Development Log 26.01

Hey Everyone,

It's Will here. It's been a little while since our last announcement, so I wanted to check in with a status update and share some news.

What we're building for F&F

I know a lot of you are expecting the next F&F update to be combat, so I want to be upfront: before we can build combat the right way, we need to rewrite the narration engine and state update system that everything else sits on top of. Combat will be built on that new foundation, but it may be some time before we get there.

I know you are all looking forward to the combat update, but I hope you’ll understand that combat is built on top of some core pieces that need to be reworked first. A lot of F&F's core architecture was built for older AI models, models that needed much more hand-holding and rigid structure to get things right. That rigidity served us well early on with the models available at the time, but it's now the biggest thing holding Franz back. It limits how well he can handle situations we didn't specifically design for, and it's an architecture that makes future updates slower and limits the emergent capability of stronger models.

While we could add some patches to the current architecture, it would result in a worse experience in the long term that delays and takes up time and resources from building the stronger foundation for the future. In the earlier stages of the platform, we could push updates quickly because we were building just on top, but now that there’s so much interconnected, making changes and updating the core of it is a process that naturally takes longer, but one that we think will result in a better experience for everyone in the long term.

Something New

We want to be transparent and share a bit more about the development process behind the scenes. The F&F codebase has evolved into something like a container ship: large and powerful, but slow to steer. Rather than risking months rewriting F&F around an unproven architecture, we started iterating on standalone prototypes where new ideas could be tested and proven much faster. By the end of January, one of those prototypes had grown into something with a lot of potential and one that we realized makes more sense as its own separate application. We’re calling this new app Craft.

When we reflect on our roadmap and the user feedback we’ve heard over the last few years, a couple common themes emerge. Some of you want a deep, focused D&D experience, and some of you want something that’s much more general, supportive of other rulesets, customizable, and not constrained by the D&D mechanics. Those are two different audiences, and trying to stretch F&F to serve both means neither gets the peak experience they really want.

With two applications, each one can excel at what it does best. The scope of F&F can narrow and stay focused on trying to be the best AI D&D 5e experience, and the Craft can go much broader, better supporting other systems and genres.

The two applications also inform each other. Everything we’ve learned about what players want from F&F is informing the design process of the Craft, and Craft is a more nimble ship where ideas can be validated much faster and then integrated back into F&F. Many of the ideas that we’ve seen proven from early alpha testing are actively being brought into and informing the upcoming F&F updates.

So, are we just focusing on this new app and putting F&F off to the side? No.

We plan to support both apps, and we’ve debated over whether we should prioritize one over the other. Ultimately, we decided that working on both in parallel is the best approach because we believe it will actually help us get the right F&F updates out sooner than going 100% on FnF would and also create something new for those who have always wanted a more flexible system than what F&F can offer.

What's next

We can't promise exact dates yet or what will be released first, but we're heads-down and making great progress on both fronts. We’ll keep you posted as things come together and we expect to have more information to share within the next few weeks.

Thank you for sticking with us. We hear you and know that some have felt a bit frustrated lately, and we’re actively working on getting these core updates out to you. We’re more excited than ever about where this is all heading and can’t wait to share more with you.