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News in: Software Development


Oct 14, 2023

A tortoise pivot

With the Go airline about to cross over into the Asian market and the release of the open source Shimari Extension this summer, it feels like Mirth Turtle is on the cusp of explosive success. But just in case any VCs are hovering, it's pragmatic to have a pivot planned and ready. Luckily, there's an adjacent animal from which to execute such a maneuver: the esteemed tortoise.

This fall, a new branch of the business is taking shape. Focused on live coding, open source software, and supporting shareware authors from days past, Source Tortoise Software is almost here to diversify the animal line-up. Keep an eye on the Twitch channel for the inaugural broadcast, and let me know if you think of any more shelled creatures I can incorporate into the project.

Speaking of incorporation, Mirth Turtle corped up this summer, which means I'm now obligated to multiple classes of shareholders! To prevent me from being removed as CEO in disgrace, please help the company earn profits by investing in a Mirth Turtle membership. The lifetime option is most prestigious, but now there's a monthly option too, if you needed a reason to put a 🐢 into your monthly budget spreadsheet. Because let's be honest – we all need more animals in our financial documents.




May 29, 2021

Fresh new jams

Happy Spring... I've been doing some polishing on a new release: a music jukebox that plays a collection of my favourite Amiga MODs.

Personally, I've found it provides good background music for focused work – plus, you can tune the pitch and tempo to exactly what you need for the task at hand. Give it a try.




Oct 17, 2020

New Go software

If you're a Go player, have I got news for you – I built some training software! Share your games, track your successes and missteps, and see how your training is helping.

And if you don't know how to play Go already, you can also learn from scratch.




Feb 26, 2020

Big things on the horizon

With springtime just around the corner, I've been working hard on upgrading the sites and getting ready for my next big project. SPOILERS: it's Go-related.

If you play Go, you're going to love it, and if you don't play Go yet, maybe it'll convince you to give it a try.

In April, I'll be exhibiting at the Spring Geequinox again, and I'll likely have something to show you by then, as well as a few more suprises.

EDIT: Geequinox is unlikely to happen but the title ended up being pretty accurate.




Aug 8, 2018

Still More Interactive Fiction

Long-time fans may remember Diamond Find, my massive text-based diamond-locating simulator. Even longer-time fans (basically just my family at this point) might remember that I once put out a book called Gray which is, I have to say, my worst, and thankfully out-of-print.

Long story short, I wrote a sequel to Gray using the Diamond Find engine!

I'd originally planned to fix Gray and release them both at once, but in the end it wasn't worth it. Anyway, The Calico Brief is finally ready to play. It's far better than Gray ever was, and you don't need to have read the book to understand what's going on. It's... probably better if you haven't.




Jul 29, 2017

A webstore upgrade

This was a long time coming, but I made some upgrades to this very eBook store. Now there are specific pages for each eBook, featuring 3D representations of the books themselves with samples you can flip through! We're living in the future.

Things are also looking slightly better, which I'm hoping will improve sales. SPEAKING OF SALES, there is a discount if you buy Ghostcrime and Snapback Vol. 1 together. Do it. Come on.

You also might notice the new Digital Popularity Indexes above. These give you valuable real-time business insight into my digital publishing operation. Data, it's said, drives success.




Aug 16, 2016

New tie-in for Ghostcrime!

These days, you might expect a tech-savvy (or well-funded) novelist to release a tie-in game along with their new book. While I've got a game in the works to go with the re-release of my cat thriller Gray, I'm going a slightly different direction with Ghostcrime.

The first difference you'll notice is that I'm only doing this now, and I released Ghostcrime a good 10 months ago. Listen, I had other stuff going on, okay? I hadn't even built the eBook store yet.

But also, instead of a tie-in game, I've built a tie-in CRM!

This application keeps track of your contacts, your obligations to them, upcoming meetings, and recurring tasks you need to remember. It also keeps track of all the books you're reading right now and ideas you've had, nudging you to complete them when you'd ordinarily go do something else, like watch TV.

Now, unlike the sad protagonist of Ghostcrime, you can sort your life out with technology's help! It's called ghostCRM.

That's the joke.




Aug 29, 2014

FractalFic launched!

Yes, the waiting is finally over. Tired of not collaborating with others on pieces of writing? Maybe you've always wanted to make an interactive story, but never had much time to invest in learning a scripting language. Or you might just want to play some free games. Whatever the case, FractalFic is now live and satisfies all interactive fiction needs! Well, most, anyway. I'm still adding features.




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