Terrarium Lives! - .NET Terrarium 2.0 now on CodePlex

CodePlex - .NET Terrarium 2.0

“Welcome to the .NET Terrarium 2.0 project! Terrarium was created by members of the .NET Framework team in the .NET Framework 1.0 timeframe and was used initially as an internal test application. At conferences and via online chats, Terrarium provided a great way for developers to learn about the new .NET programming model and languages as they developed creatures and introduced them into a peer-to-peer ecosystem.

 

The Windows SDK team evolved the game in the .NET Framework 2.0 timeframe, but we haven't worked on it for over two years. As a result, the source code for Terrarium 2.0 doesn’t use the very latest .NET technologies. By making the source code available, we hope to provide a fun and interesting opportunity to learn about and use the latest advances in the .NET Framework.

In Terrarium, you can create herbivores, carnivores, or plants and then introduce them into a peer-to-peer, networked ecosystem where they complete for survival. Terrarium demonstrates some of the features of the .NET Framework, including Windows Forms integration with DirectX®; XML Web services; support for peer-to-peer networking; support for multiple programming languages; the capability to update smart client, or Windows-based, applications via a remote Web server; and the evidence-based and code access security infrastructure.” [Project Description leached in full]

Fear and Loathing - Reintroducing Terrarium, now with 2.0 goodness!

“To skip to the chase… http://www.codeplex.com/terrarium2

Origins

A long time ago, on a development team far, far, away, some bright dude (or dudette) came up with the idea of Terrarium.

Terrarium was a .NET 1.x game/learning tool that was aimed at getting people interested in .NET and building cool stuff. In Terrarium, you can create herbivores, carnivores, or plants and then introduce them into a peer-to-peer, networked ecosystem where they complete for survival. Terrarium demonstrates some of the features of the .NET Framework, including Windows Forms integration with DirectX®; XML Web services; support for peer-to-peer networking; support for multiple programming languages; the capability to update smart client, or Windows-based, applications via a remote Web server; and the evidence-based and code access security infrastructure.

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Credit where credit is due

While this was my labour of love the past couple of months, I really want to thank everyone involved from the Microsoft side in getting this project going. Shout outs especially to Lisa from the Windows SDK team who’s become my best friend over the past couple of months and really got things moving on the MS side. Without her the Ark would still be boxed up somewhere in that warehouse.

Communities are not created, they’re grown and it takes time. I’m taking a chance on this project (as is Microsoft) in the hopes that it *will* spark some creativity and contribution. The discussion forums on CodePlex are there to talk about it and the Issue Tracker is to suggest features and report bugs. Who knows, given time to grow, we may be talking about this same time next year with a plethora of Terrarium resources out there. At least that would be a nice place to be and it can happen with you.

So there you go. Have at it. Build some creatures, learn some .NET and game programming, but above all… have fun!”

OMG, it lives! I’m sure many .Net old timers remember Terrarium. I remember playing with it in the Labs at PDC 2001 and always thought it was pretty darn cool. Sure it’s not Spore, but hey, at least this has shipped and we get the source for it!  :)

Make sure you go to Bil’s blog post about it as he talks the past, present and future of Terrarium. Congrats to Bil Simser and team for getting this out.

(via Twitter – Tweet:Terrarium 2.0 released to the wild. Let the creature creation begin (again). http://is.gd/UG0)