Pirates Of The Burning Sea: Flying Labs Revamped their website!

Here is his log.

01.10.07
And now, the fun part!

There are three phases to most game development: the blank slate, the gel, and the fun part. The blank slate is the beginning, where the world is full of ideas, nothing is unachievable, and you're going to ship in two years. Devs get excited about showing you a ball bouncing around in the engine, and your project scheduling is filled with 60 day tasks like "implement ship combat".

Then you get to the gelling phase: This is when the game takes real form. Precious, wonderful ideas are taken out behind the barn and shot, and you start realizing just how much work is in front of you. Devs get excited about showing you avatars bouncing around in the engine, and your project scheduling progresses from being completely abstracted from reality to just horribly wrong.

Then there's the fun part. The fun part is when your ideas are very tactical, huge improvements over current systems. Devs don't get excited anymore, but their checkins make the game twice as fun as yesterday. Everything's running perfectly, and the game is getting better every week.

Except your ship date is only six months away.

Here at Flying Lab, we're now firmly in the fun part. Our beta releases come out about every 2-3 weeks, and each release dramatically improves the game. This month is a big one for us, as we start rolling in the new avatars into the game, and the Open Sea is about to get a dramatic facelift in both the visuals and in the gameplay. Ship skills are being totally redone, the avatar combat is being finalized, we're adding on yet more richness in our sounds (crew sounds, anybody?) the UI is being (finally!) redone for real, and the art department is kicking ass and taking names - wait till you guys start seeing the new environments, especially the new jungle beach!! And by next month, we'll finally drop the second to the last shoe of our feature set. The last one won't appear until the first release after R1.

In the fun part, you've got a crazy energy. Everything's going so well that it encourages people to work even more. And you've got the horrible fear of actually having to ship. As good as the game is, we're still not done by any means, and we need to keep our eye on the ball. We have one more milestone of new features (which we just started), and then all the remaining dev time is for addressing beta issues, bugs, and performance. And did I mention polish? Let me give it its proper weight: Polish, polish, POLISH!!

Today also marks a big change for us. The new web site look is the first visible result. It's not done, by any means (we will have a ship guide soon that will astound you), but we wanted a more attractive, dynamic web site that will get people jazzed up about the game. We've been working on this for some time, and as part of the new look, we'll also be restructuring the web site to make it easier to find the information you want. Which is important, because there's about to be a lot of new people looking for information.

In conjunction with the start of the web site face lift, we're also finally starting up our advertising campaign. You can expect to start seeing ads in lots of different places, both traditional and offbeat. We have a game with a universal subject matter (well, unless you're a stuffy British governor), a fantastic look, great gameplay, and we want to get that message out. It's going to be an exciting time, and I hope all of you will make the newcomers feel welcomed. Just keep in mind that they're coming from other areas where they have to shout to be heard. There will be some growing pains, but what we've found is that if you treat everyone with respect, people will respond and will be glad they've come here.

Finally, I just want to say thank you for all of you who have stayed with us over the years. Your enthusiasm, good nature, and comments have been much appreciated, and I'm looking forward to seeing you all soon on the Burning Seas!