The Time Tribe

Production Blog

Posts tagged the time tribe

325 notes &

oldbookillustrations: Twelfth journey. Descent of the balloon Jean-Bart into the Seine, near Jumièges. From Histoire de mes ascensions (Story of my balloon ascents), by Gaston Tissandier, Paris, 1880. (Source: archive.org) We want to float into the Seine in a 19th century balloon, too. Really, really badly. Luckily, we can make that happen!

oldbookillustrations:

Twelfth journey. Descent of the balloon Jean-Bart into the Seine, near Jumièges.

From Histoire de mes ascensions (Story of my balloon ascents), by Gaston Tissandier, Paris, 1880.

(Source: archive.org)

We want to float into the Seine in a 19th century balloon, too. Really, really badly. Luckily, we can make that happen!

Filed under The Time Tribe

4 notes &

A CROSS IN THE SKY AND A SWORD IN THE STONE: Mysteries of the Abbey of San Galgano, Tuscany

The ruins of this religious house are perhaps most remarkable for the sword trapped in stone on the site. The abbey was built to honor 12th-century Tuscan nobleman Galgano Guidotti, who renounced his life of riches and retreated to this area to dedicate himself to a hermetic life of prayer. Legend holds that he smashed his sword against the rock as a symbol of breaking from old ways, but instead it plunged into the stone and held fast. Attempts to link the site to the legend of King Arthur continue to this day.

Filed under The Time Tribe archaeology legend Abbey San Galgano King Arthur Tuscany

0 notes &

MONDAY QUIZ - IN HONOR OF EARTH DAY

To mark Earth Day, this week’s MONDAY QUIZ takes us back to the first recorded human civilization, in Sumer, and gives us a glimpse into how its people reacted to a bona fide environmental crisis in their time. 

Sumerian civilization arose in the so-called “Fertile Crescent,” a wedge of land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, in modern Iraq, about 6,000 years ago.  If you’re thinking that’s not a particularly fertile area, you’re right. And it’s a problem that stretches back thousands of years.  The epic of Gilgamesh describes a curse laid on Sumer when their legendary hero-king, Gilgamesh, killed the forest guardian appointed by the gods, and cut down vast tracts of cedar forest to support his monumental building programs.  In return, the gods swore to destroy Sumeria with fire or drought.  

Indeed, by 2100 BCE, cuneiform tablets lament barren soil and ‘’earth turned white.’’  Gods or not, soil erosion from deforestation, combined with salt buildup from the intensive drainage and damming needed to support agriculture in the desert, had depressed agricultural output to critical levels, making the Akkadian conquest of the Sumerians ca 2000 BCE that much easier.  This was despite the efforts of lawmakers over roughly 700 years, in which they passed various laws seeking to protect the remaining forests in the region. 

THE QUESTION:  In what ancient city was the representation of the Sumerian forest guardian pinned to our pinterest page recovered?  

http://pinterest.com/thetimetribe/.  

All correct answers are in the running for 10 ingots!

Filed under Earth Day The Time Tribe Sumeria deforestation gilgamesh monday quiz environment myth

1 note &

GAME DEV THURSDAY - BETA NEWS! Hey Time Tribers, In large part thanks to you, our open beta phase has been really fantastic so far! Just take a look at the numbers. We’ve quickly built a committed user base through word-of-mouth, with no paid advertising, and you’ve been great at helping us identify sticking points in the game. Things are moving along nicely with development of the iPad version and a few new quests to tide you over, as we continue to seek the outside support we need to produce the rest of the episodes we’ve got up our sleeve.  There is one major change that we wanted to highlight particularly, as it affects many of you.  The pricing structure of The Time Tribe is changing.  Based on a combination of user feedback, logistical concerns, and App store regulations, we’ve decided to abandon the subscription model, and replace it with a simpler payment method using the in-game currency ingots for all paid content. The core of the introductory episode will remain free-to-play, with an extended version of that episode, and future episodes requiring a one-off payment in ingots. Ingots will still be used to buy other things in the game, such as Boons and premium Artifacts and Furnishings for your customizable Chamber in the Keep. The physical mailers, rather than being part of premium subscriptions, will now be sold individually in our online store. We think this system will be a lot less complicated for everyone, and heads off worries that we can’t deliver promised content as quickly as monthly subscribers would like.  Thanks for your patience and continued support. And stay tuned for exciting announcements about the iPad version and new quests in coming weeks!

GAME DEV THURSDAY - BETA NEWS!

Hey Time Tribers,

In large part thanks to you, our open beta phase has been really fantastic so far! Just take a look at the numbers.

We’ve quickly built a committed user base through word-of-mouth, with no paid advertising, and you’ve been great at helping us identify sticking points in the game. Things are moving along nicely with development of the iPad version and a few new quests to tide you over, as we continue to seek the outside support we need to produce the rest of the episodes we’ve got up our sleeve. 

There is one major change that we wanted to highlight particularly, as it affects many of you. 

The pricing structure of The Time Tribe is changing. 

Based on a combination of user feedback, logistical concerns, and App store regulations, we’ve decided to abandon the subscription model, and replace it with a simpler payment method using the in-game currency ingots for all paid content. The core of the introductory episode will remain free-to-play, with an extended version of that episode, and future episodes requiring a one-off payment in ingots. Ingots will still be used to buy other things in the game, such as Boons and premium Artifacts and Furnishings for your customizable Chamber in the Keep. The physical mailers, rather than being part of premium subscriptions, will now be sold individually in our online store.

We think this system will be a lot less complicated for everyone, and heads off worries that we can’t deliver promised content as quickly as monthly subscribers would like. 

Thanks for your patience and continued support. And stay tuned for exciting announcements about the iPad version and new quests in coming weeks!

Filed under The Time Tribe beta point-and-click-adventure time travel browser game ios subscriptions

2 notes &

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BUDDHA!

On this day practitioners of the “Mahayana” (literally “the Greater Ox-Cart”) tradition of Buddhism celebrate the birth of the Buddha, who lived in India sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE. Mahayana Buddhism is particularly prominent across North Asia, including China, Mongolia, Tibet, Korea, and Japan.

Marking a split from the more stringent “Theravadan” form of Buddhism (built on monastic discipline, scholarly attainment, and strict adherence to the scriptures of the Buddha), the Mayahana approach was intended to accommodate more believers from all walks of life. 

The most distinctive teaching of the Mahayana is that the great compassion that is an inherent component of enlightenment is manifest in bodhisattvas (enlightenment beings). These beings postpone nirvana (final enlightenment) in order to assist and guide those beings still suffering through the earthly cycle of rebirths.

Filed under The Time Tribe Mahayana Buddhism bodhisattvas