News and announcements from PeriodicGames http://forums.periodicgames.com/index.php Sun, 05 Sep 2010 04:13:09 +0000 10 http://forums.periodicgames.com/index.php?showtopic=1710

As anyone reading this probably has figured out by now, PG is no longer a popular place. I take full responsibility for this, as I have neglected it. To be perfectly honest, I lost all interest for quite some time. Now for an update.

Domain Knights v3
As a bit of reassurance, however, for those of you who play DK to this day - we're not going to take it down any time soon. It costs us very little, and we use the domain for other things. DK will live on for the foreseeable future. Resets will happen occasionally, as long as people continue to play.

Thallium
Development on Thallium has stopped, for the most part. I recently ported it from VB.NET to my new favorite language, C#. After this, I lost interest in the game, so it hasn't been touched much since then. A lot of the groundwork for the hardware system is in place, but we ran into a mucky mire when working on the software. That's where we're currently stuck. I hope to get the gumption to work on it again in the near future.

Chromium
I'll bring you up to speed on the whole project. Long, long ago at the beginning of time itself, I started work on a side project during the development of DK3. I wrote a physics engine to simulate drag racing. It was written in VBScript then, which still makes me shudder today. In its original form, it ran at nearly real-time, taking approximately 15 seconds to calculate a 14.5 second quarter-mile. We ran with that for a while, up until I learned VB.NET. Fast-forward to today, where the engine has a catchy name (RSpec), and is currently resting inside C# (after being ported to PHP at one point). What used to take 15 seconds to process now takes approximately 10 milliseconds at 120 fps. Due to a brilliant light-bulb moment on Gravity's part, the engine now uses a specialized system for storing torque data. I won't reveal any of his super-secret stuff, but there's a hint in my avatar.

With this system, the game started to be a possibility (before it was mainly a toy). We've invented methods for handling how parts affect the power of the engine and the weight balance of the vehicle. The entire game has been mapped out (concept-wise) and I've got a bit of desire to see it through. My plan is to hit it pretty hard before the release of Forza 3.

Due to the "complete" nature of the game concept, I'm not going to be opening the forums for that project. As much as I value all the input I usually get from the fine folks here, I need to avoid changing the game at all to keep myself on track. It's my problem, not yours!

I'll continue to update here on the forums as I progress, if for no other reason than to try to keep myself focused on the project.

Stay tuned,
- Alt]]> Thu, 01 Oct 2009 20:35:59 +0000 http://forums.periodicgames.com/index.php?showtopic=1710 http://forums.periodicgames.com/index.php?showtopic=1708 Forums have been updated to the latest version of the IP.Board software. Note that this is a pretty major upgrade, so the standard disclaimers about performance and appearance apply. Wed, 12 Aug 2009 18:46:27 +0000 http://forums.periodicgames.com/index.php?showtopic=1708 http://forums.periodicgames.com/index.php?showtopic=1706
*works 2 more jobs to get more UPSs*]]> Thu, 11 Jun 2009 23:01:31 +0000 http://forums.periodicgames.com/index.php?showtopic=1706 http://forums.periodicgames.com/index.php?showtopic=1701
Though I don't have much to really say this time around, I wanted to let everyone know that we haven't forgotten you. Both Grav and I have had issues with our lives lately, mostly related to finances. As you all know, the economy right now is pretty much a complete disaster, and it seems that no one is immune. Just keeping PG up and running has been looked at in an effort to pay the "gotta have them" bills. We have decided, however, that PG is just too important to us - so we're keeping it up and going, despite the financials.

On the game front, we apologize for not resetting DK sooner. We're going to make it up to you by having a SuperDK round. This means double the cycles. Enjoy.

On the project front, we are playing our cards pretty close to our chests. We've disappointed our users too many times in the past to do it again. I can tell you that we currently have three game projects in the mix. One is fairly active (and is subtly mentioned in my avatar - hehehe). This project is about 95% done on the design side. Development has started, but we're mired in a pretty big mathematical challenge right now (stuff that would make Jervinator proud). Once we nail that down, we'll be able to move forward pretty rapidly. The second project is in a state of hiatus. We hit it pretty hard for a while and nearly mopped up the design. It's on hold to give our brains a rest while we work on the first project. The third project is a new one brought to the table by Gravity. If we move forward, it'll be somewhat of a testbed of a few technologies that we're mulling around, similar to what Hydrogen was.

So, that's the world in which we live at the moment. Please enjoy this round of SuperDK!

Stay tuned,
- Alt]]> Fri, 02 Jan 2009 16:47:34 +0000 http://forums.periodicgames.com/index.php?showtopic=1701 http://forums.periodicgames.com/index.php?showtopic=1697
Please let us know if anything is wonky.

-Grav]]> Sat, 11 Oct 2008 04:23:20 +0000 http://forums.periodicgames.com/index.php?showtopic=1697 http://forums.periodicgames.com/index.php?showtopic=1694
-Grav]]> Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:38:11 +0000 http://forums.periodicgames.com/index.php?showtopic=1694 http://forums.periodicgames.com/index.php?showtopic=1693
Stay tuned...]]> Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:57:04 +0000 http://forums.periodicgames.com/index.php?showtopic=1693 http://forums.periodicgames.com/index.php?showtopic=1689
I've checked most of the systems and everything seems to be humming along normally.

-Grav]]> Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:36:50 +0000 http://forums.periodicgames.com/index.php?showtopic=1689 http://forums.periodicgames.com/index.php?showtopic=1677
Hydrogen is a test-bed and technology laboratory for PG developers to try new and advanced ways of building browser-based games. Hydrogen is extremely simple, but has helped us learn a few things on how to develop games properly.

Hydrogen features simple "gameplay" where the player chooses one of two colors. If they choose the same one as the software, they get points. Choose poorly, and they'll lose points. Score multipliers can be earned by getting multiple correct answers in a row. See how far up the leaderboards you can get!

You can try Hydrogen here: Hydrogen - A PeriodicGames Element]]> Tue, 08 Apr 2008 19:06:36 +0000 http://forums.periodicgames.com/index.php?showtopic=1677 http://forums.periodicgames.com/index.php?showtopic=1673
You can play the game here: http://tl.periodicgames.com/

I can't begin to express the relief I feel upon this release. With bleeding-edge technology, complex algorithms, and a hyper-advanced interface, Thallium will change the world of browser-based games!

Now, quit reading this and go play!]]> Tue, 01 Apr 2008 19:06:41 +0000 http://forums.periodicgames.com/index.php?showtopic=1673