Unemployment prompts game designer to invent solar system app

Unemployment and motivation aren't usually two words that occupy the same sentence. The rise in job losses has made anxiety and depression more common, affecting those who have suddenly found themselves without a steady paycheck.

One unemployed game designer, Christopher Albeluhn, remains undeterred. With the extra time on his hands, he's created a solar system explorer app that will hopefully catch the attention of potential employers:

I have been in the video game industry for just over 7 years, and have worked on some great games with some amazing people, but life always throws the odd curve ball and i found myself unemployed. I needed to update my portfolio, so i began to create planet Earth in a video game engine as a simple test for a shader idea. It started out small, but quickly grew into a fully functioning solar system. I decided early on; If it were ever completed, that i would share it with the public. Every night i began making it bigger, better, and more of what I wanted to see in a space program.

Before i knew it, i had all 8 planets (I am SO sorry Pluto), the sun and the Asteroid belt. They all had correct rotations, orbits, locations and speeds; their moons, information regarding the planets and their facts. All of these were fine, but i wanted something more, so i added in the constellations, all 88 of them.

Albeluhn has worked on titles such as The Simpsons Game, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and Dead Rising 2. The demo for his new "The Solar System" app has gained nearly 75,000 views, and Albeluhn is accepting donations to help finish the project. He currently plans to launch a version for PC and then port it to iOS and Android, but he's also reached out to Steam to determine their interest:

The $8,000 is a goal, but not set in stone. Everything received through Indiegogo will be going straight towards the project, this isn’t only for the PC build though. Once everything is cleared by Epic, the project is complete and a distributor is found; I will be putting all remaining money into converting this to a format supported by the iPad and possibly iPhone. This will require more coding, and a lot of time. If the $8,000 isn’t reached, then less money will be available for porting it to iOS.

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[VentureBeat]