Tapping the Keg (Part 2)

Once I got over the shock of having so many beta users registered for the service I got back to work on the game - filled with a new sense of inspiration.

As the weeks drew on I struggled to find time to complete the game -juggling my time between between a family which had just grown with the addition of our first child, and a demanding full time job.

The inspiration quickly morphed into obligation - I need to get something out - there are people waiting for it! Little did I know that this sense of obligation would only grow after the system went live - eventually leading to it's downfall exactly 12 months after launch - but more of that later!

I recruited my fantastically creative wife to write all of the detailed descriptions of pubs, breweries and features (...hold on, I haven't even explained the game yet so that last sentence probably doesn't make much sense - not to worry, plenty of posts to explain all of that...). She was also one of my two alpha testers that rushed through the interface and found stacks of issues to fix before release. The other? A talented software architect from work that was a great source of ideas and inspiration during the development.

It was December 1, 1999 when I finally decided that Beermogul was "good enough". I made it available on the Internet, sent an announcement email to the beta registration list (now 400 strong), and cracked the top off a VB.

I watched the site with keen interest - refreshing my view of the database - it was only minutes before records started appearing.

People in the real world were creating virtual pubs and breweries in the game that I had been slaving over for 12 months - it was done (or so I thought).