Jumpgate Feedback: Guiding Development

UPDATE: As of August 1, 2024, the Jumpgate Beta is open to all users! Details can be found here.

Project Jumpgate, Roll20’s major modernization of the Tabletop, launched into beta for Pro Users in late March. If you haven’t heard about the initiative yet, be sure to visit this Blog post from our Founder in Residence, Riley – it explains what Jumpgate is, how to opt into our beta, and what you can expect from the project.

Since launch, we’ve been pleased to see thousands of players adventuring in Jumpgate, and can’t thank them enough for sharing their experiences and feedback with our team. The feedback received to date, straight from our tester’s real games, is contributing to improving our platform for the next decade of online tabletop gaming!

We’re excited to share some of what we’ve heard so far, talk about how it has influenced our progress, and detail what we’re looking to accomplish next.

Celebrating the Community’s Positive Response

When assessing the success of Jumpgate, our team utilizes both quantitative and qualitative indicators to gauge that we are moving in the right direction. The feedback across our Forums, bug reports, social media, and surveys helps uncover the most impactful fixes for our community, and we’re constantly tracking user sentiment and satisfaction to ensure it has a positive trajectory. (Lucky for us, it has with Jumpgate!)

In Their Own Words: What Players Are Saying

In a survey launched in May, over 60% of users indicated they are more satisfied with Jumpgate when asked how it compares to the legacy Roll20 Tabletop. Here are some of the comments we received from real players:

“The speed of everything is obviously so much better. I also really like the space outside the map where I can hide tokens or changing map features.”
“It has been running much more smoothly, and the changes in the UI and such are really useful.”
“The interface is leaps and bounds beyond the classic. Selecting tokens is so much clearer and easier, as is moving them around. Everything seems faster overall. The little nub to rotate tokens is a godsend compared to the dongle.”
“Runs a lot better, simple as that. Looking around maps has never felt more smooth”
“Load times were greatly improved”

In a previous survey launched in March, two-thirds of respondents indicated that “Jumpgate feels light, fast, and responsive” and that it could be successfully used in tandem with other apps and services without impacting performance. We are continuing to level up in these areas throughout the beta.

How Your Input Influences Our Development

Our top priority in the early stages of the beta is identifying and addressing any session-breaking bugs to ensure the reliability of the Jumpgate system. As an example, reports of game freezes and lags requiring a hard refresh inspired the implementation of error tracking to help identify and troubleshoot those instances. Additionally, we released a code refactor aiming to increase platform dependability this week.

Once we have more stability in the system, we’ll be looking to address any bugs and/or features where Jumpgate experiences rate behind our legacy system. For example, Jumpgate’s text and images sometimes have rendering challenges, producing lower-quality visuals for our users. We’re also looking to improve the visual appearance performance of Token Markers based on feedback.

Before Jumpgate becomes the default platform for all users, we’ll ensure that it is at feature parity with the current Roll20 Tabletop, and set the groundwork for more delightful features and quality-of-life improvements – such as a rebuild of our FX Tool!

Future Focus: What to Expect Next

This June, we’ll be opening up the beta for Plus users, and are looking forward to the additional wave of feedback from real-world game sessions that’ll help us make Jumpgate the best that it can be!

In the meantime, Pro testers can easily submit any bug reports from right inside their games. The “Report a Bug” option can be found in the Hamburger menu (three horizontal lines) in the left toolbar, or at the top of the chat panel in the right sidebar .