Welcome new user!

It appears you have decided to join in the daunting task of Thrive's development, and if so you are in the right place. Below is a list of the different teams of the Thrive project. All the work of the project is delegated between the teams. When posting your application, make sure to mention which team(s) you would like to join. Navigate through the links to see the work currently being done by each team and how you can help.


The Teams

Welcome back to another Devblog guys, and potentially, the last one on this website!

Don't panic! The project is still alive and kicking. We've decided to transition our development forums over to (http://forum.revolutionarygamesstudio.com/) due to some of its added features and smoother interface. We're not archiving this forum for the time being. In fact it's not very clear what we are going to do with this forum right now. Obviously we have so much of our project's history here, and there are years of discussion hidden away in the various topics and subforums that we wouldn't want...

A lot has happened since the last devblog. And I think it's nigh time we looked back to reflect on what's been accomplished so far:

1. First and foremost, our latest release, v0.2.4, just came out a few days ago. With this release came the UI improvements we had been working towards for a while now, amongst various other features. If you haven't downloaded the game yet, check out our releases page here to give it a try. A new promotional trailer also showcases some gameplay footage from the latest release here.

Just note that this devblog is meant to elaborate the point made by the previous devblog.

As you have probably noticed by now, there have been some revisions to the structure of the forum, and primarily, the team. Several developers have discussed and decided to implement these changes, because we feel they are an improvement over what we had before.

What Changed and Why?

All new users begin as part of the usergroup "Users", which only allows posting in the Applications subforum (which used to...

As of a few days ago, we have begun to implement a new permissions structure that should help us with productivity as we continue to build microbe stages. The majority of the forums are now closed to new members, and only accessible to members who fall into the "developers" group. Previously, this group was accessible by obtaining a post count of 20, but now this has changed.
Admission to the "developers" group will now be based on an application process, the details of which are currently under scrutiny. The "introductions" subforum will be a space to provide...

Given my lackluster attendance on the forums here of late, it's difficult for me to say exactly how much has been going on in the latter half of this year. Since the last devblog, we've been making a lot of headway, and I'm quite pleased with the state of the project as it is now. However, if you download our latest release, you'll quickly find that it, ostensibly, is bafflingly incomplete.
Thrive has yet to become a game.
Despite this, I'm happy with where we're at. If you peel away the immediate simplicity of release 0.2.1, it becomes clear that the, if you will, cytoskeleton, of microbe...

Okay guys, here is my first Devblog to fulfill my responsibility as Strategy Team lead.

Finally I have procured some work to show for my efforts in conceptualizing the Strategy Mode. The Research Web is a pivotal component of post-sapience gameplay, as it is what drives your species forwards from the Awakening stage to their final steps into Ascension. Through a graphing program, I have managed to lay out the relationships of all the researches until the early Space Stage. The reason I haven't put a screenshot of it here is because it is too big and has too much detail, and would take...

Remember when I told you guys about our traffic flow? After that, I alluded to a record high, a weird spike in traffic we got one day that I couldn't explain. Well, we've hit another spike, and I can explain this one: reddit.

Spoiler:

I'll give...

As per usual, my updates have been timely and pertinent this year, and I hope you've all enjoyed the many posts I've made in the Devblog over the past 11 months. Since we're nearing the end of 2012, I have decided to issue yet another of the multitudinous 2012 Devblog entries to keep everyone up to speed. If these posts are becoming too frequent, please don't be shy in telling me to cut back the pace a little.

Dear FSM, I have been a rather subpar Team Lead this year, haven't I? Just as we're seeing the first glimmers of hope trickling in from our beloved programmers, I have for all...

I'm not one to celebrate the new year much- where I live, It just means four months of freezing weather and little daylight- but I'd like to take a look back at what we as a community have done in 2011, and peer forward into 2012. At times our project seems awash in uncertainty, and I think we might never reach our goals. It's at times like this when I stop to think about what Thrive has accomplished. Think of all that we've done this year...

-we've amassed an even larger following, and spread the word about our project in new places
-we've welcomed talented and intelligent new...

How many visitors would you think our forums get in a day? odds are, like me, you are underestimating.
A couple days ago I started tracking forum stats with google analytics, and this is what I've found after four days of tracking.

Spoiler:

Very interesting.

Dr Chilgood recently found something interesting. (originally posted on the PPG thread)

Dr_Chillgood wrote:

I've actually recently downloaded a program called space engine that procedural generates the universe. Before I continue I would like to make it clear that I don't intend for thrive to simply use this program. I wanted to bring it up because its an open source program, so if we want to work out our PPG we may want to consult the one programmer of space engine. If you do a quick google you should find...

In case you're just coming in now, we've finished evolution.






Has that sunk in yet? That's one of the biggest conceptual hurdles in the entire game, and we've nailed it down. Thanks to excellent teamwork and a it of inspiration, we have finished off an absolute monster. This leads us to some definite work, though. Since evolution is done, the only main concept that we have not yet completed, or even gotten a good start on, is the tech editor.

Which brings us to some questions that we've never really answered about the good old TE.

Does...

In case you're just arriving from a long leave, there's a slight bombshell you need to know.

NPC Auto-Evo might be solved.

Basically, I got a huge bout of inspiration while discussing Auto-evo, and realized that the natural world is in many ways analogous to a game of chess. From the movements of the pieces to the hierarchy of pawns and knights, there's just a lot there. Now, I really hope this method will work. But we have to make sure everything works first. So please, hit up the thread,...

Well, I don't have a to in the way of news for this Devblog, but I do have a lot to say. Bear with me, because I'm going to be dishing out a bit of work for everyone to do.

First off, the NE and Strategy mode are going great. Keen, Rex, and Alaska have been making great strides towards building the concepts there. Getting that all down packed smells of success, so keep up the good work on that.

Second, we've pretty much come to a conclusion on complex damage, and that is that we're not skipping it when we make the game the first time. Keen provided a strong argument as to...

Okay, so we recently came up with a concept for the economy section of the nation editor. This concept can now be found on the Wiki. I've been really rather excited about this, because it brings Strat Mode another step closer to reality. BUT! We need one more section for it to be finished. The ever-elusive Culture Section needs consolidation. We have ideas, now the Strat Mode Team wants a concept.

So, i call on everyone to keep the Culture Section in the back of their minds. If you have any ideas on how to bring the themes and cultural traits together, please head over to the

Our Biome contest has ended, and we did get a few submissions. Head on over and recommend any Biomes you really like for inclusion in the game.
Contest Page

Earlier this week, PCaddict was kind enough to set us up a Facebook Page. Now those of you who are on facebook can go and "like" it, or do so straight from our Portal page. That's right, we've gone social. Now on to important things...


AUTO-EVO LIVES
That's right, we've brought it back, with a lot of mixing and matching of concepts, and we've created a simple, yet dazzlingly useful group of solutions, which are using all sorts of...

I've come up with a general statement for how we need to handle things in the development of this game, which I like to call the "Manifesto of Simplicity"

Manifesto of Simplicity wrote:

If the player does not fully understand how a system works, we can simplify how the system works in the game.

This basically means that we can use people's general lack of encyclopedic knowledge to our advantage. If the average person...

Some of you might be aware now that you have been accepted as team leads. Team leads atre like min-mods and encyclopedias at the same time. They must moderate the section that they lead and be know everything about that section. Everybody, show your respect for the team leads, although respect is never a problem around these parts. Anyway, congratulations team leads. NOW START WRITING DEVBLOGS. That is all.

Uteen Had an excellent idea earlier this week, and he has dubbed it "sandbox mode". It's exactly...

We Made it to the Top 100

Cool.

Bashinerox wrote:

roadkillguy wrote:

..I didn't think about that..

I was really thinking about how easy it is to read lots of data from xml... and how easy it is for people to modify it.. wow.. nevermind!

You don't want video game persistence to be human-readable.

Think about it:

end-users...

So, this is the first wrap-up of how Strategy Mode and the Society Stages are coming along. It's also my first Devblog, so i hope it goes well and does what it needs to do.

The wiki has got quite a few articles on the Nation Editor and other mechanics that are helpful in this stage and mode. Here's some of the important links:

Strategy Mode

Nation Editor

Society Centres

Apart from the constant American vs British spelling of 'Centres' conflict, these mechanics are close to set in stone. The Military Centres and Military Squads concepts are...

Thrive has been nominated by the IndieDB staff as one of the top 50 hottest new or upcoming games of the year! It seems we're creating a lot more interest than we think, and we're really getting somewhere for a game that has yet to release a real playable prototype.
Please vote for us at our ModDB page.

If you haven't noticed, Our favorite lead programmer Bashinerox has been missing for a while. If you didn't notice that, it's fine because he has returned. Apparently, his interwebs was destroyed by a surge. But while he was away he had time to come up with some- dare I say genious- stuff for the creature editor. Check it out.
I feel a lot of the time I don't include some of the gems that come out of our discussions. So I've kept track of them.

You may have noticed that our site has gone under a few changes since the last devblog. We have an official frontpage now, which contains our very own IRC channel. I set up the widget, fireballs619 set up the channel, and Mibbit is providing the chat. Also, I've done a bit with the look of our site. I'm a busy man, but I will take care of:
- smaller thread logos
- new rg logo
soon enough.

On another note, xenopologist has set us up a nice Wiki to keep things organized on. I think it's a great idea, and I've already put up the current OE concept. Great work to Xenopologist...

We now have an official website for our studio, Revolutionary Games.

In case you missed it, we're totally legit now.
Yes, it has been decided that we are now Revolutionary Games, a studio completely dedicated to our project, Thrive. This is quite momentous, and I would like to congratulate our very own DragonEye4 for creating that name.

In other news, Pezzalis has been playing with a program called TerraGen and creating some great art with it that we will probably have in our background eventually. Check it out on the concept art thread.

I have been creating some art as well, and I am proud to announce that our game Now has an official...

Good morning everyone, it's 10 PM where I live, and I'm feeling great. Before I really get started, there's a few things I'd like to address:
1. No, I cannot fix this blog being huge. I apologise.
2. Yes, you can do all sorts of Belgium with the game. Make better threads, please.
3. If we don't know, we'll experiment when we have a prototype.

Okay, Noew that that's out of the way, I can get on with this.

We've been making lots of headway on our PE and PPG concepts, and roadkillguy and Bashi have been up to their armpits in code. Things are looking good for our...

Hello all! Sciocont here with the news for this time period, and it's been a good one.

You may have already found out that we have a blog now. I know blogs are very 2005, but it's the Devblog, deal with it. It's not innovative, but it gets the job done. You can't post topics here unless your name is scio, alaska, or poisson. or ADMIN.
While I was dicking around in the ADMIN panel, i took the time to open up a new forum section. It's called the Game Features section, but really it's just a giant bin...