The Origin of PeanutSoft


PeanutSoft was originally formed in 2009.  At the time, Robert was working on an iPhone game which never got released.  We named the company after our dog Peanut, a small orange and white Pomeranian that we had adopted, and whose caricature you see in our company logo.  Our pets have always been very important in our lives, and we tried several other potential company names all based around our pets, but ultimately decided on PeanutSoft.  The company is comprised of Robert and his wife Sheila.

Ten years later, around Thanksgiving 2019, Robert had various ideas for PlanetVRium.  He started tinkering with Unity and VR and was excited when he got his first “dot” in the sky based on astronomical positioning.  And then displaying all the stars of Orion (albeit slightly skewed due to math errors).  And then the lines connecting those stars.  From there expanding along multiple fronts to create the first version which finally released in April 2022.

Our dog, Peanut

 

 

COVID 19 didn’t help the situation.  Robert was working from home all day at his “real job” down in his basement home office, followed by all evening working on PlanetVRium.  Sometimes I was stuck 14-16 hours in the basement, eating lunch and dinner down at my desk.  At times the adrenaline kept me going when things were working well and I was “in the groove”.  I remember multiple nights  looking at the clock just before midnight and thinking “just one more quick fix”, and then there was another after that, and another … eventually realizing that is was nearly 3:00AM and I REALLY needed to get to bed.  And there was lots of frustration when seemingly simple things were not working as expected and I couldn’t leave my keyboard until I figured it out.   But there were also days or even weeks at a time where zero progress was made on PlanetVRium – I just had to get out of my office; I needed a break.  But finally, two and a half years after that first dot, we had something that was “good enough”, and worth sharing.

So PeanutSoft was re-formed in February 2022, when it was clear that releasing PlanetVRium would become a reality.  Robert continues to work on PlanetVRium; there is still so much more that he wants to add.  More features.  Additional “Visual Experiences” and better visuals for some of the existing ones.  There is plenty of material about space and the universe around us to choose from.  And at some point we will hopefully resurrect the iPhone game that we started 13 years ago, and get that out as well.  There is still nothing quite like it on the App Store, so there’s a chance it could be successful.  And then there’s always the “next game” after that.

On a personal front, we’ve already mentioned our pets.  Aside from that, we really enjoy camping, and we go several times every summer.  We get away from the city lights, and into the mountains where we live.  Robert is always looking at the night sky, or staring into the campfire, late into the night, every night.  But we still have not yet had a good view of the Milky Way, just a faint “cloud”, barely visible.  We also sometimes bring our ATVs and ride the mountain trails.  They have little cages on the back so we can bring our dogs with us wherever we go.  They get a little bounced around, but they seem to enjoy going with us; getting excited when we fire up the engines.

And we enjoy travelling.  We plan to go to Canada sometime in the near future to hopefully see the Aurora Borealis.  We love Hawaii; everything is so beautiful there: the landscape with all the flowers and foliage, hiking trails, waterfalls, sunrise and sunset, the ocean, boating and snorkeling, etc. with perfect weather every day.

So that’s who we are.  Just a simple, happy couple with our beloved pets.  And a personal passion for creating a high quality and enjoyable experience to share with others.