Archive for September, 2014

In 2011, Dan hired two developers to begin work from the ground up on a new Universe Sandbox.  By 2012, the team had added two developers, and the demo they showed that summer in Amsterdam at the Unite conference was impressive and promising.

A few weeks ago, PAX Prime finally let us deliver on that promise.  We’re now a team of seven developers, and we’ve been working on Universe Sandbox ² for almost three years… There is nothing more thrilling than seeing eyes light up and jaws drop at the sight of a molten Moon inching its way toward an unsuspecting Earth. Yes, jaws dropped.

“And it’s all simulated in realtime using real physics,” we’d mention, though few peeled their eyes away from our planet’s destruction. Understandable; it does look pretty cool.

But those who stopped by our booth weren’t just impressed with the cosmic eye candy. We had plenty of astronomy and physics buffs swing by who were eager to discuss the data and mechanics behind it all. Of course, that’s what gets us excited, too.

In short, PAX was exhausting, exciting, and above all inspiring. Having a space in the Indie MEGABOOTH reminded us all that we’re part of an incredibly supportive and energizing community.

While not all of us were able to attend, we hope to get the whole team together again soon so everyone can experience firsthand our fans’ reactions. It truly is great seeing others express as much enthusiasm as we do for our unique simulator.

Fortunately, there’s plenty of time for showing off in the future. We are still in alpha. There’s a lot of work to do.  Demoing for four days also revealed some issues, but it also made us all the more excited to continue fixing and improving. We look forward to making Universe Sandbox ² the best it can be.