Thor

Thor

Jason "Thor" Hall is the CEO of Pirate Software and the lead writer and developer of their games.

Early life

Before starting his own studio, Thor has worked at Blizzard Entertainment as an offensive security specialist and at Amazon Games Studio as a Python developer. During his time at Amazon Games, he was bought out by the US government to use his hacking skills to help secure power plants in the United States. Thor has attended DEF CON multiple times and has won three "Black Badgers", an indicator of high knowledge and proficiency in the hacking field.

At Pirate Software

The Breakfast Era

While working at Amazon Games, Thor has been developing indie games on the side. His first project, Champions of Breakfast, was a small shoot 'em up developed in GameMaker and published in just under a month. While it has not received tremendous success, it allowed Thor to acquire the necessary skills to develop and self-publish a video game, as well as learn the engine he chose to work with. During this time, Thor has also acquired Shaye, who would go on to work on Pirate Software's future projects as well.

The Heartbound Era

After finishing work on Champions of Breakfast, Thor has started work on an RPG known as Heartbound, which was a project he dreamt of making ever since he was a child. The original draft for Heartbound was a "choose-your-own-adventure" book, but it evolved into a more complete video game over time. Heartbound is also made in GameMaker, and, as of writing, is still being developed, available only in Early Access.

At one point, jacksepticeye has played an early build of Heartbound [1], which has brought Thor enough income to be able to quit corporate jobs and focus entirely on his work at Pirate Software.

The Future

After finishing Heartbound, Thor plans to work on a game called Kill the Moon (an action rouge-lite), as well as an as-of-yet-unnamed rhythm game. There is not much information available around any of these future projects.

Pets

• Business of ferrets
• Madagascar hissing cockroaches
• Giant wolf spider
• Meatball

Anatomical oddities

• Normal hands
• Switch tits
• Giant Spoon

Regular Phrases

• "Hello. My name is Thor. I've been in the gaming industry for 20 years. ..."
• "Goddamn you!"
• "It's really interesting."
• "[THING] is/are the worst." (usually in conjunction with things Thor hates)
• "The thing is is..."
• "Hafting" (instead of "having")
• "Goblins!"
• "What's wrong with you?"
• "Why are you like this?"
• "Who made you this way?"
• "You could be any other way!"
• "That's deeply horrifying!"
• "What in the name of Science!?"
• "In any case, ... Before I forget, I wanted to tell you: [someone] smells. Unfortunately. But it's true. Bye"

Gaming

Top 4 Games

These are games that Thor values highly, especially for their emotional impact, but not exclusively.

• Outer Wilds (art piece)
• Secret of Mana (nostalgia for old console games, esp. late 90's)
• Tunic (love letter to old hack and slash games)
• Beginner's Guide (for people who make stuff for others)

Streaming Games

The following games are in some way related to Thor's stream on twitch.

Playing

• Warhammer 40K: Darktide
• Monster Hunter Now
• No Man's Sky
• Etrian Odyssey
• Disco Elysium

Planned for Stream

• BIT.TRIP RERUNNER
• Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye
• Ashes of Creation
• Sea of Stars (currently bugged audio; maybe after it is fixed)
• Viewfinder
• The Looker

Mentioned/Unclear

• Lingo
• Control
• Graveyard Keeper
• Pizza Tower
• myhouse.wad
• Balatro
• COCOON
• The Room
• Witchfire

Played

Incomplete list of Thor's playthroughs on stream. Some of the games listed below may be found here.

• Baba Is You
• Antichamber
• OMORI
• Pikuniku
• New World
• Here Comes Niko!
• Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion
• Lost Ark
• DELTARUNE
• Stray (see The Bad Burrito Incident)
• Twelve Minutes
• Inscryption
• High on Life (see The Cranberry Juice Incident‎) (2022)
• Meet Your Maker
• TUNIC
• Diablo 4
• HiFi RUSH
• Hogwarts Legacy (2023)
• Hypnospace Outlaw
• Wayfinder (2023)
• The First Descendant
• Outer Wilds

Preferences

Love-Hate

• Internet
• Goblins

Loves

• Bugs (Both Insects/Entomology bugs and Software bugs, especially finding and fixing the latter)
• Puzzles
• Cryptography
• Burritos
• Licorice
• Fermentation
• Mushrooms
• Moons over My Hammy
• Tasteful noods (Ramen especially)
• Excel Spreadsheets
• Twitchy Looter-Shooters (but not Twitch)
• No Man's Sky (but not Sean Murray)
• His own voice

Hates

Actual depiction of Thor when talking about a thing he hates (circa 2023).

• Being called "Jason"
• Being called "James"
• Gamer Fuel
• Ads
• Bitcoins
• Boomer screenshots
• Scrum
• Todd Man's Sky (aka Starfield)
• Todd Howard
• Sean Murray
• Misused Words, including:
  • Bespoke
  • Cyber
  • Based
• Having a mustache
• Being bald
• Being wet
• Matthew Patrick from The Game Theorists
• Parasites
• Java
• Minecraft
• Minecraft mods
• Twitch
• Communal peeling
• Dognuts
• Chat M.D. (except when it helps them diagnose his nightshade/bell-pepper allergy.)
• Blockchains in Games
• Raid Shadow Legends
• Unity
• Onions
• 7

No strong feelings

• Zultralord (unknown)

See also

• Pirate Pass