developer founded december 2007 2007 12 headquarters san rafael california key people ralf knoesel matt small products hydro thunder hurricane riptide gp website www.vectorunit.com vector unit is a video game developer founded in december 2007 by ralf knoesel and matt small . the company is best known for its title hydro thunder hurricane released on the xbox 360 via xbox live arcade in 2010 . contents 1 history 2 technology 3 games developed 4 references 5 external links history edit vector unit was founded in december 2007 by ralf knoesel and matt small . the two originally worked together on blood wake at stormfront studios . 1 following blood wake small took a job with ea redwood shores . knoesel and small kept in contact and started a small side project . one night small received a message from knoesel which read so i ve been having these thoughts ... about quitting and doing the small games thing . 2 the two decided to quit their job and begin their studio . 2 vector unit was incorporated january 28 2008 . 3 although officially the company consists of only two employees a team of five contractors were brought in to complete their first title hydro thunder hurricane . 4 creative director matt small was interviewed on the difficulties off starting a new company by gamasutra in april 2010 . 4 small noted that with a small team members are required to take on multiple roles . you get to choose at least 80 percent of the time which hats you wear and then sometimes you end up forced into wearing a particular hat . 4 technology edit vector unit uses a proprietary engine known as the vector engine to develop their games . 5 the engine allows for real time baking of assets ; when assets are first run in the game they are optimized for that particular platform . visual scripting is used to allow editors to write scripted events without a comprehensive understanding of code . 5 fmod is used for audio and bullet physics library handles all in game physics . 2 3d models are created in maya and artists are able to see how the asset would look in game via a plugin . 2 level construction and placement of props are done in barracudaeditor the team s level design tool . during the development of hydro thunder hurricane vector unit maintained a pc build of the game which allowed artists and other team members to test their assets in game without moving to a xbox 360 debug kit . 2 games developed edit 2010 hydro thunder hurricane for xbox 360 via xbox live arcade windows 8 via windows store 2011 riptide gp for android ios blackberry 10 windows phone 2012 shine runner for android ios blackberry 10 windows phone 2012 beach buggy blitz for android ios blackberry 10 2013 riptide gp 2 for android ios blackberry 10 xbox one playstation 4 windows phone 2014 beach buggy racing for android ios xbox one playstation 4 windows phone 2016 riptide gp renegade for android ios xbox one playstation 4 windows 10 references edit small matt 2010 09 30 . the hydro thunder that wasn t . vector unit . retrieved 2010 10 23 . a b c d e small matt 2010 10 27 . postmortem vector unit s hydro thunder hurricane . gamasutra . retrieved 2010 10 28 . vector unit inc. . california businesses . retrieved 2010 12 28 . a b c remo chris 2010 04 01 . interview vector unit s small on starting a studio and reviving hydro thunder . gamasutra . retrieved 2010 12 27 . a b knoesel ralf 2010 10 27 . vector unit game engine . vector unit . retrieved 2010 12 27 . external links edit official website v t e thunder series games hydro thunder hurricane offroad thunder 4 wheel thunder arctic thunder companies kalisto entertainment midway games inland productions vector unit microsoft game studios retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title vector unit & oldid 731875526 categories american companies established in 2007video game companies of the united statesvideo game development companiescompanies based in san rafael californiatechnology companies established in 2007 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages edit links this page was last modified on 28 july 2016 at 02 25 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view