I finally bit the bullet and took the time to create an actual company. At the moment my focus is on getting the word out about Arrival so any other entity, including a company name, has been secondary. Here it is: www.vivosinteractive.com. Not much there at the moment but we are now official.
–Josh
We have some awesome ideas for our first iPhone game. Looking at the design doc, I can’t wait to play it myself! We have received some conceptual art that is absolutely breath taking. This artist has been able to really capture our idea for the iPhone and produce over view maps and UI screens that are just what we were looking for. Our team is expanding to include more 2D and 3D artists who will really be able to assist us in developing our games.
My time has been divided between actively looking for new team members, learning the Unity game engine, working on the storyline/levels for our main game, Arrival, as well as going over the docs, artwork, and planning for the iPhone game. The kinks are being worked out and the story is really starting to take shape. I am finding that there are just really not enough hours in my day!! So much happening all at once!
Susan
I added a new section of the site today on historical information. I want to give a special thank you to Susan for doing an awesome job researching and assembling all the information. Here is the page:
http://www.arrivalgame.com/content/history.htm
I also fixed a bug on the site and worked a bit on performance. Unfortunately from what I can tell the real performance fix will be to switch to a new host. The fun never ends. 
No gameplay experiment this weekend, I hope to have something to show next weekend.
–Josh
To view the experiment, go here.
This was an experiment in how doable/fun/hard it would be to paint in an iPhone/Facebook game. I spent approx 5 hours on and decided to post the results publicly. The good news is painting works. The bad news, the performance degrades very quickly which may indicate I will not be able to use this for the iPhone or even Facebook.
I used some pre-made scripts as a timesaver. I am also learning Unity so the experiment has a dual purpose. I purchased this script:
http://www.lastbastiongames.com/middleware/decal/index.shtml
and implemented it for painting using the right mouse button (if you try it, first go to full screen when you right click, press ESC to exit full screen). It works but the FPS (frames per second) gets low pretty fast. On my system it was unusable once the number of decals reached approx 400. Which isn’t much if I want to use this for painting. I still think that decal renderer is nice and am sure I will find a use for it. It just wasn’t designed to be used as a painting application.
I also used code from the Unity forums to attempt a different method:
http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=15414
which worked but also had performance issues. For that one (use the left mouse button to see) it slows down significantly while you use it. At first you can slowly draw a shape and as you go it will get very jumpy.
I don’t recommend using the painting in this experiment for more than a few minutes or it could slow down your browser/computer.
There were a couple additional features I tried but they did not work today. I wanted to add a sound when the right mouse button was clicked but it would actually stop the painting from working and the sound didn’t play. The second issue was I wanted to have the painting working on a 3D model of a woman (you can see her in the background). The first method did work but the second would not work on her. In the interest of testing how it works (rather than determine how my model needs to be modified) I switched to a simple sphere and both painting methods then worked.
There is still a big question, would this actually be fun? If the painting was refined (so you don’t have to move so slowly) and the performance issues addressed I believe the answer would be yes. But without those issues fixed I can’t be 100% sure.
–Josh
My name is Susan Dobis and I have been involved in this project for about 11 months. I have spent a great deal of time researching and learning about the Taino people and have come to truly love this culture and their heritage. The Taino people were so very amazing and this game, at its core, is designed to allow you to experience, as a Taino woman, what it was like to live in this time period in the Caribbean. We really want to give you a taste of this forgotten culture in a way that is fun and exciting. My hope is that you will fall in love with these people and their culture, as I have, and will honor them by understanding the way they lived and appreciating the simpleness of their lives.
Annette saw me record a video… and has to be in one too. She gives her thoughts on the video game.
–Josh
We are very excited to have our core team expanding recently. We have been honored to have Roberto Borrero guiding us along this path almost from its start, truly a vast resource of knowledge who is willing to help us by answering questions and by imparting to us his heart for this people. Koa Feliciano has been awesome in providing photographs to help in the modeling of our characters and scenery. His photographs have inspired many of the stories you will see on our website and you will see this environment for yourself as you peruse his photos on our site. Steve Finney, our 3D modeler who has been involved in this project longer than I have, has made one of our characters come to life in a way that I never dreamed possible. We recently have been privileged to have Adam Helweh join us and he has already worked his magic with his graphic art skills. Josh Samuels, our fearless leader, has encouraged and inspired all of us. This has been his dream for many years and his excitement is contagious. A professional writer may be joining our team very soon and will fill in a huge gap in our areas of expertise. We could definitely use more team members, but it is very exciting to see key gaps filling in and progress in this project being made!
Susan Dobis
A quick video introducing myself and what we are doing here.
–Josh