The Great Branching

I’ve been meaning to do it for a long time, and finally got around to it: Third Helix is now hosted on its own server at http://www.third-helix.com. Update your bookmarks and RSS subscriptions accordingly.

Up until now, Third Helix has been hosted at WordPress.com. Technically, that means you were at http://thirdhelix.wordpress.com, even if you got here using the “real” domain name (which was previously a simple redirect). In other words, http://www.third-helix.com used to map to http://thirdhelix.wordpress.com, but not any more.

Now that I’m self-hosted, I’ll have more flexibility for what types of content can be published. WordPress.com blogs automatically filter out many types of web scripting; for example, it was previously impossible for me to embed a Unity Web Player in a blog post or page. I’ll also have control over the layout, theme, and visual style, so given some time, Third Helix will finally start to look a little less generic.

I’ve ported all content over to the new site, and all future updates will occur there. This site will remain up for a while at least, to catch outdated links and redirect people who had bookmarked or subscribed to http://thirdhelix.wordpress.com.

Let me know if you see anything funky.

Hello Again, I Bring Gifts

Oh hey. I found a blog.

As some of you are aware, I recently completed a move from Salt Lake City, UT to Austin, TX along with my team at LightBox Interactive. That move, along with certain (NDA-protected) requirements of our current project, have taken up a great deal of my attention and energy. But I’m finally getting settled here in this most impressive city of Austin, and working my way back toward a regular schedule that includes, once again, some time for Third Helix.

A lot of people do the “I’m not dead” post as if it will single-handedly revive their ailing blog… and the internet collectively rolls its eyes and unsubscribes. Not so, today, for I bring gifts!

About three months ago, just before the Austin move, I undertook a 48-hour rapid prototyping project in Unity, producing a game called Tear Down This Wall. Via Twitter, I spammed the internets with ongoing project updates, kind of like a live development journal, and incorporated the feedback from the #teardownthiswall conversation back into the prototype. It was a fun experiment in game design that ultimately yielded a game I’m pretty proud of.

Well today, finally, I’ve properly published Tear Down This Wall, and you can go play it right now. Not only that, but I’ve also written up a development retrospective and posted each successive build from the beginning of the project to the end, so you can see, and experience, exactly how the game progressed from build to build. That’s all featured on the new Tear Down This Wall page.

Now go! Your cannon awaits!

Page Restructure

A minor bit of site restructuring today. I consolidated some of the pages in the top nav bar: “Bloxx” and “Juno” now live together under Games, while “Gem Feeder” and “UT200X” now cohabitate Mods.

It’s a little pre-emptive cleanup in preparation for new projects.

New Content!

First and foremost, I’ve finally published my prototype shmup, Juno: Destroyer of Worlds. It’s a shmup with bullet-time. It’s just a proof-of-concept for that mechanic, but you may still find it interesting; and in any case, it’s been sitting on my hard drive for far too long with nobody but me able to see it, and that’s just a goddamn tragedy.

Also, I swept through the site and fixed up a bunch of errors, broken links, and formatting issues throughout. Most notably, the ugly-ass tables on the Soulbound page have been replaced with WordPress-friendly lists, so you don’t have to stab your eyes out with an ice pick to download my music any more. It’s my gift to you.

Now go forth and experience these bountious riches, and then leave me comments! I feed on comments. Arrr.

Major Content Update

As of today there are tabs for all of my past and current projects in the upper-right corner. Click these for project details, download links, media, and other good stuff. There’s lots of content up there!

Also, this site and blog are now directly accessible via http://www.third-helix.com.

Viva la Third Helix!