As some of you are aware, I created a little game called Centripetal and had it up on the iPhone/iPad app store. Wait, don’t go trying to download it now. My former company, Phoenix Networking Group, who had rights to the game, has transferred those rights over to me. As a result, the game has been taken off of the app store.

“So what’s this about Centripetal 2, then?” you ask. Well put. I’m rebuilding Centripetal.

For starters, I’m going to be using the Unity Engine this time around. When I first developed Centripetal, I made use of cocos2d for iPhone for sprite management and object handling and box2d for the physics. I was focusing on iPhone (and eventually iPad) development so the fact that this arrangement tied me to these platforms wasn’t a showstopper. And to be clear they are very useful frameworks. But it did mean that some of my friends who do not use iOS devices were unable to play Centripetal.

I had discovered the Unity Engine some time ago and grabbed one of their free copies to tinker with but never really got into it. Recently I took the plunge, grabbed a tutorial, went through it and came out the other side not only impressed with Unity but also confident that I could make good use of it myself. I created a really simple game to become more comfortable with the editor, which I’ll have to post about some time, and then started working on concepts for other games I might pursue. In the back of my mind, I wondered about converting Centripetal but for a number of reasons I put that aside.

That has changed though. I’ve started rebuilding it for Unity, with the goal of making it available for more folks to play (yes Kris, I’m hoping you and the wife and kids will finally get a turn :). I also want to add more to it. Inasmuch as Centripetal represents my first polished and completed game, I know there was more that could have been done. I hope to do that with Centripetal 2.

I don’t imagine the new revision will make much more money, if any, than its predecessor but that’s not really the point. I want to make something fun and keep building on something that began as my own creative endeavour. I’m glad I’m getting that chance.