May 25, 2012

Good news/bad news situation here. The bad news is Higgs will be delayed just a bit. The release date is now June 8th, a week later than expected. So, huzzah for June 8th!

The good news is the reason for this delay. I’m adding some more features to Higgs. Thanks to the help of some great playtesters out there, I got some last-minute additions to the game. Ghost-like neutrinos… neutrino oscillation… and even particle decay are now in your future! I was trying to rush and get it all done in time, but I thought better of it. An extra week of work will let me go in to make some fun levels with these new mechanics (and make sure I didn’t break the game or anything!)

But since I still feel bad about the delay, here is a new tantalizing screenshot:

He’s up to date on all the haps

Man, secret agent Higgs is fun to draw…

-Andy

May 14, 2012

The whole world is after the elusive Higgs particle. Accelerators the size of cities are being used to create truly awesome concentrations of energy in a vast number of collisions. We’ve detected all the other particles of the Standard Model. Muons, quarks, neutrinos, the whole gambit. But not the Higgs. How is it avoiding detection?

Turns out, he doesn’t want to be found! In Agent Higgs you take the side of Higgs, keeping him hidden from view. Dodging the physicists of the world is no easy task! You need all your wits about you, and the steady hand of a secret agent to stay out of sight.

…

For even more information about my upcoming game, take a peek!

Where is he?

And if you haven’t yet noticed, I’m enjoying making Agent Higgs movie posters.

-Andy

May 11, 2012

Work is moving along smoothly for Agent Higgs. A big thanks to all the playtesters who are helping me find a bunch of problems in the game. Slowly but surely, levels are being added, graphics, redrawn, and bugs found.

I’m getting close enough, in fact, that I think it is time to set the release date: June 1st! (And just to keep me honest, I’ll clarrify: 2012)

That’s when Agent Higgs gets released into the wild, making it much more difficult for him to stay hidden.

-Andy

May 7, 2012

Thanks to the fine folks over at the xkcd fora, I’m happy to annouce I was wrong about the bullets in Velocity Raptor. I’m even happier to announce that the ‘measured’ bullets have been fixed.

They had been drawn in a way that slanted the bullets away from their true path. Given the argument outlined in April 30th’s post, I thought this was fine. I thought, in fact, it was a demonstration of the Thomas Rotation.

But it turns out this just wasn’t the case. The error in my thought process was that I had LEFT OUT the Thomas Rotation. Two boosts added together can make a boost + rotation. I thought the rotation sprang from my code naturally. But it didn’t. I needed to add that rotation in by hand.

Look how much happier Velocity Raptor is!

So thanks to everyone who brought it to my attention. The ‘measured’ bullets are now fixed in the game. Go enjoy the (now slightly-less) trippy world of Special Relativity.

-Andy