Pirate101 Q&A: Arrival on Steam and Sinbad Chapter 2

Pirate101, a fun pirate-themed MMORPG from KingsIsle Entertainment, released in 2012 and it’s still sailing strong today. Recently, the team announced the official release date for Pirate101 on Steam: May 31, 2023! Alongside this Steam version launch comes a new update featuring the second chapter of the Sinbad story and more. We talked with Leah Ruben (Senior Studio Director), Mike Sears (Senior Narrative Designer), and Dominic La Maison (Designer), about this exciting news for Pirate101.

When did you first decide to bring Pirate101 to Steam?

[Leah] KingsIsle: When we brought Wizard101 to Steam in 2018, the goal was always to bring Pirate101 soon after.  Wizard101 took a bit more work than we expected to get there, so we decided to wait and see if the effort to do so for Pirate101 would be worthwhile.  With gamigo’s acquisition of KingsIsle in 2021, we got the opportunity to take a fresh look at Pirate development and decided last year that the work was worth the potential.

Steam is a wonderful game interface and community resource, we’re very excited to use this platform to expand Pirate’s community.  I know that when I’m looking for a new game, my first stop is Steam, so we’re excited to have Pirate available there.

Are there any specific challenges in migrating Pirate101 to Steam?

[Leah] KI: You would think, having done it once for Wizard101, it would be copy pasta – right?  Well, we did have a leg up on things by going through the process once, however, MMOs are just BIG games with a ton of code.  Even just replicating what we did before was months of work.

Will there be any differences to the Steam version, or any bonus packs unavailable to the original client?

[Leah] KI: Steam is pretty particular about a parity of offerings between platforms, so Pirates that join Steam will have the same awesome experience as those who join through our website and Steam players will have access to everything that Pirates do now.  We’ve discussed the possibility of Steam-exclusive content for both Pirate101 and Wizard101 but have no plans in the immediate future.

The KingsIsle Blog mentioned last year that Steam accounts would be distinct from KingsIsle accounts, meaning you cannot merge your accounts or use your KingsIsle account on Steam. Now that the date is closer, can you confirm this will still be true? 

[Leah] KI: Yes, this is still true. Also, if you were using the Steam interface to login to Pirate101 with a non-Steam client (pre-Steam launch), this will no longer be possible either. To play on Steam, you will need a Steam account and client.

Do you have any expert tips for new Pirate101 players about to start their journey on Steam?

[Dom] KI: Once you’ve downloaded the game, you’ll get to make some choices that affect your gameplay – your class, where you’re from, how your parents died – these impact your companions and stats, so check out one of our awesome community guides on starting Pirate101. Once you create your Pirate, you’ll join the rest of the Community and start your adventure.

There are two important settings you’ll want to check out – Auto-Companion and Combat Speed.  Auto-Companion, which chooses your companion’s actions for them, is a great time-saver, especially in the beginning when you’re still learning the combat system. Combat Speed is another good time saver: sometimes the resolution of a combat turn can get a little involved as triggered character abilities trigger other abilities, and critical hit animations play – they add flavor and humor, but last more than a few seconds. These features aren’t essential, and sometimes you won’t want them: Auto-Companion can be a detriment in boss fights or battles with specific objectives, and sometimes you may want to take in combat events at normal speed.  It’s up to you.

Besides picking a Swashbuckler (just kidding, though that’s the class I play personally, and I love it), the best advice I’d give you is that the journey is more fun with friends.  Group up with other Pirates to get through challenging fights, and ask for help or advice if you need it. You can reach out to your group mates, in game chat, in our Discord, or even reach out to some of our awesome content creators. Pirate101 has an amazing and dedicated community ready to help.

Moving on to the update – it’s been a long time since a major story update for Pirate101, but the Steam release will see with it the launch of “Chapter 2” of the Sinbad story. When the story left off, the pirates were preparing to chase further after Sinbad, a magical belt, and the mysterious treasure it yields. What can you reveal to us about this latest chapter?

[Mike] KI: The quest continues where we left off from the Sinbad Chapter 1. With the help of crewmate Albano, we’ve tracked Sinbad all the way to MooShu. Turns out things aren’t as they seem, and we’ll have to get through 7 floors of Iron Lotus enemies to figure out what’s going on. Luckily, you’ll be well rewarded for your efforts with the chance to acquire some unique and powerful accessories, weapons and facepaint!

We could go on, but we’re already in spoiler territory!

https://twitter.com/Pirate101/status/1655641215407386624?s=20

Let’s talk about some of the loot players can earn. We’ve seen concept art for a few weapons on Twitter – how many new weapons are dropping from this encounter?

[Dom] KI: We’ll leave it up to the players to discover the exact number but there are more than 10 weapons dropped- covering many different weapon combinations!

We’ve also heard word about Sinbad being available as a new companion. Any hints as to how he might be obtainable?

[Mike] KI: All players will be able to recruit Sinbad upon completion of this new quest. Not only will Sinbad be granted as a Companion, but another companion will also join the Pirate’s crew!

What other surprises might lie in wait for pirates, now or in the coming updates this year?

[Leah] KI: In our update notes, we announce that the Sinbad quests have been moved from side quest status onto the main storyline!  More on that in a later interview if you’ll have us back. :)

Our focus in the next couple of years is on four areas:

1. New things for Pirates to do.  This means not only story content like Sinbad, but also cool and interesting “activity fights” like the Dreadnaught. We’re also looking at how to move popular Wizard101 systems like our housing and events systems over to Pirate101, or even create new game activities.
2. Quality of Life improvements.  A few of these just landed, like borderless window mode, and there are many others on the list: UI scaling missed this update by millimeters, and there are many more after that.
3. FTUE improvements.  We want to examine how new Pirates progress through the game and make the experience even more awesome.
4. Back-end improvements. This is the not-nearly-as-flashy work like tools/backend upgrades and parity in functionality between Wizard101 and Pirate101: this is the stuff Pirates won’t see but pays dividends in future updates, things that let us fulfill the other three objectives into the future.

As we wrap up here, let’s tackle a big question. The Pirate101 community has been worried for a couple of years that the game might be dying. Does this new Sinbad update, and the Steam launch, indicate that the Pirate101 team might be dedicating more time or resources to the game for the long term?

[Leah] KI: We believe Pirate101 has untapped potential, and our goal is to expand our development efforts, letting the game grow with success. Some new hires over the last year and a renewed focus for some existing folks let us dust off the pipeline, and have let us resume regular Pirate101 updates. As more Pirates join the community, we’ll be able to devote even more resources. If we prove the theory we all believe – Pirate101 is an amazing game that just needs more Pirates – the amount of content and frequency of updates will increase in the future. To that end, with our Steam launch we’re also resuming regular marketing campaigns to bring new and returning Pirates to the game to see what the existing community knows and loves.

As excited as I am for Steam and this Sinbad update, the future is even more promising.

A special thank  you to the Pirate101 team for answering our questions! Remember to wishlist and download Pirate101 on Steam.