Questions & Answers

General Questions

What is Haven & Hearth?

An online game. Please check the about page for further details.

I can't play it. What's wrong?

The game client is written in Java and you might have to install the JRE manually (follow the link). For other problems, there is a Bug Forum.

Technical Questions

What are the system requirements?

We have not ran any tests.

Your homepage is written in really neat XHTML. What program did you use? FrontPage? Dreamweaver?

Exclusively EMACS and vi. (I use Notepad++! /jorb)

I've found a bug! How can I report it?

A critical client side bug will, hopefully, be automatically reported by Java's built in error report. For all other eventualities, there is a Bug Forum.

Can I install the game client on my computer?

Of course! Note that you still need to have Java installed to be able to use the link.

Where can I get the client source code?

See the source code README file.

Game Development Questions

I hear bots are a problem in this game, so why don't you ban them?

We get this question a lot, as well as the related question...

And, also, why don't you ban custom clients while you're at it?

... and the short answer to both those questions is that we can't. Bots and custom clients are both, in the philosophical fundamental of things, only means of generating server input, and as long as the server input they generate is technically legal, there is very little about it that stands out as being obvious and easy targets for anything resembling a "ban". Bots and custom clients are, in short, hard to impossible to meaningfully detect, and the means of detection can usually be circumvented.

... but all other games ban bots?

They may be trying to. Whether their efforts match the results is another matter entirely.

... so what's your take on them, then?

Our philosophy has been, and remains, that we – rather than spend our time fighting losing battles – should focus on building a better game with fewer incentives to bot. We try to take botting as a sign of a broken game mechanic, rather than as a sign of broken players.

... and what about the custom clients, again?

We feel strongly that the design of coherent and optimally functional user interfaces – what the client fundamentally is – leaves plenty of room for personal tastes. No one size fits all, and if you're unhappy with the standard size we provide, we take no issue with you retooling it to suit your own preferences.

My dog ate my character. U resurrect pl0x?

No.

Questions About Us

Who are you?

Two Swedish university dropouts, Fredrik Tolf and Björn Johannessen, who decided to create a game to our liking in our spare time while we were still Swedish university students. This lead to a wild ride of varying game development spanning over eight years and three projects, until we arrived at this junction where we now find ourselves. We hope you will like it.

No, not you. I mean, what's your organization like?

There's just the two of us. We operate under the company name Seatribe.

How can I contact you?

Try the forum, but do note that you need an account in order to use it. We are jorb (Björn) and loftar (Fredrik) respectively.