Questions by Garrett
Fuller, Industry Relations Specialist
style="font-style: italic;">
Answers by John Scott
Tynes, Producer of Pirates of the Burning Sea
Although 2007 was a
fairly busy year for MMOGs, next year's line-up of titles looks to
contend or top what we saw come down the pipe. The first game out the
door for the 2008 season will be a title developed by Flying Lab
Software called Pirates
of the Burning Sea. Initially developed as an
indepedent game, Flying Lab opted to partner with Sony Online
Entertainment in their "Platform Publishing" deal and have been
conducting a fairly thorough beta test for the past three years. As
2007 winds to a close, the Ten Ton Hammer staff wanted to check in with
the folks at Flying Lab and see how things were progressing.
style="font-style: italic;">Pirates of
the Burning Sea producer John Scott Tynes sat down with
Ten Ton
Hammer's Garrett Fuller to discuss how beta's been going, the launch
window for the game, and much much more!
Ten Ton Hammer: What has
the response been to beta? How have players been doing sailing the
Burning Sea?
John Scott Tynes:
It’s been great. We’ve had beta testers in and
playing the game since December of 2005, so they’ve seen a
huge amount of change and progress and we’ve learned a lot
from their feedback.
border="1">
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/13272" title="Creepy">
src="/image/view/13272/preview"
width="200">
style="font-style: italic;">The Gold Master
files for Pirates of
the Burning Sea should be heading out this month.
Ten Ton Hammer: How is
the game running right before launch? Are things pretty much ready to
go?
John:
We’re handing off the Gold Master files in mid-November so
yeah, we’re about done. We will certainly continue fixing
high-priority bugs and making final tuning adjustments, but we have
been very strict about what goes in for launch and what goes in for
after launch. When we come back from Thanksgiving, we’ll be
starting work on our first big content & feature patch for
post-launch.
Ten Ton Hammer: You
recently unveiled the Boarding Party community initiative, can you tell
us a little about that?
John: The
Boarding Party is a pretty amazing way for fans of
style="font-style: italic;">Pirates of the
Burning Sea to really make an impact on the game.
We’ve
always been inclined to over communicate with our fans, and that
isn’t going to stop once our game launches. The Boarding
Party will consist of several different kinds of groups providing
feedback on game features directly to the FLS Dev Team, participating
in PotBS public events and so much more. You can read about the program
by
href="http://www.burningsea.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32200&highlight=boarding+party">visiting
this link.
Ten Ton Hammer: Your
pre-orders begin on November 13th. Can you tell us about the
pre-order program? Will players be in for anything special through the
pre-order?
John: If you
buy a pre-order box, you’ll get a soundtrack CD of music from
the game and key codes that will let you start playing January 7th, two
weeks before launch. You’ll also get a parrot to sit on your
shoulder and some excellent weapons for swashbuckling.
Ten Ton Hammer: For
players who have not heard much about
style="font-style: italic;">Pirates of the Burning Sea,
can
you give us some information on the ships you can use?
John: In
Pirates of the Burning
Sea, every player is the captain of a ship. You
start with a Schooner and go from there, moving from one ship to
another as you level up. There are dozens and dozens of different ships
in the game, from rafts all the way up to a 104-gun warship. Different
ships make for very different styles of play, so as you play
you’ll find your experience in the game changing
dramatically. Every ship handles in its own way in terms of speed, turn
rate, best angle to the wind, number and size of cannon, cargo
capacity, and lots more. You can modify your ship with items to tune
its characteristics much as you would in a racing game like Gran
Tourismo.
border="1">
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title="Beautiful Weather">
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style="font-style: italic;">Every players is a
captain of a ship in Pirates
of the Burning Sea.
Ten Ton Hammer: Are there
any major feed back ideas from beta that you have added to the game?
Many games go through some big changes during beta, is there one in
particular you’d like to talk about?
John: We
haven’t added major features based on beta feedback, but we
have made tons and tons of smaller changes. Skills, ship stats, AI
behaviors, and the economy have all received multiple, substantial
overhauls based on beta feedback.
We did do one thing recently that beta testers were clamoring for, and
we haven’t even told them yet. Hopefully they’ll
read about it here! We added tabbed chat to the game because they asked
nicely…
Ten Ton Hammer: Will the
game be available for digital download? Will we find it in retail
stores? How can we get our hands on the
style="font-style: italic;">Pirates of the Burning Sea treasure!?
John: Every
which way but loose! It’ll be available as a digital
purchase/download and in retail stores across North America and Europe.
Ten Ton Hammer: How will
SOE Station Pass Members be able to access the game? Will it be
included in their Station Pass?
John: Yep!
You’ll still need to buy the game, but the subscription is
included in your SOE Station Pass. I think that’s a really
great deal.
Ten Ton Hammer: The game
is close to launch; players are gripping their cutlasses and muskets,
what is something you’d like to tell a player that has not
been asked?
John: Ship
combat is the star of our game and we’ve had five years to
get it right. It’s an incredible and intense gaming
experience and we can’t wait for everyone to get a chance to
try it. Yar!
Want to sail the Burning Seas in your
new Schooner? Or are you looking to man a full-masted Frigate?
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?p=181718#post181718">Let
us know in our forums!
Ten Ton Hammer is your unofficial source for Pirates of the Burning Sea
news
and articles!
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Pirates of the Burning Sea Game Page.
