If I'm being totally honest with myself and with you, dear reader, before this re-release, I wasn't sure if the app would be around for much longer. After a few months of operating, Deals of Opportunity had stalled out a bit, no new users were joining, and feedback had dried up.

But before I gave up on this app that I KNOW has so much potential for my fellow TTRPG enthusiasts (and as the developer with almost a year's worth of work put into the app), I had one question for users: why? I put out the call to this fantastic community of users and asked what was working, what wasn't, and how I could make the app better and more useful. And the users obliged.

The response was so honest, and so helpful. I feel really grateful to everyone who took the time to respond. With all of that great feedback in mind, it was clear that Deals of Opportunity needed some deep changes.

A Rundown of Deals 2.0 Updates

User feedback was broad, but oberall it focused around a few specific functions and features of the app.

Syncing with Your Existing Wishlists

This was the big one! Don't make me create another list, just let me keep making and updating my wishlists on DriveThruRPG and The Dungeon Master's Guild. If I add or remove titles to them, sync those changes automatically. No more clunky copy and paste, no more having yet ANOTHER list to manage. Let me set it and forget it!

Design and Dark Mode

We have dark mode! I love a bright white site design, but users on the site in dark environments were tired of being blinded. The site should detect your current color mode and update, and you can change it in the header.

Actionable Information Where You Need It

While this new version focuses on a very different experience, I've worked to make sure that information you want is available without a ton of scrolling (especially on mobile). There will be more fine tuning and enhancements of this as we go, but it should be a lot better.

Under the Hood Enhancements

In addition to the parts of the site you'll see, the entire back end has been rebuilt from scratch to be faster, more efficient, and more stable. Lots of automated testing is in place to help make sure that any updates that are pushed out to the application work as intended and users can be sure their notifications are getting delivered.

What's Next

I have a ton of ideas for this application that are planned for rollout, though my goal is to continue asking myself this question: "Is this valuable for the core intent of this app?" You can truly run in any direction when building apps like this, and so my nerdy imagination tends to run a bit wild of what it could do, but I want to avoid adding any unnecessary complexity or new features that detract from the core goal of saving you money on the titles on your wishlists.

That said, there are some cool things I'd like to see if the system can do, including:

• Quality of life improvements to discount notifications, like being able to filter notifications by discount amount (dollar amount or percentage) or format type (physical versus digital)
• Continuing enhancements to the site design to make it as user-friendly and accessible as possible
• Adding an option to pause discount notifications temporarily, for users who just need a break from temptation (hi, that's me 🤣)
• Reporting the most popular titles by actual numbers sold through the app
• Smoother processes for adding a new wishlist rather than just a message that it's processing and to refresh in a few minutes
• Working with publishers to secure exclusive discounts for Deals of Opportunity users with the publisher's titles in their wishlists

This is just a short list of some features on my mind, but in the end, its the users who I hope will help me drive what's added. Are you a registered user and have an idea? Hit the feedback button at the top of the site and let me know! I'm always wanting to hear what might make this app a better, more useful resource.

Happy deal hunting!