Good stuff - I've been looking forward to finding more out about this project. I look forward to trying it out and giving feedback.

And thanks for providing an OS X version, although the rmb-to-move doesn't work for me on my PowerBook where right-click is by ctrl+mb. Is there an alternative input to trigger moving forwards?

Sorry Matthew -- there is no alternative input for moving forwards. Can you wrangle up a 2-button mouse anywhere? I was hoping most mac gamers would have 2 button mice in general. I might be able to release a new version in a few days that offers an alternative to right-clicking.

Ok Jeff, I'll give it a try at work for now. If you do release a new version cursor key control would be great.

(+1 for the startup image - that steak looks perfectly done to me :) )

ok, I'll try to get a new version out soon with cursor key control. When you say "cursor key" do you mean the arrow keys? Just want to make sure.

Yep, I meant arrow keys. Thanks for considering making the addition.

Matthew, Have you tried Apple+LMB as RMB? I have several SDL based apps on my MacBook where that works just fine. Not sure if it is SDL thing or Mac thing.

Ok, the first pilot test went Ok! I'm going to run two more stress tests tonight at 9pm EST AND 9pm PST. Let's get as many people online together as we can. Thanks!!

Arg ! I missed the pilot test ! :(

That's not exactly my timezone , but I'll try to get online tonight :)
Anyway, I'll play (and force my friends to play) till I (and they) die ! (or not)

Hope it will help.

Thanks Gabriel! The servers are running, so you are welcome to play any time that works for you (if the pilot test times don't). You just need 2 people on a server at once, so you could just recruit your friends at another time.

I plan to post a new version of the client with some minor tweaks later today (Thursday).

Mikko, yes I tried that combination with no luck I'm afraid.

I'll try to stay up for the stress test (difference time zone I'm afraid).

Well, a 'different' timezone anyway :).

Sorry I missed the announcement last night! I'll definitely be playtesting this evening as much as I can, and spreading the word far and wide in the meantime.

Jeff, have you considered contacting gamasutra.com and asking them to announce it? I'm betting they'd be willing to add a quick news item announcing it once you're ready for that number of users.

Paul -- Good idea. I do plan to contact gamasutra soon. I'm just making sure all of the kinks are worked out before spreading the word more widely.

Matthew & Gabriel -- I have implemented arrow key control of the character and will post theRestaurant-v1.1 within the next few hours.

EDIT -- unfortunately, the Restaurant Game will not run on Intel Macs in OSX. It crashes when any key is pressed. It runs fine on Intel Macs through windowsXP either thru Boot Camp or Parallels.

Ok, people with 1-button mice, rejoice! I have posted v1.1 that enables arrow key control. get it at http://www.media.mit.edu/~jorkin/restaurant

when i try to register after the tutorial, my @-sign appears to be unabled in the interface which makes it impossible to sign-up.

Eric, sorry to hear that. This sounds like it might be a problem with an international keyboard? I have not heard of this problem before. You could try different character keys to find the @. Or try temporarily setting your OS to different nationality's keyboard layout. I will look into this issue.