Pyrates (game) / Blog: Recent posts

In Pyrates 0.6.2 the game of Paper-Rock-Scissors replaces the Three Prisoner's dilemma on the pirate ship. Also, fewer plants need to be taken care of during the farm work on a distillery island.

Pyrates 0.6.1 is a minor bugfix release. It fixes pre-filled custom tiles in the Polish locale and adds a pause after the message about fending off a shark in "Adrift".

The new version of the game features many new elements in the gameplay and numerous improvements. One general feature is error logging: when the game crashes, a report is saved 'error_reports' folder. This is particularly useful, when an error in a locale crashes the game and the window is closed before the error message can be read.

In Pyrates, there are several new tasks on town islands, a new managerial minigame of distillery islands, a new puzzle of the pirate island, new ways of escaping pirate ships and the devil’s triangles. Arithmometers can be now found in new locations and there is additional puzzle fixing the device. Various decisions made by the player may affect their reputation, which in turn affects the attitude of other characters in the game. The interface is more customizable and more consistent.... read more

Pyrates 0.5.1 brings some minor changes to the gameplay and fixes bugs:

• Fragments of an adventurer’s diary in devil’s triangle. Also, resources are found in one stash on one island.
• The game does not crash when the player leaves a trading outpost without information about islands.
• Only the human player can find memoir chapter on a treasure island with another adventurer.
• When the player refuses to fix an arithmometer, the device is added to the inventory nonetheless.
• Corrected translatables.
• In The Tavern reputation can no longer be improved through advertising in the town hall. The reputation increases gradually if there are no managerial problems at the end of the work day.
• Improved handling of invalid user input while exchanging dice in Poker.

Apart from minor bugfixes and improvements to the interface, translatables, and comments for translators, Pyrates 0.5.0 includes a number of major changes that significantly affect the gameplay. Poker replaces Adrift (Skeleton Crew) as the game with a small number of translatable strings suitable for short classes on localization. In Pyrates a new type of treasure island is added (the player need to find a pirate trying to hide his treasure). On a new trading outpost island the player can try to get information on nearby islands from a fellow adventurer, providing the player has a fair amount of rum. The player may also encounter a pirate ship after having left an island. On pirates’ island the player can try to trade rum for food and the pantry heist game replaces the coco and rum fetching game.... read more

Pyrates 0.4.0 is a more visual game than the previous version: each island is accompanied by an colorful ASCII-art map (colors can be disabled in 'options.ini'). New puzzles have been added and the old ones have been redesigned to take advantage of the visual element. The Tavern features an ASCII-art diagram representing the tavern and the customers. While the basic premise of the latter game remains the same, the tavern-keeping requires taking care of more unexpected events, like faulty rum dispensers and foods going bad. As a consequence your reputation may be damaged in new ways and lead to new unpleasant consequences. See Pyrates – player's guide and The Tavern – player's guide for more details.... read more

Pyrates 0.3.0 is played in a more extensive world than the previous version. Town islands replace locksmiths’ islands. On a town island you can buy food and keys, repair your ship (as the ship degrades over time and it takes more days to reach islands), and look for the mapmaker, who may offer you a map of nearby islands in exchange for rum.

Moreover, the devil՚s triangle has been added. A devil՚s triangle is an archipelago of four islands where the player falls into a time-loop and need to find objects to break away.... read more

The version 0.2.0 includes new puzzles: encrypted Blackbeard՚s message and coconut sorting game on pirates՚ island. Moreover, this version includes a space theme, which can be used during theming exercises (see Teacher՚s guide).

Other changes:

• The language code can be passed as a commandline parameter.
• Resources at the beginning of the game configurable in 'options.ini'.
• Minor fixes in the interface.