Piga Software

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Piga Software is a free software development group based in Alberta, Canada.

History[edit]

Formally established on August 12, 2004, the group first started out attempting to make free games for Windows in Visual Basic 6. ZZT games were also being made to supplement the Visual Basic ones, though the libre status of these would have been questionable prior to the release of reconstructed source code. From May 2005 to early 2007, they tried out several game projects in the popular game development tool Game Maker (versions 5 and 6.1). The group's first release was Donut Quest on October 30, 2006. It is a currently Windows-only free software arcade game set in the realm of the Brogo web comic.

In 2007, they moved development to Fedora GNU/Linux and Gambas. They rebooted their old Game Maker project, Free Empires, to develop an engine and then hopefully a series of free software historical real time strategy games based on the proprietary Age of Empires. Two source releases for the project's engine, Gambas Genie, were released that year. This project has since been re-worked into an original real-time strategy game design while retaining the historical theme.

In 2008, they released a television-out front-end utility called PigaVision and a free software amusement program called Piga's Pumpkin Carving, a title similar to the popular GNU/Linux desktop game Potato Guy. The group also released several Gambas code examples, many pertaining to gaming.

In 2009, they released the adventure game Alexei: Part IX and the retro arcade game Windys, as well as first release for a more complete Gambas Genie demo game called Lamp Refugee and an updated version of Pumpkin Carving.

On October 25, 2010, the Piga Software website and file hosting was moved over to icculus.org. This is the end of a long search starting in 2004 to find a host that provided reliable file hosting, and extensive and add-free web hosting.

The first new release was a third release for Pumpkin Carving. This was followed in November by Piga's Thanksgiving Dinner Hunt which is a mouse-based targeting game, in December by Piga's Santa Drop Down which is a timing game and in January 2011 with Piga's New Years Dodge 'Em which is a persistence game. Some further games are planned to be developed and all released together as the Piga Holiday Pack.On January 1, 2011, Piga also released a preview release featuring the first segment of what is to be Alexei: Part XIII', the sequel to Part IX. On May 8, 2011, though only fully on May 9, a second source release of Lamp Refugee was released, showcasing Gambas Genie 0.4.

Windys received a major bug fixing update on August 12, 2011, Thanksgiving Dinner Hunt was released again with updates on October 10th and was later followed by the latest Pumpkin Carving on October 31st. On October 26th, a technical demo was released for Gambas Genie showcasing a texture model utilizing texturing and tiling. On November 11, a new more unconventional holiday game was released for Remembrance/Veteran's Day called Over the Top. It features gameplay set in the trenches of the Western Front of the First World War.

The Piga Software Wiki was founded on August 17, 2007 using the Wiki-Site host. On April 26, 2011, a new version was launched on Tropical Wikis. This wiki was destroyed in late 2013 upon an attempted merging with Orain, but a new version was launched in March 1, 2014 rebuilt from partially archived data. Orain was taken out by a denial of service attack in September 2015, so the wiki was later relaunched on Miraheze on December 14, 2016. The group turned ten years old on August 12, 2014, commemorated with a write-up of their highlights and plans for the future.

After many years of behind the scenes engine research and development and attempted large scale projects, Piga Software returned to small game development via the LibreJam contests. They released Hull Breach in December 2020, Hedged in April 2021 (upgraded in June), Bring Them On in August 2021, Mosquito in December 2021, and ASCIIlization for June 2023. They released a scrolling shooter, Nightfall, for Halloween 2022, and another 3D maze game, Piga 3D Easter Egg Hunt, for Easter 2023. Their 2011 game Over The Top was re-written for the second version of the Gambas Arcade Engine in 2024 to mark Remembrance Day.

Other information[edit]

The group has many other projects, some using other languages such as QBasic, but they are quiet about most of their work as they feel this helps them design cohesive games without ruining the plots and designs by building them out in the open. What information they have released however is best found on their forums and wiki. Free Empires has been their most noted project so far.

Piga Software is ran by Hamish Wilson and Graham L. Wilson, two twin brothers. Graham serves as the head engine coder or technical director for most projects while Hamish handles a lot of the game design (Graham developed the Windys engine while Hamish created the levels). Hamish does however occasionally code his own game engines as well, such as Alexei's Gambas Adventure Engine.

Their older brother Malcolm Wilson has done audio work for Alexei: Part IX, composed the soundtracks for Donut Quest and Windys, and created graphics for Donut Quest, among other work. This is done under the name Malcolm Wilson Multimedia, his wider free content multimedia creation project. Their eldest brother, Iain Wilson, has also done work for Donut Quest and has worked on Windows ports of Alexei and Gambas Genie through Visual Basic.Net.

They have also written extensively on the subject on free software and GNU/Linux gaming on various sites and attempt to popularize both - citing that porting a game to GNU/Linux is a good first step to eventually freeing it. Their account on the Libregamewiki is User:Piga.

List of games[edit]

List of engines[edit]

External Links[edit]

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