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The Beginning....(of what?)

Name:	CGSJeff
Date Posted:	Oct 08, 2007
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For as long as I can remember, I've always been a hard core gamer. In the late 70's to early 80's, I couldn't get enough of the Radio Shack game console simply named the "TV Game" that consisted of two graphics settings (color or b/w) and two game choices....Tennis (which was an early pong clone) and Soccer (which was the pong clone again only played vertically instead of horizontally. Then, I'd rack up hours upon hours sitting 2 feet in front of my parent's 4 metric ton, 400 cubic meter Zenith console television with dials as big as my head, playing Megamania on my Atari 2600 until my thumb bled from mashing the little red button on the joystick, and my ears bled from my mom yelling at me to stop. Hell, even then I thought that "It couldn't get any better!". To be honest, I miss those days. Not sure why, but I do. I know some of you out there do too, but won't admit it. All I can say is, hold your head up high and be proud of where you come from. If it wasn't for us starting with 4 bit pong rip offs and wanting bigger and better, this industry would be dead.

Now let's skip ahead 25 or 30 years. Bigger and better are something that happens every few months it seems. Not that I'm complaining mind you. I'm and RPGMMO guy at heart, and I absolutely love getting that email saying that I've been chosen to participate in the beta test for "Joe Schmo's Super Galactic World of Warpedcraft's 3rd expansion pack".

However, I keep running into the same problem. I play and play and play, and mash and mash and mash, and grind and grind grind. I always feel like something is missing. And then finally, it was my wife who turned the light on by one simple comment. "Why don't you try?". Those 4 little words hit me like the center bar of my bike when the chain comes off. Could she be right? Of course she's right. She's the wife...lol.

Being a applications developer by trade (java and VB) and then making a move into web development for the past 6 years or so, the programming aspects didn't scare me as much as they might scare others that are wanting to develop games, but don't have any gfx, OOP or dev experience. I started doing research on schools and dev resources to see what my options were and if there was anything that I could just pick up on my own. Time and time again, Torque reared it's head as if to say "Yo dummy. I'm over here."

So, last night at about 9:30, I jumped in the car and headed to the nearest bookstore hoping that (A) they were still going to be open when I got there, and (B) they had a copy of 'The Game Programmer's Guide to TORQUE'. I lucked out on both accounts and managed to read about 160 pages last night. Though some of the terms and definitions seemed a little over my head at this point, the excitment more than made up for it. I did realize however, that I need to settle down just a tad and start at square one.

I asked myself....if not now, then when? (Is there ever an answer to that?) So I downloaded the Torque Game Builder. I'm familiarizing myself at the moment, and will try and make frequent updates here so that those with any type of remote interest can follow my progress. Think of me as your own Yamaguchi pet that you never have to feed. Can't beat it.

J

Submit your own resources!

asmaloney (Andy) (Oct 08, 2007 at 03:02 GMT)

Welcome to the community Jeff! Your wife has no idea what she got you into :-)

Novack (Oct 08, 2007 at 03:56 GMT)

Haha, Jeff good reading. I think Andy its right, btw.

Hope you soon leave those kids playing with his toy (TGB) and join the real heroes side... TGE

LOL

Welcome!

Edward (Oct 08, 2007 at 04:37 GMT)

Welcome to the community, we can always use more Progammers. I am a lead on one of the many projects here in the Garage Games Community. My best advice to you, is to evaluate the TGB and the TGE engines and determine, what kind of game you are attempting to create and with what resources you might be willing to put towards such a endeavor. As you know, games are never as easy to make as it seems, you will need either to build a team, or join a team to gain experience or take the solo route and create your own team of one (there has been some excellent work in that area.) but it usually is a work of love rather then one of having a deadline. Have you evaluated your own art talents. or your music, level design or any of those items. Its a daunting task of things that do come up. You will find most of the questions you might have in the search functions. But all that aside, welcome to the community. I recommend getting TGE as well and maybe AFX if your in need of a little extra engine power.

If your looking for some good reading and some ideas how deep the rabbit hole goes.
www.mydreamrpg.com/community/showthread.php?t=1594

But there is alot of things to look at, and consider when moving from a player to a developer. Enjoy.

CGSJeff (Oct 08, 2007 at 14:27 GMT)

Thanks for the greets and welcomes. As with any 'new kid', they are very much welcomed. And I already have my first question which is on the broadest level I think I could get.

Since it's the 3D MMOs and RPGs that I really want to get into, on any level, would it be more beneficial to start with TGE from the get go or is starting with TGB more realistic? I guess I could as the same question when it comes to trying to get into projects and teams. Do I look for and stick with the genre that I'm most interested in?

Edward (Oct 08, 2007 at 15:45 GMT)

if your going into rpgs and similar, i would almost hands down recommend you look at the AFX engine. Now there is 2 things to consider, first your engine the TGEA engine is maturing daily, but its not as complete or user friendly to a new user. and if you dont have much artistic skill you may have some issues. If you looked at my mmorpg that my teamis working on, we are using TGE and AFX with the help of a now unavailable mmokit. Prairie Games has the Minions of Mirth MMOKIT, but you have to have a afx licence as well. ill warn you right now. MMOs are not for new persons to jump on. Id start with something small. A small rpg is a good way to go. Then expand on that to a mmo. Depending on your skill and how fast you pick up there are a few avenues that you can take. You mentioned you were a programmer, maybe drop me a a line. Maybe you can get some good experience on my team, then see the inside and make your own decision before you jump feet first with no experience. racs333@hotmail for my MSN and email, ill be happy to answer any of your questions as best to my ability or at least direct you to the direction you seek.

Stephen Beck (Oct 08, 2007 at 19:06 GMT)

By all means check out the Torque MMO Kit then.
www.mmoworkshop.com/trac/mom

Pretty impressive kit, but not what I'd recommend for a 'new kid'. Still, it's worth looking at.

Good luck.
Edited on Oct 08, 2007 19:27 GMT

Chris Calef (Oct 08, 2007 at 21:07 GMT)

Quote:
Those 4 little words hit me like the center bar of my bike when the chain comes off.

ROFL. Good luck, stick with it!

Novack (Oct 08, 2007 at 23:10 GMT)

And! you should take in consideration about the TGE vs TGEA that TGE is multiplataform and TGEA is not.

You are some kind of heretic anyway (VB and Java?), but its an important matter to consider.

Brian Wilson (Oct 09, 2007 at 13:16 GMT)

Jeff, you will find countless people here such as yourself. Feel free to dive in and be yourself. We are all co-addicts here ;p

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