Sunday, March 04, 2007

GDC, Growing support team, and more

It's been a while since my last blog. An update on how things are going at Synapse Gaming is long overdue. It's a safe bet that when my blogs slow down I'm deep in the latest of Synapse Gaming's products and projects, and past few months were no exception.


GDC 2007

I'm representing Synapse Gaming at GDC again this year. I'll be around to meet up with existing partners, publishers, clients and contractors, and to make new acquaintances. I'm also available to talk about Synapse Gaming's technology, including helpful hints, tricks, undocumented hacks, and modifications. If you have any questions, want to talk-shop or just hangout - keep an eye out for me (the GG booth is a good place to catch me), or email/call me to setup a meeting: jkabus@synapsegaming.com

Make sure to check out the GarageGames booth to see a lot of our latest technology, including new TGEA tech demos, Torque X, Constructor, and possibly some other Torque based goodies. ;)




Synapse Gaming is always growing and looking for new members - we have a large team of talented developers that work with us on a contract basis. If you're interested in helping to develop the next generation of Synapse Gaming tools and technology, make sure to talk with me at GDC (if you're not going to GDC, email me).


Growing Support Team

You may have noticed a new face helping support the Torque Lighting System. In December Ross Kabus, known for his development work on the Synapse Gaming GID team (see my past plans for details), took over support of the TGE and TLK versions of the Torque Lighting System. Ross is now the Synapse Gaming contact for questions regarding lighting in these products.


Latest Disclosed Projects

Since my last post many new projects started, others completed development, and still others were released. It's always unfortunate that we can't talk about all of our work, but there's more than enough to cover already - besides I'm sure you'll hear about the rest soon enough. :)

Here's what we can talk about...

The Torque Lighting System

Over the past few months Synapse Gaming's lighting system (the Torque Lighting System) has been adopted by GG nearly across the board for their Torque based products. In that time we released the lighting system in TGE 1.5, TSE MS4, and then TGEA (the successor for TSE), and ported the lighting system to XNA for Torque X.

And all the while progress continues steadily on Constructor. We're currently working on a number of updates to the engines for Constructor compatibility, adding many advanced new features previously unavailable in Torque.




Custom Lighting System

We receive regular requests from companies interested in having Synapse Gaming customize the Torque Lighting System for their games, tools, and code packs. To better serve this need, we've developed a portfolio of frequently requested (though game specific) add-on technologies - all highly modular and a perfect match for our custom technology and support (for more information please contact us at: sales@synapsegaming.com).

Moving Forward

Work on our next generation of lighting tools and technology is well under way, though these projects are majorly "hush hush," I can say that the future of Indie lighting looks very bright indeed.


Closing Thoughts

Stefan Lundmark once told me that the time between my blogs was too long. I certainly agree, but I hope the content makes it worth the wait. :)

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone who shows up at GDC and says 'hi'!

Till next time,

-John Kabus
Synapse Gaming