Hermitworks Entertainment Blogs - Home

PAX 2007 - A Saga

2007-09-04T20:08:00Z

Every year during the summer months, a great horn can be heard sounding in the Northwest of America. Out of all mankind, only a few heed the call of this bleating noise and begin the long cross-country (And in some cases, continent hopping) journey towards its source - the Penny Arcade Expo. I went on behalf of HermitWorks to promote Space Trader. These are my expeditionary notes.

I arrived at the event on Friday. An endless and varied wall of humanity blocked my way. For many kilometers people of all shapes and sizes had lined up, waiting to be allowed into Mecca - the exhibition floor. Many would sit in huddled groups, gazing into the twin screens of Nintendo DS systems - there was nary a PSP to be seen. Other groups would sit cross legged in circles, viciously battling through the medium of Magic: The Gathering. Still others busied themselves with memorizing the contents of the program guide, hoping to glean some untold secrets that would give them mastery over their peers.

At a rigorous pace I walked past this great lineup and handed out leaflets that extolled the virtues of Space Trader. They were very well received, with several of the people yelling out things like “Cool!” and “Oh hey, thanks!”. I briefly mused that, perhaps, they would take anything I wished to hand out.

I decided that at my current pace I would quickly run out of leaflets - and an exhibitor with nothing to hand out to the masses is a dangerous position indeed. I took my place at the end of the line, only to be boxed in moments later by an additional eighty hojillion people.

Their dialect was strange and foreign to me. They would use words like “Noob” and “Pwn” in actual, real life conversations. They sounded very guttural and offensive, so I took care to jot them down for use should I ever come into confrontation with an attendee.

Certain members of the crowd had decided to dress up in what I can only assume to be ritualistic garments. Some were extravagant and colorful, while others where dark, vinyl and… overly revealing. Luck was with me, as I had brought several costumes and outfits in my bag for use in gaining trust and friendship.

Eventually the line began to march forward - albeit at a glacial pace. At one junction a group of exhibitors handed out bags full of what they called “Swag”. Those bags would become a very familiar sight indeed as the event wore on, the attendees would use them to hoard whatever treasures they found.

Suddenly, a cry was heard! One of the crowd had looked at me and shrieked, alarming the others in his group.

“Aren’t you the guy in that ad in the magazine?” he inquired.

I told him that I was indeed and that because he had found me he would win a prize. The group quickly huddled around me in anticipation of his reward.

“The rules are that you can either keep the first item I give you, or you can exchange it for a second item that you MUST keep!” I informed him. He squealed with delight as I reached into my bag and handed him… a T-Shirt that said ‘MICKEY MOUSE’, but with the Space Trader logo emblazoned on the back.

He laughed. His group laughed. And then he decided to risk it all for the mystery item. Once more I reached into my bag and came out with a polyester skirt branded with Space Trader. Again the group was filled with laughter and I knew that the danger had passed - I was safe from the mob.

Now I had finally made it to the end of the line and onto the exhibition floor, a place so full of colored flashing lights and heavy throbbing music that some attendees simply went mad, beginning to gesticulate and dance wildly on colored pads in beat with some unheard song.

My field notes at this point became hurried and scribbled - I will have to decipher them and continue on another time.

Regards, Daigle

Space Trader is for Sale!

2007-07-31T17:39:00Z

The fated day has arrived! Space Trader is now available on our website, just waiting for you to try the demo or buy it! Are you a bad enough to play Space Trader? I wouldn’t doubt it!

More things are in store for Space Trader, but I still can’t talk about those just yet! Rest assured that when you hear about them, you will be A) Amazed, B) Shocked C) Awed D) Shocked and/or Awed again, followed by a frenetic bout of clapping.

So, what’s in this retail, for sale, you-can-buy-it-and-own-it-and-call-it-your-own version of Space Trader? First off, three full challenges: Moon Madness, Free Trade and the new challenge Red Eye Trader. Each challenge is Multiplayer enabled, for maximum Space Tradering. Dozens of new characters, along with entirely new graphical textures throughout sections of the game have improved our look, thanks to some new and kick ass artists. Additionally, we now have Voices for all of our characters!

Almost every merchant and NPC has a unique voice with a unique personality, which means you’ll have to talk to everyone to hear them all! There’s the awesome Trading which we’ve all grown to love, that lets you travel the solar system in search of profit - except now you can reach all new heights in Red Eye Trader! We should see some extremely outlandish scores on our Online Scoreboard very soon.

I could keep rattling off a list of features, but instead I want you to experience Space Trader for yourself. The demo is totally free to play and you can download it right here!

We think, nay, know Space Trader is an awesome game and we can’t wait till you start playing it with us!

Regards, Daigle

The Great Monolith Speaks

2007-06-30T00:03:00Z

HermitWorks has been pretty silent on this blog lately - but we have a good excuse! We’ve been work hard at work finishing up Space Trader and getting it prepped for sale. Soon you’ll be able to purchase it online on select websites and online stores! In addition to that, we have some super secret Space Trader related deals brewing. So between the launch of our upgraded website and right now, what has happened?

First and foremost we’ve got a brand new Space Trader challenge almost ready for public consumption - it features new maps, new characters, and all sorts of fun things to do that haven’t been seen anywhere before. All I’ll reveal right now is that it takes place among the moons of Jupiter, the gas giant everyone loves. It’s fun in single player, and even more fun in multiplayer. I’m sure you’re going to enjoy it as much as we have.

Second, we’ve acquired not one, not two, but three new artists of varying application. They’re giving Space Trader quite the face lift, and you’ll be able to tell the difference immediately if you’ve tried out the current version over at PlaySpaceTrader.com.

Third, we’ve been hard at work clearing up last minute bugs and fixing up neglected portions of the game to get it full of sparkle and shine for when it goes on sale. That’s not really a very informative description, but it’s really the best I can give. Polishing, as most companies call it.

In other news, I will be attending PAX 2007 for HermitWorks Entertainment! If I can get it past customs, I’ll be using a T-Shit cannon to fire tightly bundled cotton masses into the bellies of other attendees like some sort of shotgun toting madman.

I’m going to be doing sort of a “Where’s Waldo?” challenge during the three day event - the ad we’re running in the PAX Program features not only cool screenshots and artwork from the game, but also a picture of yours truly with the caption of “FIND THIS MAN AT PAX 2007 AND WIN A PRIZE!”.

Vanity? No, showmanship.

Regards, Daigle

New Website!

2007-05-01T18:49:00Z

We’re very proud to announce the launch of our brand new (And still in beta) Space Trader website! As you can see it’s quite a departure from the previous website, and it has a ton of awesome new features and content for you to enjoy. Mark this day on your calendars, as PlaySpaceTrader.com will knock your socks off… and I guess you would want to know exactly what day your socks were knocked off. Before I extol the virtues of the new site, I would just like to point out that an exclusive Space Trader comic book has been produced by the HermitWorks Entertainment team, for your reading pleasure. I’m not going to mince words here - it’s the rudest.

Now let’s talk about some of the new stuff that you can see and do on the website.

The Live Bar

The livebar is the crown jewel of the new Space Trader website, and it ties the game and the community together in a viciously cool way, if I may coin a term. In addition to selecting Space Trader challenges from the Live Bar, it’s also where you can chat with other Space Trader players from around the globe.

It periodically shows new scores as they’re posted, and will also show the latest news about challenges and features in Space Trader. As we continue developing the website, the Live Bar will gain more and more features, until it becomes a living entity that can take control of the world’s computer system. Well, maybe we won’t go that far. Adobe Flash does have a few limitations.

Game Info Pages

Now you can read about and gaze longingly at all the neat stuff you can find in Space Trader on our website. Commodities, Planets, Gameplay Tips, we’ve got it all. Even veteran players who think we can’t possibly show them anything new may be shocked to find out that Energy Cells are mined from the very teeth of Zeus himself, lord of the Greek Pantheon.

That was a lie.

Gallery

Like the traditional museums that we all visit on a daily basis, the new website has an art gallery that showcases countless screenshots from the game as well as videos advertising the incredibly fun and addictive gameplay. To say that it is the cyberspace version of the Louvre would be insulting… to us.

We encourage users to send in cool screenshots and any videos (Of Space Trader - otherwise it would be awkward) that they have created, and chances are we’ll be happy to put them into our user screenshot gallery.

Store

If you took a break from this agonizingly long blog post to visit the website, you may have noticed a little item in the menu that pointed you towards a section called “Store”. ‘What is this store?’ you may have asked. Perhaps have you started to frantically Google around for more information on the term ‘Store’. Well, let me save you some time and say this: You can now pre-order Space Trader! Yes, it’s been a long time but the release is drawing close. Perhaps some day society will look back on these halcyon days before Space Trader fanatacism tore the earth asunder and reflect on a simpler, more comfortable time. Or perhaps they’ll talk at length about how they could have saved $5 on Space Trader by pre-ordering.

Regards, Daigle & The HermitWorks 8

I wanted him to join Mensa...

2007-04-26T16:42:00Z

The fateful day has arrived, the one that mankind has feared for centuries. Nations would rise and fall, empires would rule and become humbled, but all in the shadow of this coming hour. Around the globe, when bell toll was heard, birds would fly in all manner of directions - their internal navigation insticts confused. Dogs barked, whined, and clawed at the ground. Grown men would burst into tears without knowing why.

Jordan Dennis has been accepted into Mensa. The society of Geniuses (Geniusii, perhaps?). Information gathering has started, and soon the entire world will know what secrets they hold, sinister or benign.

Congratulations, Jordan. I always had faith in you. When I said earlier that I expected you to flunk out on the test, and that our trip to Edmonton was “A complete waste of time. Why, I could be at home right now bleaching my socks.”, I was merely testing you.

For reference, read this blog post of days past.

Regards, Daigle

Addition to the family!

2007-03-16T23:56:00Z

In a manner similar to how mighty Athena sprung forth from the forehead of her father, today we have released a new challenge for Space Trader! The first version of Free Trade has been released to the public. Althought it’s still in testing phases and a lot hasn’t been worked in yet, we feel it’s ready to show off to you fine people that are in dire need of more Space Trading. It features more of what everyone wants: More money, more combat, more levels, and higher scores. If you’re in the beta, you can head on over to try it out. In fact, even if you aren’t in the beta test you can head over to try it out!

Space Trader has been a long and interesting journey from when it was started in late 2005 to right now, not far from release. This has been the first commercial game I’ve ever worked on, and it’s been an absolute treat. Late nights and crunch time aside, working in the game industry has been exciting and full of new experiences. Never in a million years did I think I would be interviewed for PC Gamer, but it happened last month.

Years ago I would savor every page of my copies of PC Gamer, committing every detail of their “Command & Conquer Red Alert Strategy BLOWOUT!” to memory. I would trace the pictures of the 3D Footmen and Grunts featured in their articles about Warcraft 2. I would explore every nook and cranny of the interactive CDs that came with the magazine, trying to find the installer for Gravy Trader that I just knew Coconut Monkey had hidden somewhere.

PC Gamer had wanted me to talk about The Great Games Experiment for their upcoming article about it, and I gave them what i believe to be an absolutely glowing review. They even asked for my picture, which I readily gave them. I’d never been in a magazine, or in any sort of professional print before, so it was interesting to find out that all the pictures I currently had of myself were of far too small resolution. Thanks to the efforts of Jordan Dennis and his trusty photomagical picture machine, we made the deadline.

My pretty face and/or interview may not make it into the finished magazine in April, but I choose to think positively and assume that not only will my face be prominently displayed, but there will be blurb about me on the cover. Perhaps in a large red starburst it will proclaim “BRIEF INTERVIEW WITH PHILLIP DAIGLE INSIDE!”. The cover price will spike from $7.99 to $99.99 for that single issue because it’s so damn valuable. Fan clubs will begin forming all across the morass of the internet.

But maybe I’m TOO positive.

Regards, Daigle

Farewell Tour

2007-03-09T22:17:00Z

Ah, finally the last update in the iron man week. And it will be shorter than the update from yesterday, because I have things to do. Sometimes I think that I should continue updating this blog every day from now on, but I realize that’s an impossability. I have too much to do, too little time, and I can never think of anything game-related to write. What a pity!

But at least this week I’ve given (I hope, anyway.) some brief insight into the life and times of Phillip Daigle, HermitWorks Employee Extraordinaire. Matthew has been in every day of the week while the rest of the office is on vacation and/or soaking up the vibe and GDC, so it hasn’t been TOO lonely. And we’ve both gotten a lot done - I have a wide array of things I’ve broken, fixed, broken again, and fixed. Testers beware, I have many things for you to… test.

Also, my Great Games Experiment profile has been getting a lot of traffic. I have received not one, but two ‘Kudos’ in regards to me being an Idol. If that doesn’t boost my already gargantuan ego, nothing will. Space Trader is also flourishing on GGE, as we’re getting tons of beta testers from there eager to enjoy our game. If I had to give it a score on a scale from Rad to Awesome, the Great Games Experiment is Sweet.

I’ll see you next week!

Regards, Daigle.

One more pass...

2007-03-08T22:40:00Z

Short update today. Continuing work on the new Space Trader challenge. Office still empty. Loneliness setting in. I have begun to map out the most efficient route from my desk to the water cooler. As it turns out, pole vaulting over Matthew Regan’s desk is the best route.

I’ve also started negotiations with Matthew Lesko to see how much he would cost to be featured in our game. Both his patented question mark suit and obsession with !!MEGA MONEY!! would, I think, be an excellent fit for our game on so many levels. He seems interested, but keeps trying to push his book on me.

If you’re unfamiliar with the enigmatic Matthew Lesko, let me summarize his appeal: For many years now, he has appeared in many low rent commercials that can only be described as maddeningly insane wearing his purple suit covered in question marks. He advertises a book that lists off all the government programs that you can apply for to gain financial assistance. Like, maybe you want to open up a hair salon. Uncle Sam can help you get those curling irons. He claims that the government doesn’t want you to know about these financial programs, and he is helping you “stick it to the man” as it were. When the revolution comes, Lesko is going to have his own personal brigade of hard as nails commandoes.

As you can tell, I don’t really have anything worthwhile to write today. I’ll share this, at least - I’m going to attempt it on Monday.

Courtesy of xkcd

Regards, Daigle

The Continuing Story

2007-03-07T22:54:00Z

Wednesday has come, and with it more work on the latest Space Trader challenge. In addition, Matthew has been in the office working on LOD levels for our character models to make people on older machines happy. We’re a caring bunch, y’know.

Today a friend of mine pointed out the Sony GDC Keynote Presentation, and more importantly a game coming to the PS3 entitled Little Big Planet. You can see a really awesome trailer for the game here on GameTrailers. Not only is Little Big Planet a visual masterpiece and looks like a co-operative dream, it’s also going to have a strong community presence. High score lists, friends, comments, and more. All of the features you would expect to find on a social networking website. It’s not just this game, either - Sony has announced its commitment to adding these features to every online game that they can via the Playstation Home network.

HermitWorks has been planning on doing the same thing with Space Trader for a long time, and it’s starting to come together right now. High score lists, friends, comments, badges, profiles. It’s all designed to make the player feel like they’re part of a community - because they are.

Another interesting thing about the PS3 and the Xbox 360 is that they offer online downloadable demos for games. For example, Little Big Planet will be available in demo form this year, and will hit the retail space in 2008. Sony has previously announced that they are very interested in online distribution of full retail titles, not just demo versions. This is a pretty strong endorsement for how well online distribution works. Even the casual observer can tell you: Online distribution makes sense and works. Valve’s STEAM has been proving this for quite some time now. Physical copies of software still have a place, but their days are numbered.

So what am I trying to get across? Since we know what the coming game industry will be like, I can tell you with certainty that Space Trader is going to be a great example of the future of gaming. Seamless online distribution with rich community support to share your accomplishments with others and challenge friends, along with a stream of new game content (See my previous post.).

One of the best parts about this changing games industry is that it’s easier than ever for Indie Developers to put together an awesome little title and get it into the hands of gamers. The Great Games Experiment acts like a pre-packaged community site for your game, and you can find an audience instantly with it. Online distribution means you can skip the publisher and make money directly off of your game. It also means that consoles, which have previously been a difficult target to hit for small developers become realistic and lucrative markets.

It’s pretty awesome, I think.

Regards, Daigle

Day Another Deux

2007-03-07T00:15:00Z

At the risk of tooting my own horn, and by association the horn of everyone working on Space Trader, I feel that the upcoming content that we’ll be sharing with players is shaping up nicely. Today I had the in-house testers run through the latest revision of Free Trade, and the response was favorable. We’ve taken a lot of the feedback we got from the Space Trader beta regarding what people like and don’t like and have implemented them in the Free Trade challenge. Expect more things that you enjoy, and fewer things that annoy.

One of the advantages of being a small developer is that feedback regarding game changes is extremely fast. It’s made even quicker for us with our kickin’ rad delivery mechanism for the game. We can upload a new version of the game to our site, and instantly everyone is updated to the very latest version and all their feedback applies to our most recent work. Another advantage to online delivery is that we can instantly patch holes and push out new content.

Other games after their initial launch have continued to pump out excellent content, but the vast majority of them have been a seperate patch or download that users had to get on their own. This meant that the userbase was fragmented for awhile during the transition phase. Some titles have mitigated this problem, for example Jagex Ltd’s Runescape is similar to Space Trader in that you play in the browser and therefore grab the latest patches and content immediately after release. In contrast with Space Trader, Runescape is an extension of the older style Java and Flash games. It’s bound by the limitations and overhead of Java in exchange for its ability to keep all users current.

Neverwinter Nights is a retail game that kept content pumping out after release, both for free and for pay. New adventure modules full of quests and things to do were released at a decent pace, but users had to acquire them on their own for the most part. Space Trader is similar in that we’ll be providing new premium content after the game has launched to keep people coming back, but we’ll be delivering it automatically without having to download 200 meg patches or content packs every few months. It’ll be a constant stream of new challenges and levels that you seamlessly gain access to the moment we update our servers.

I’m sure that there are other games handling content distribution in a way that we are, and we’ll see more applications of it in the future. I’m positive that HermitWorks will be involved with that new direction for online games - But for the time being, it’s nice being on the forefront of the ease-of-use wars.

Regards, Daigle.

Postscript

I’ve been using my Mac at work lately, and I really have no idea how I ever lived without Exposé and Dashboard. Or dual cores.

GDC just won't be the same without me.

2007-03-06T02:55:00Z

This week, more specifically Tuesday, over half of the HermitWorks Entertainment team left the <font color="white">vile</font> clutches of Northern Alberta to head down to San Francisco for the Game Developers Conference. Everyone else is either taking the week off, or working from home.

Except me!

GDC remains the fevered dream of a madman for me, because my passport could not arrive in time. Recent laws put into place by both the Canadian and United States Governments made getting a passport a necessity regardless of how I wanted to enter the land of opportunity. Truly, this is what terrorism has cost us.

I, Phillip Q. Daigle, will be right here at the office handling incoming beta testers and forum feedback this week all by my lonesome. To make myself feel less isolated I’ll be posting a blog update each and every day of the week detailing some mundane aspect of my day to show that even in the face of crippling personelle shortages, HermitWorks Soldiers On.

Today I did a bunch of work on an upcoming challenge for Space Trader. It’s actually one of our original challenges, but it was placed on the backburner while we worked on getting the beta out to the people. It’s going to be a huge hit, because it’s got tons of great new environments and all sorts of things to see and do. In addition to that, I also spent some time fooling about with the OS X port of the game. It’s shaping up nicely, mainly due to the stalwart efforts of our own Scott Brooks.

I wrote a few words in the recent blog update by Jordan Dennis regarding the launch of the Great Games Experiment, which has been really great to us. I would just like to point out once more that those dudes are righteous. As previously mentioned I would buy them liquers of a most celebratory nature had I been among the ranks of those blessed few attending GDC. C’est la vie.

Regards, Daigle

Surprise! Just in time for GDC...

2007-03-02T22:48:00Z

Well, we heard (through our crack-squad of underground rumor checkers) that the Great Games Experiment is opening up a few days early. Anyone reading this can avoid the rush and sneak in as of 12:01 Thursday. Space Trader is the featured game for the opening of the beta to the public, so we are thankful for the traffic (and testers) that the event will no doubt bring in.

This is a huge event for the folks over at Garage Games, and we wish them all the success they undoubtedly deserve. For those of you not in ‘the know’, The Great Games Experiment (GGE) is a social network that brings users, developers, and publishers together to promote, discuss, and publish games from indie developers right along side main-stream titles.

Leveraging their set of Torque development tools against a ‘one-click publishing’ concept, Garage Games has spent more than a year refining the greatest idea to come along since shareware.

Software publishing is due to take on a whole new meaning, as the type of media available for online consumption starts to envelop software entertainment, as well as news media, music, movies, etc. It’s strange how it took this long for the computer game industry to assimilate a web-based publishing paradigm and spawn an entity to seize the day.

As I have said before, this type of interconnected forum has the potential to shift the focus of the interactive entertainment industry. It remains to be seen if the tools provided on the GGE will be intuitive and accessible enough for the feckless hordes (as well as the tech savvy) to migrate, and subsequently meet a critical mass to ignite the GGE as a true powerhouse. However, if the responsiveness of the design team working on the closed beta of the GGE is engendered in whomever works on it’s next phase, I have no doubt that it will be a force to be reckoned with.

In fact, I suspect there is potential enough to wonder if the clueless upper echelon at Vivendi may utter a coalescent, “Doh!” as the waves of media (both bloggy and mainstream) discussing the launch, begin to publish their articles across the web. Digg away, you wonderful hordes. I wish all the crew at Garage Games every success, and while I expect that the next few weeks are gonna be pretty busy for them, I reckon it’s exactly the type of problem they’ve been dying to have.

Also, I understand Garage Games will be in attendance at GDC, I hope the HermitWorks crew has time to mingle and mix our thoughts and insights with you guys. Good luck and have fun!

On a personal note both Phillip Daigle and I would like to thank James Wily and Sean Sullivan over at Garage Games for not only working with us over here at HermitWorks, but accepting a few of our suggestions for GGE. You guys rock, and so does the rest of your team!

It’s a shame we’ll be holding down the fort here at the office while everyone is at GDC, Daigle claims he would have bought drinks for people. Expensive ones, the type that you would hide in the linen closet, lest your guests at the Battlestar Galactica Makeout Party Extravaganza try show off a very accurate impression of Colonel Tigh. Disclaimer: Neither Daigle, nor I have hosted/attended such a party, but we like to imagine that they exist.

Good work Garage Games men and women, congratulations on your successful launch.

Regards, Jordan Dennis and Phillip Daigle

The Great Games Experiment is radtastic...

2007-02-22T23:19:00Z

It’s so time for a blog entry. It’s a really busy time for us here at HermitWorks. The fellows over at Garage Games and The Great Games Experiment have featured Phil Daigle and Space Trader on their websites, and it’s driving a nice stream of testers our way. This is an invaluable resource, and it’s great to have their support.

It’s a bit of a shift– going from only us knowing how awesome Space Trader is, to hearing feedback from strangers. Sometimes, you can’t tell whether a feature is awesome or sucks, because it’s just the eight of us. We are a positive bunch, so we tend to think everything is awesome. We have done a couple of things to avoid groupthink:

Tasks: While testing the game, there is a set of questions that cycle and display at the top of the page. This helps slothy testers give us feedback because its easy as pie. The statistics are tracked, and we get instant feedback. It’s a little weird, like having a crystal ball…”Oh Great Gazoo, is this lighting too strong?”

In game reporting: For the more advanced bug reporters, there is a built in reporter that registers the input as a thread on the forums, and an entry into our in house bug database. This is super slick, and we can collect more detailed runtime info.

Forums: The forums are in full swing, and for those that love that way of communicating there they are! I can’t think of why someone would begin a bug discussion this way, considering the previous two options, but I’m not judging.

What this all adds up to is a lean, mean user-feedback machine. This should accelerate our progress and ensure a solid release when we come out of beta. Once users play Space Trader (and the realization of a 3-D engine running in the browser sinks in), they get really excited. This is the fun part. When people start writing things about us, it isn’t just our hype, and that is a very nice feeling.

Well, back to it,

Jordan

Those pesky ports

2007-02-20T21:42:00Z

We are about to be launching our beta, and we are planning on hitting as many platforms as possible. Unfortunately OS X, and Linux are going to be lagging a little bit behind, and FreeBSD is pretty much an unknown right now. We have a commitment to get OS X and Linux up and running though. We are currently picking up some more Apple machines in order to speed up the porting, but it still may be a while until it is released. Below is a bit more detailed report on the porting status.

The Linux port is pretty much there, there are a few little bugs with GCC4.1 that need to be sorted out. I also need to port over some threading code from the win32 plug-in to make it a bit more robust. Once that’s done I just need to package up the plug-in installer and things should be ready to go.(Note: this is an x86 plug-in, PowerPC may follow if I can get a Linux install going on a PPC box). We are mainly targeting Firefox under Linux, but will provide a .so file that Konqueror, etc can load.

The OS X port is a bit farther behind. We have done some optimizations that need to be byte swapped for the PowerPC. We also have some issues with getting events down into the plug-in. Hopefully these should be handled in the next month or so and we should be on the main platforms. We are mainly targeting Safari under OS X, but Firefox is also a high priority.

FreeBSD? Sorry, but we haven’t had a chance to install a copy around the office yet to get it built on there. Once we launch the Linux version, you can try to get it running under Linux emulation. If you can, send me an e-mail at scott@hermitworksentertainment.com and I’ll update the blog. We would like to get a native FreeBSD build out eventually.

Testers are a many splendored thing.

2007-02-06T21:00:00Z

Space Trader is in closed beta now, and I’m ridiculously excited about that. If you haven’t yet signed up for a shot at it, head over to playSpaceTrader and get yourself set up. Don’t worry, we won’t shackle you or anything - that will happen plenty once we launch the game and grip thousands of people with addiction.

Now that we’re in beta, it became apparent that beta testers are a rare resource akin to gold or uranium. Sure you can get people to PLAY your game - but can you get them to TEST it? There’s a difference. Here’s an example of someone trying to play a game:

“The game crashed on level three.”

And here’s an example of someone testing the game:

“The game crashed and threw me back to desktop on level three when I tried talking to the farmer AFTER I recieved the golden egg from Supergoose, but BEFORE I’d polished it with the +5 Rag of Brilliance.”

Now, don’t get me wrong - we want people to play the game. That’s key. But great tester are like a magnificent Guatemalan Cow of Paradise - rare and beautiful. Also useful, because I hear those cows can haul, like, a ton of stuff. Are YOU a Cow of Paradise? If you think so, prove it! Prove that you deserve the suffix “of Paradise”!

My blog update today is shorter than usual, but I’m ill. And I don’t mean in the hip hop sense, I mean in the vomitous sense. Gross.

Regards, Daigle