This one was a little hidden away on sister site Gamasutra, so I'm happy to point at it - Alistair Wallis' latest in his awesome-o 'Playing Catch-Up' column ends up talking to Castle of the Winds creator Rick Saada.

The thing I like about 'Playing Catch-Up' is that I enjoy reading the column even when I don't know much about the game in question (as occured this week!), and it turns out Saada's game was part of the shareware halcyon days: he "...had been planning to use the shareware model, he notes, though was inspired what he refers to as the “sequelware” model, where a shareware game would be quickly followed by a commercial sequel – used at the time by id Software’s Wolfenstein 3D. Saada briefly thought about releasing the game himself, but reconsidered when approached by Epic MegaGames founder Tim Sweeney."

Nowadays, he joined up with Flying Lab Software, working on a game concept that ""...would eventually develop into Pirates of the Burning Sea, an MMO set in the Caribbean in 1720 that combines ship combat with the ability for players to explore sea and land areas. “It's been several years of steady work and growth,” says Saada, “and at this point we've got over 50 people pushing towards a June release.”" Interesting!