Programmer Joe

We just had our first stress test for pirates. I just posted a devlog with the details. Except for the first three hours (which were glorious) it was a 4 day long marathon debugging session. I don’t think I’ve ever been so exhausted as I was on Sunday night.

Still, it was totally worth it. We learned many things about our server and where they break that will hopefully let future tests run much more smoothly.

Brendan Walker, one of the engineers on Pirates, has posted a devlog on the server operations tools we’re using in our beta (and soon in our launch.) The stuff he’s put together is pretty sweet and is really helping us stay on top of the beta.

While we were at PAX Rick Saada (of Castle of the Winds fame) and I sat down with Tom Kim from Gamasutra to record an interview. It covers the history and development of both Pirates of the Burning Sea the game and Flying Lab Software the company. They’ve posted the podcast over at Gamasutra.

The Pirates interview starts about 10:30 into the podcast.

PAX is this weekend, and the FLS crew have big plans.  First is the meetup at the Islander Tiki Bar. We also have our booth on the show floor again this year.  It’s twice as big as last year, with twice as many demo stations, so come by and check out the game.  We’re in booth 430. Various Flying Lab people are also speaking on a panels throughout the weekend.

Are any of you coming to PAX this year? I’m really looking forward to meeting a few Pirates fans.  I’ll be in the booth on and off all weekend. I’ll also be at the meetup.

I don’t have much to say other than what’s in the official stuff.

Here is the joint press release.

Here is the Devlog from our CEO that went out last night to our community.

The thread in our forums has reached 30 pages, almost all of it positive.