Timeline

This is a time line of the history of Piga Software. All of these dates are in the Common Era (CE).



2004

 * August 12: Piga Software is founded by Hamish and Graham Wilson as "Piga Entertainment".
 * The first version of the Piga Software website is created by Graham and hosted by Fateback.
 * September: "Piga Entertainment" becomes Piga Software, reflecting the larger product range Piga is after.
 * Malcolm Wilson Multimedia creates the "Piga Software Theme".
 * Work is done on several adventure and similar type games, some written in Visual Basic and others written in HTML.
 * The first intended Piga Software program, a text editor, is finished but is not able to be uploaded. This is the beginning of a long standing problem of finding a file host.

2005

 * May: Graham first uses the shareware version of Game Maker 6.1.
 * June: Graham and Malcolm Wilson Multimedia complete Billy Bear, the first game of the Piga Windows Entertainment Pack.
 * Most of the games of the Piga Windows Entertainment Pack are first created (more in 2006).
 * This includes the inital basis for Piga's Thanksgiving Dinner Hunt and Piga's Pumpkin Carving.
 * Some simple first person shooter games drafts are made in Game Maker but are never released (more in 2006).
 * September: the Piga Software developers first play Age of Empires II: Gold Edition.

2006

 * January 1: Fedora Core 4 is first installed on Hamish's "Griffindor" computer.
 * Summer: Piga Software, Malcolm Wilson Multimedia, and the Brogo web comic begin working on a game together.
 * The original Free Empires project in Game Maker 6.1 for Microsoft Windows is begun.
 * October 30: Piga Software releases Donut Quest for Microsoft Windows, it was made in Game Maker 5.1.
 * Alongside the Microsoft Windows Free Empires project, many other prototype and design ideas for real time strategy games are created.
 * Work on an attempted early version of Windys is attempted in Game Maker but the project is eventually abandoned.

2007

 * March-April: Harry Rabbit's Easter Egg Hunt, the last game of the Piga Windows Entertainment Pack is created by Graham Wilson.
 * April: work on Free Empires is started for GNU/Linux, being made in Gambas.
 * May: the modern Piga Software Forum is created by Hamish, hosted by Forumer.
 * June 15: the first source release of Free Empires is released for GNU/Linux.
 * August 17: the PigaLore is created by Hamish and Graham, hosted by Wiki-Site.
 * October: Graham starts working on Piga Nation based of an original Game Maker-era idea called "Piga Government".
 * October 8: work was done on an inital Gambas version of Piga's Thanksgiving Dinner Hunt (Canadian Thanksgiving 2007).
 * October 25: Open Empires a third-party project inspired by, but with different goals from Free Empires is announced on the Piga Software Forum.
 * October 26: the original intended release date for the second Free Empires source release, the tenth anniversary of Age of Empires.
 * November 9: the second source release of Free Empires is released, it was delayed by upload problems.

2008

 * Piga Software begins to host information on its wiki to help other free software projects.
 * Febuary: Graham Wilson purchases the Dell Latitude D600 that is to known as "Snape" - preloaded with Windows XP.
 * March: development on Windys begins for GNU/Linux in Gambas; Fedora 8 and Gambas are installed on Snape.
 * March 24: Extreme Tux Racer and Free Empires become partner projects.
 * July 15: a mouse movement tech demo for Gambas Genie (Free Empires engine) is released.
 * Summer: Hamish and Graham begin creating the Gambas Examples - example programs and code to help Gambas programmers.
 * October 9: development begins on PigaVision under the name "XRandR-GTK".
 * October 27: development begins on Piga's Pumpkin Carving.
 * October 31: PigaVision and Piga's Pumpkin Carving are released.

2009

 * January 27: version of 1.2.0 of ''PigaVision is released.
 * April 18: development begins on Alexei: Part IX.
 * May: development begins on Lamp Refugee.
 * May 19: Alexei: Part IX is released after a month of development.
 * May 31: version 1.2.0 of Alexei: Part IX is released.
 * July 31: version 1.2.5 of Alexei: Part IX is released.
 * Summer: work begins on Alexei: Part XIII as a sequal to Part IX.
 * August 12: Windys is released in part to commemorate fifth anniversary of Piga Software.
 * September 1: version 1.2.0 of Windys is released.
 * October 26: the first Source Release of Lamp Refugee is completed.
 * October 27: work on version 1.5 of Piga's Pumpkin Carving begins.
 * October 31: version 1.5 of Piga's Pumpkin Carving is released.
 * December 25: Graham updates to Fedora 12 and installs Gambas 2 onto his machine.

2010

 * May 17: Hamish Wilson won the Linux Gaming News contest for his article on his efforts to get the Chzo Mythos more conveniently running on GNU/Linux and thus won a free copy of the GNU/Linux-compatible game Osmos.
 * June 30: version 1.2.8 of Alexei: Part IX is released.
 * August 15: Hamish releases his GNU/Linux binaries for the Chzo Mythos to the world; hosted by icculus.org.
 * August 26: Hamish releases an improved version of his builds as well as ones for 1213 and Adventures in A Galaxy of Fantabulous Wonderment.
 * August 14: Following the success of his Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw game binaries on icculus.org, Hamish requests a project area for Piga.
 * August 25: Ryan C. Gordon responds and sets out the initial framework for the Piga project area.
 * Summer: the initial idea of a preview release for Alexei: Part XIII is thought up.
 * October 7: Ryan C. Gordon, delayed by such matters as getting married, finishes setting up the new Piga project area.
 * October 11: work begins on what would become the final version of Piga's Thanksgiving Dinner Hunt (Canadian Thanksgiving 2010).
 * October 26: all Piga files are uploaded to the group's new icculus.org account as is a new draft of the website.
 * October 29: mention of the move makes it onto LinuxGames alongside a general community poll on project hosting.
 * October 31: the first new release on icculus.org is compelted in the form of version 2.0 of Piga's Pumpkin Carving.
 * November 21: work begins on gettting Piga's Thanksgiving Dinner Hunt ready for release.
 * November 25: Piga's Thanksgiving Dinner Hunt is made avaible for download (American Thanksgiving 2010).
 * December 4: initial work on Piga's Santa Drop Down is begun.
 * December 21: the push to complete Piga's Santa Drop Down is initiated.
 * December 25: Piga's Santa Drop Down is released.
 * December 29: development begins proper on Piga's New Years Dodge 'Em.

2011

 * Jaunary 1: the first preview release of Alexei: Part XIII is sent out.
 * January 2: the first version of Piga's New Years Dodge 'Em is released.
 * January 2: the base for the three new holiday games are documented as the Gambas Arcade Engine.
 * January 7: a bug fixing 1.2.0 version of Piga's Santa Drop Down is released.
 * January 28: the Free Empires website is brought over to icculus.org.
 * February 6: version 1.0.0 of DONKEY.GB is released; the first new addition to "Gambas Examples" in over two years.
 * March 11: the Free Empires project receives a new higher detail and more properly free content logo.
 * April 1: as an April Fool's Joke, Piga Software announces work on Piga's Thanksgiving Dinner REVENGE!.
 * May 8: the second source release of Lamp Refugee is released, after continual work each week (typically on Sunday) since January.
 * August 12: version 1.5.0 of Windys is sent out, updating the codebase to Gambas 2.x.
 * October 26: a "Terrain Model" technical demo for Gambas Genie is released.
 * November 11: the first version of Over the Top, exactly one year after the title was first prototyped.
 * December 25: version 1.5.0 of Piga's Santa Drop Down is released.
 * December 31: version 1.2.0 of Piga's New Years Dodge 'Em is released, the last Piga Software release based on Gambas 2.x.

2012

 * January 18: the Piga Software and Malcolm Wilson Multimedia websites purposely blanked their indexes for the day in solidarity with the wider Internet blackout protests against SOPA and PIPA.
 * March: Graham L. Wilson gets a new development laptop, named Nomad, replacing Snape in this capacity.
 * May 13: the first release of Soul Capture and the first source release of Childish Cannoneer are released; Hamish and Graham Wilson turn eighteen.
 * June 1:, Hamish Wilson launched a petition to protest the inclusion of Limbo in the Humble Indie Bundle V as a non-native binary via CrossOver, which got over 500 signatories within the first twenty days, and received the recognition of the Bundle staff.
 * Early July: a new wiki for Malcolm Wilson Multimedia is started, hosting Piga Software multimedia under the GFDL and CC BY-SA.
 * September 15: the second source release of Childish Cannoneer is released.
 * October 7: an attempt is made to create a release version of Piga Nation, but ultimately simply releases the latest development screenshot.
 * November 11: version 1.2.0 of Over the Top is released.
 * November: inspired by getting into anime, Graham steps up work on Piga Animator, making it a priority project.
 * December 19: Graham starts speculating at what becomes the basis for his unified Gambas 2D rendering system.
 * December: Graham steps up efforts on PS Tech, committing himself to learning OpenGL 2.1.

2013

 * March 31: version 2.0 of Soul Capture is released.
 * August 7: a new Gambas Genie technical demo is released showcasing "Isometric Projection".
 * October: the version of PigaLore hosted on Tropical Wikis is destroyed after an attempt to merge with Orain.
 * Work continues on PS Tech, Piga Animator and a development plan is devised for the next incarnation of Gambas Genie.
 * December: Hamish and Graham L. Wilson complete the MITx course 6.00.1x: Introduction to Computer Science and Programming Using Python, making them proficient in the Python programming language.

2014

 * January 31: after finally receiving confirmation as to the status of Tropical Wikis, Graham L. Wilson begins work on reviving it on Orain.
 * January: Graham formally outlines his present vision for his unified Gambas 2D rendering system, with the inclusion of array-based terrain.
 * February 16: while restoring PigaLore, Graham updates the Gambas Genie logo to a modern vector-based draft; Graham also declares the Piga Windows Entertainment Pack defunct, as he also did for the prospective 1.5 release of Donut Quest.
 * March 1: after five months down, and a reconstitution, PigaLore re-opens to the public on Orain.
 * August 12: Piga Software turns ten years old.
 * September 1: the example "Smooth Movement + Diagonals" is released, showing off the "third generation" of 2D graphic engines made in Gambas by Piga Software.

2015

 * June: work begins on the Gambas Projection Engine.
 * September: Orain is taken out by a cracker attack; PigaLore is down for over a year.

2016

 * December 14: PigaLore is finally revived on Miraheze.
 * December 24: version 2.0.0 of Piga's Santa Drop Down is released.
 * December 26: the restoration of PigaLore from the last Orain wiki dump is essentially completed.

2017

 * October: Graham begins a re-vamp of the Gambas Projection Engine.
 * December: Graham begins work on what became the Cutout Coliseum component of Piga Animator, generalizing the Gambas Performance System framework.

2018

 * March: Graham finishes work on allowing for adaptive tile refresh in the Gambas Tile System.
 * Graham re-writes the renderer for the Gambas Projection Engine to allow for more open spaces.