement, but it’s not easy to plan when you’ll reach your goal.

Rest assured we’re dancing the Mambo as fast as we can, knowing you are waiting to get your hands on the new release.

All the best,
on behalf of the YARPS team,

Chris &
German

PS: Sorry if I gave anyone a catchy tune just now.