Petronic Arts – Idea to Reality

This morning I put Solo Pong on the Android Market, after registering as an Android Developer under the name Petronic Arts yesterday.  Petronic Arts has been a “company” a long time in the making.  Dating back to my 6th grade year in fact.  6th grade was when I started writing software.  I felt that I would make millions a lot faster writing epic video games than making websites.  Unfortunately it hasn’t happened yet in either medium.

Anyway, in 6th grade I formed Xenex Games with Michael Betz, a good friend of mine and very talented composer.  You can sample some of his work here.   Anyway, we started learning how to program in Blitz Basic.  Before long we had a “falling out,” or as much of a falling out as 6th graders could have within their small business (we stayed great friends.)  He moved to music and I stuck with software.  There was no way that either of us had the rights to the whole company, so new ones needed to be formed.  With that I started using the name Petronic Arts.  The logos associated with Petronic Arts were used the most heavily during my development on the Microsoft Zune with Arcade Classics.  However, I released everything under my name instead of hiding behind a company front.

When I started thinking heavily about putting Solo Pong on the market, I had to pick a name once and for all.  Throughout the process, these were the names that I considered the most:

  • Tornado Software
  • Vortex
  • Intelliware
  • Tornquist Software
  • Petronic Arts
  • Pancakes and Waffles
  • Sheltered Byte
  • SquareFish
  • Antorn Technologies
  • Dynamic Design
  • Xenex Games
  • Bits and Bytes
  • Nathan Tornquist Technologies
  • Tornquist Design

Some of the names were taken, and some didn’t really feel right to me, but I considered them all nonetheless. The hardest part of the process was deciding if I should use my own name/variation of, or if I should try to create a brand.  After reading tons of “official” reports I learned that it really didn’t matter.  The product did most of the defining, which just made my choice harder.  There was nothing I could just default to. Nothing except Petronic Arts of course.  The company that I started years ago and have used as a username (Petron) on numerous forums, has finally turned into something real.  This certainly isn’t anything that a 6th grade Nathan Tornquist would have expected, although I did have grand dreams.

Over the past seven years I have released countless small indie projects online, but this is the first application that is available to a wider market.  For the first time you will not have to install development tools to run my software.  And with that, I introduce you all to Solo Pong, a game by Petronic Arts.  Enjoy.

Nathan

2012
02/15
CATEGORY
Thought
Write comment

Solo Pong

With all of the time I’ve been dumping into learning the Android APIs and Java, I decided that it was time for a bigger project. Bringing back “Super Fun Saturday Programming Time,” I spent all Saturday morning locked in a dark dorm room under the premise that I could leave when the game was done.

Because I’ve built Solo Pong a couple of times before for other platforms, it wasn’t too bad. This version is more complete than any of the others though. The accelerometer changes how the ball reacts, the graphics are a bit better, and overall the motion of the ball is much smoother. The coolest part is that it is on Android though. I suppose this marks my first real Android game, and the first full game I’ve written in over two years. Getting a job as a programmer really made it hard to do recreational coding.

I haven’t decided what to do with the game yet. It works very well on my phone, and the way I built it, it should automatically adjust to different screen sizes and work on most phones, but then again, I haven’t really done any testing. I am going to look into the Android Market and see what the general costs and legal aspects of getting a game on there are. If I can put a game up and still release my source code without any security issues, I’ll do that. I don’t see anyone hacking phones through pong clones, but I don’t know what the rules are.

Essentially the game is pong, but all four sides have paddles, and you play alone. Opposite paddles move in opposite directions, you can move multiple paddles at once, the game saves and works with all major Android events, and there are photos and a video below. Enjoy.

-Nathan

2012
01/29
CATEGORY
Code
Write comment

The Key to Vanishing Software

As I’ve been fiddling with Android programming, I keep seeing software vanish from my “My Apps Folder.” Specifically my new projects. I became convinced that certain development settings didn’t actually install my application on the phone. Today I learned that I was very wrong. I kept overwriting my applications with new, completely different programs. I misunderstood the purpose of namespace, and was using com.tornquist.nathan for every single application. With the standard environment I’ve set up, the filenames between projects were identical and old projects were overwritten every time I pushed a new project with the same files. So remember kids, use different namespaces for every program. They actually matter.

More can be read here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8991658/your-package-namespace-what-should-it-be-changed-to

-Nathan

2012
01/27
CATEGORY
Code
Thought
Write comment