Special Report: The Flying Lab Road Show

As many of you are aware, the Flying Lab Team has been spending a lot of time on the road in the last couple of months, sharing all there is to share regarding Pirates of the Burning Sea. We?ve been to Indianapolis, where literally thousands of folks were able to watch and play our game to their heart?s content, and then it was a short return home to Bellevue, Washington where we hosted a party and tended a booth at the wildly successful Penny Arcade Expo. PAX was a lot of fun, and distinctly different than GenCon on many levels. While both events have proven to be an incredibly valuable resource for us in getting the word out, I have to give major thanks to the PAX volunteers, called Enforcers, for all their help and support.

These events can be incredibly exhausting- lugging heavy objects through airports, up and down stairs, in and out of cars?it can wear a person out! So you can imagine our collective surprise/relief/joy when Squidd (FLS Jack-of-All Trades whose super power is being able to make broken things work as they should, sometimes by simple proximity alone) and I arrived in Bellevue to set up, to be faced with an army of PAX Enforcers saying bizarre things like "Hi! Can I carry all your heavy stuff please?" or "Did you need anything? Anything at all?" or my favorite: "Would you like to sit down for a bit, I?ve brought you some water!" Seriously, all the PAX support staff were incredible- they were responsive, proactive, incredibly fun, and never too far away when the inevitable crisis reared its ugly head.

The PAX highlight for me had to be our Pirate Party which, with the help of PAX Enforcers, was held on the first night of the Expo. I know I?m not alone when I say I was a little more than worried- What if we gave a party and nobody came? Given that I was a major proponent of the idea, and that I had spent more than a few hours convincing, and re-convincing, a certain FLS CEO that the party would be a wild success, I was deathly afraid that the actuality would be a bunch of FLS Staff milling about in party hats, without a fan in sight.

Wow, was that anxiety unfounded! When it came time to actually party, and party we did, the partiers showed up in droves. So many fans showed up that we were at maximum capacity throughout the entire night, with the line to get inside stretching around the entire hotel! Our ten-station LAN was swamped, with people so excited about playing the game that we could barely tear them away to make room for the next in line. Flying Lab Staff members from every team were in full effect, coaching players during game demos, talking one-on-one with devoted fans, while also taking the time to sit with our friends from the press and third-party sites to share more information related to our big announcement. One of the many highlights for me was watching members of ArtCo running around outside entertaining the line of folks waiting to get in with contests and t-shirt giveaways. All in all, the party went off without a hitch and was a perfect way to kick off our weekend showcase at PAX.

My favorite quote of the night came at the end, after having asked Rusty the following: "So, what do you think about parties now, Mr. "No one is going to show up"?

His response?

"I was metaphysically wrong."

Metaphysical, baby! Score one for the party people!

As you can imagine, a lot of work went into making our PAX and GenCon events as successful as they were, and the entire FLS crew pitched in before, during and after to make it happen. We even had some long-time fans lend a hand, whether it was handing out t-shirts, coaching people how to play, or taking hideously obscene pictures of a poor, weary, hardworking, only slightly intoxicated Community Envoy and with the help of a certain chilly fansite, kick-starting a community wide campaign that has culminated in a new nickname for me: Meme-Face

My retribution appreciation is forthcoming.

In the little time we had between PAX and our next big event, the Austin Gaming Conference, we were finally able to upgrade our forum software! Though we continue to fine-tune the new vBulletin features, the overall reaction to the transition was very positive, and we?ve been quite pleased with the results.
Once the forum upgrade was in place, it was yet again time to pack up and head out to Austin. The Austin Gaming Conference is one of my favorite events of the year, as it is a time to re-connect with old friends, make new ones, and participate in discussions with the movers and shakers in our fledgling industry. This year, both Joe Ludwig, our Lead Software Engineer, and myself, represented FLS as speakers during the conference, and our respective panels were met with much positive feedback.

For me, the highlight of AGC had to be the conversations that happened in between the panels. There are all kinds of people out there who are excited about Pirates of the Burning Sea, and the support of our fans means a great deal to us. But it is equally satisfying to learn that our peers within the industry are as excited as you about Pirates of the Burning Sea. More than once I was pulled aside and grilled for any new information. Can you guess what the most frequent question was?

"So uh?hey, can I get in the beta?"

So having survived GenCon, PAX and AGC, we return you now to your regularly scheduled FLS program, already in progress. What?s in store, you ask? What?s next on the FLS agenda? While I can?t go into too much detail, here?s a quick glimpse of the various projects I?ll be focusing on behind the scenes:

-A total PotBS site redesign
-Working with Misha to streamline and improve the Beta acceptance process
-Coordinating a new contest for the official PotBS T-shirts
-Working with Johnathan ?Mapmaker? White to complete the PotBS Game World Map
-Scheduling Dev Team appearances from coast to coast at various public LAN and gaming events
-Working with our plucky (if notably insolent) PotBS Community Intern Rhaegar, to unveil a new world-wide, PotBS-fan leadership initiative...

And so very much more!

In closing, I?d like to thank all our fans, both old and new, for their support of Pirates of the Burning Sea. We?ve had such a phenomenal time this summer meeting you face to face, and look forward to even more opportunities in the coming months.