Plan for Tim Gift

Getting ready to start the new year... I just got back from my Christmas vacation and though I probably won't get much work done in the next few days, I should be back up to speed by the end of the week.

The last few months have been pretty busy. I've been working mostly on the web site, making quite a few changes to the transaction/billing system and working on Ignition. Most of the site changes revolved around updates to the database, improved customer support features, integration of the Ignition system (product ownership records, key generation and management, etc) as well as changes to the home page, purchase order display, etc. While I was doing mostly "internal" online purchasing changes, Rick was putting the new face on the site, which is looking pretty good :) I worked on Marble Blast as well, though recently Mark was spearheading that while Rick and I got the web site ready. Getting it all the different parts to come together for the release was challenging :)

I'll be doing some scheduling over the next week, but my basic task list (in rough order) is as follows:

- Fix Marble Blast bugs
- Misc. updates to the Ignition system
- Finish up a number of misc. web site tasks
- Integrate Torque patches. This involves merging several Torque patches into the main cvs which were submitted to me a while ago.
- Integrate Torque Marble Blast changes. Merge misc. Marble Blast Torque changes into the main CVS. For me this includes some changes to the MilkShape exporter and the Torque's material property system. Mark has some changes to roll in as well.
- Misc. Torque updates. I'll be spending some time on the Torque engine doing misc. updates and cleanup. This includes changes to the vehicles physics that I've been playing with on the side as well as some improvements we'd like to make before starting on a new game project.
- Start on new game project. Work on a new game :)

This past few 4-5 months involved a fair amount of web site work for me, as well as work on Marble Blast and Ignition, and as a result I haven't spent much time on the Torque engine. With most of the web site done (for now), I'll basically be spending some time on the Torque engine before starting up a new game. I expect that our basic development cycle (barring web work) will be:

- Work on upgrading the Torque
- Branch off and work on a small game
- Publish game / fix bugs, etc.
- Roll general changes/fixes from the game back into the main Torque CVS
- Start.over

Thought the past few months have been a little stressful, we finally have all the main pieces we envisioned way back when... a low cost game engine, a development community, and a place to publish games :) With the publication of Orbz, a Torque game developed indepentently from GarageGames, I think we can safely say that the circle is complete.