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Plan for Jeff Tunnell
Plan for Jeff Tunnell
| Name: | Jeff Tunnell |  |
|---|---|---|
| Date Posted: | Feb 26, 2005 | |
| Rating: |  5.0 out of 5 | |
| Public: | YES | |
| Comments: | YES | |
| RSS Feed: |  or Subscribe with  . | |
| Profile Page: | View profile page for Jeff Tunnell |
Blog post
Torque "Platform." Congratulations, Melv and Josh! Opportunity Knocks!
Torque Platform
I never get tired of shipping new products. It is the most rewarding and fun thing about being in the software business. But, shipping Torque 2D is such a big milestone for GarageGames that I have a little more excitement than usual.
One of the bigger issues is that Torque is evolving into a game making "platform", since it is no longer a single engine. Entire applications have been built on the Torque Platform (Dave Wyand's Show Tool Pro, for instance), and we now have three engines, T2D, TGE, and TSE using the platform. In the future, you can imagine more tools, plus binary versions of each of the engines that are accessible through TorqueScript.
With addition of T2D, you can now choose what level of game you want to create within a huge range, i.e. simple 2D Pong on old, old computers all the way to huge networked 3D RPG, FPS, or RTS requiring the latest bleeding edge hardware. As a developer you can dip your toe into simple 2D scripting or lose yourself in the intricacies of networking, 3D, and shaders. The cool thing is that the methodologies, scripting language, and techniques that you learn in one part of the Torque platform apply to all the other parts. This gives you vast "headroom" as a developer, so you con confidently invest in learning Torque.
Congratulations, Melv and Josh!
I don't know what to say other than, "thanks guys." This is incredible work.
Some Quick Background on T2D: About two years ago, on one of my "learn Torque in a few days to see what noob developers are putting up with" I started messing around with the TGE GUI editor. All I wanted to do was set up a button and use some loops to move it around, kind of like a sprite from the "good old days." Unfortunately, it was not quite that easy, so Robert Blanchet did a quick change that allowed me to do it. Of course, as soon as we did that, I started thinking about a full set of simple commands to do 2D on top of TGE. Mostly, I was thinking of it as a freebie to help people get into TGE, but as our ideas about content packs and add ons evolved, my ideas about 2D evolved as well, but still nothing like what T2D ended up being.
Initially, I pitched Phil Carlisle about helping with this project, and we had a long email thread talking about features and positioning. But, Phil's finalling of Worms 3D and moving to a new job took most of his time ( as it should have), so the 2D project kind dropped through the cracks. I was still looking to get this thing done, then one weekend, wonder of wonders, Melv May popped up a .plan with a working version of 2D on top of TGE.
Melv was also thinking of T2D as just a simple freebie add-on to TGE until the email pitches began:) It didn't take very many emails until we had Melv signed up and T2D was an official GG product. It was such an honor to finally have Melv working on an official GG product. Now we knew he was finally going to make some money from all the work has had been contributing to the GG community.
Then things got even better. Josh Williams stepped up to become the Director of Third Party Development for all of GG, so he took over the T2D project from our end. Josh and Melv really hit it off, and the project took on a life of its own. The only downside was that Josh pretty much became a UK citizen, working through the night many, many times. I would come into work early in the morning and see Josh's car and that was the first hint. Once I got to the stop of the stairs and would see Josh hunkered down with his sweatshirt hood pulled over his head (that is the official "all nighter" uniform), I knew that Josh was still there from the day before.
I felt kind of guilty because I knew Melv was doing the same thing on the other end, but repeated attempts to tell them to slow down fell on deaf ears. These guys were into this project. I know they will be rewarded.
A funny thing happened on the way to completing this project. It went form a simple freebie add on, to a small charge code pack linked to TGE, to a stand alone engine, to "damn, the sky is the limit." We realized that 2D technology had not been tapped for many years and that the underlying hardware has evolved considerably in the decade since 2D was last hot. We also found out that a lot of people are tired of the limitations of the current market leader in this area. Now, we are all in wild "Kool Aid" drinking mode, and think we are onto one of the hottest products GG has ever released. We'll see.
Opportunity Knocks
Can you see yourself in a similar situation? I have been asking for years for a cross platform, game oriented, 3D editor. It is too late for that one, but there are many other opportunities. The biggest issue is to just hunker down and do something that people need for making their games. Here is a hint though... if you want GarageGames to help you sell it, use Torque as the platform.
I never get tired of shipping new products. It is the most rewarding and fun thing about being in the software business. But, shipping Torque 2D is such a big milestone for GarageGames that I have a little more excitement than usual.
One of the bigger issues is that Torque is evolving into a game making "platform", since it is no longer a single engine. Entire applications have been built on the Torque Platform (Dave Wyand's Show Tool Pro, for instance), and we now have three engines, T2D, TGE, and TSE using the platform. In the future, you can imagine more tools, plus binary versions of each of the engines that are accessible through TorqueScript.
With addition of T2D, you can now choose what level of game you want to create within a huge range, i.e. simple 2D Pong on old, old computers all the way to huge networked 3D RPG, FPS, or RTS requiring the latest bleeding edge hardware. As a developer you can dip your toe into simple 2D scripting or lose yourself in the intricacies of networking, 3D, and shaders. The cool thing is that the methodologies, scripting language, and techniques that you learn in one part of the Torque platform apply to all the other parts. This gives you vast "headroom" as a developer, so you con confidently invest in learning Torque.
Congratulations, Melv and Josh!
I don't know what to say other than, "thanks guys." This is incredible work.
Some Quick Background on T2D: About two years ago, on one of my "learn Torque in a few days to see what noob developers are putting up with" I started messing around with the TGE GUI editor. All I wanted to do was set up a button and use some loops to move it around, kind of like a sprite from the "good old days." Unfortunately, it was not quite that easy, so Robert Blanchet did a quick change that allowed me to do it. Of course, as soon as we did that, I started thinking about a full set of simple commands to do 2D on top of TGE. Mostly, I was thinking of it as a freebie to help people get into TGE, but as our ideas about content packs and add ons evolved, my ideas about 2D evolved as well, but still nothing like what T2D ended up being.
Initially, I pitched Phil Carlisle about helping with this project, and we had a long email thread talking about features and positioning. But, Phil's finalling of Worms 3D and moving to a new job took most of his time ( as it should have), so the 2D project kind dropped through the cracks. I was still looking to get this thing done, then one weekend, wonder of wonders, Melv May popped up a .plan with a working version of 2D on top of TGE.
Melv was also thinking of T2D as just a simple freebie add-on to TGE until the email pitches began:) It didn't take very many emails until we had Melv signed up and T2D was an official GG product. It was such an honor to finally have Melv working on an official GG product. Now we knew he was finally going to make some money from all the work has had been contributing to the GG community.
Then things got even better. Josh Williams stepped up to become the Director of Third Party Development for all of GG, so he took over the T2D project from our end. Josh and Melv really hit it off, and the project took on a life of its own. The only downside was that Josh pretty much became a UK citizen, working through the night many, many times. I would come into work early in the morning and see Josh's car and that was the first hint. Once I got to the stop of the stairs and would see Josh hunkered down with his sweatshirt hood pulled over his head (that is the official "all nighter" uniform), I knew that Josh was still there from the day before.
I felt kind of guilty because I knew Melv was doing the same thing on the other end, but repeated attempts to tell them to slow down fell on deaf ears. These guys were into this project. I know they will be rewarded.
A funny thing happened on the way to completing this project. It went form a simple freebie add on, to a small charge code pack linked to TGE, to a stand alone engine, to "damn, the sky is the limit." We realized that 2D technology had not been tapped for many years and that the underlying hardware has evolved considerably in the decade since 2D was last hot. We also found out that a lot of people are tired of the limitations of the current market leader in this area. Now, we are all in wild "Kool Aid" drinking mode, and think we are onto one of the hottest products GG has ever released. We'll see.
Opportunity Knocks
Can you see yourself in a similar situation? I have been asking for years for a cross platform, game oriented, 3D editor. It is too late for that one, but there are many other opportunities. The biggest issue is to just hunker down and do something that people need for making their games. Here is a hint though... if you want GarageGames to help you sell it, use Torque as the platform.
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Submit your own resources!| Bob (Feb 26, 2005 at 01:07 GMT) Resource Rating: 5 |
Here I come!!!
| Bob (Feb 26, 2005 at 01:12 GMT) Resource Rating: 5 |
| David Roberts (Feb 26, 2005 at 01:19 GMT) |
Many congrats to all the guys involved. I think you should all take some time to chill for a while, have a few beers.
Its up to us Indies now to show what this engine is capable of...
- Dave
| Jeff Tunnell (Feb 26, 2005 at 01:27 GMT) |
| Dan MacDonald (Feb 26, 2005 at 01:30 GMT) |
| Charlie Malbaurn (Feb 26, 2005 at 01:30 GMT) |
Good luck and keep up the good work!
| Melv May (Feb 26, 2005 at 01:57 GMT) |
This plan was truely spontaneous and unexpected. Thanks to you Jeff and all the folks at GG. T2D wouldn't be what it is today and what it will be in the near future without your support. Boy I don't get emotional over many things but sitting here, on my own with my wife and baby in bed happily asleep, at 2am, I'm pretty weepy. They unfortunately cannot share in the emotional rollercoaster thats called a product release.
Over 8 months of hard slogging until the wee hours is finally over. Going to have a few days rest then it's back to that hard slogging but now it's for the most exciting part of all, taking T2D to the yet unannounced next level.
A very personal thanks to Josh. Jeff mentioned it briefly but you've got to work with Josh to completely understand me. The energy, drive and talent there is amazing. Many thanks Josh, seriously dude, for your support, hard-work and darn spot-on advice through it all.
All that's left to say is that this is just the beginning for T2D. So much to do, so many games to write, so many wonderful community projects to witness. What a good time to be around GG.
All the best everyone,
- Melv.
EDIT: Just wanted to say many thanks to Anthony Rosenbaum, Harold Brown, Phil Carlisle, Nauris Krauze, Craig Fortune, Matt Mitman, Craig Ball and that coolio Dan MacDonald. Many thanks guys, especially Craig for just putting-up with my constant barrage of T2D waffle each and everyday during the journey to work. It should ease maybe a little now. :)
Edited on Feb 26, 2005 02:13 GMT
| Ben Woodhead (Feb 26, 2005 at 02:35 GMT) |
I was working at GG while this was going on and I can tell ya Josh looked like he was out for a night on the town half the time (working till 6am and then coming in at lunch), I can't even imagine what melv was doing on his end with a new child.. Crazyness.. Congratz to both of ya for getting it done and released..
Ben
| Keith Frampton (Feb 26, 2005 at 03:13 GMT) |
| Jeremy Alessi (Feb 26, 2005 at 03:16 GMT) Resource Rating: 5 |
| Josh Williams (Feb 26, 2005 at 03:46 GMT) |
| Keith Frampton (Feb 26, 2005 at 04:05 GMT) |
| Joshua Dallman (Feb 26, 2005 at 06:18 GMT) |
just got my copy purchased, will download later when site isn't buzzing so much with all the traffic :)
| Jay Moore (Feb 26, 2005 at 06:43 GMT) |
Melv and Josh definately make up an amazingly possessed team. Add in Torque and a 1,000 other small innovations, collaborations and inspirations and you get T2D EA - with maybe a few hundred ideas yet to be fully realized, but well on their way and somewhat open to re-prioritization based on those who use T2D.
Make it Fast... Make it FUN!
Putting powerful technology into creative peoples hands and easing the ability to do great things is at the foundation of the GG's mission - Reinventing Gaming - Indie Style (yeah ok... so I like this years IGC theme).
I've postulated that the most protected secret of the gaming industry is that the only thing that can be more fun than playing games is making games - this might sound like one marketing guys attempt to find a tag line for a game dev. tool, but I was inspired by the intense fun that Melv and Josh had in making this exciting tool. I believe that the fun of building this tool will be totally eclipsed by those who get to make the games they are possessed to make with T2D.
It is a priveledge to being part of the team that gets to bring T2D to game makers. Thank you Melv for your willingness to sacrifice family and backburnering your own dream of making a game (I still want to play Strategem some day). Thank you Josh for coming along side to serve as the GGer who is now officially the most possessed worker in the building (as Jeff said Josh is frequently here after I leave and still at the office when I return in the morning).
As GG has said before - we've created the tools for you... Now its in your hands to build your dreams.
Edited on Feb 28, 2005 04:52 GMT
| Peter Dwyer (Feb 26, 2005 at 09:02 GMT) |
Hope to see you at this years show for a quick hand shake. You are way too quiet these days ;o)
| Adrian Wright (Feb 26, 2005 at 12:26 GMT) |
| Paul Dana (Feb 26, 2005 at 15:13 GMT) |
| Michael Cozzolino (Feb 26, 2005 at 15:31 GMT) |
| bentgarney (Mar 05, 2005 at 00:37 GMT) |
I've been around for quite a while in the background and when T2D EA was released, I had nothing but admiration for GG and the guys. As an experienced programmer, I don't think you, yourself realise exactly how powerful/easy this is!
I won't go into how much I like it here - that's what my review's for!
I fully intend to exploit that, because as art is my primary skill, I have up till now found no real development system to enable me to realise my designs. Thats all changed, and my next step is to finish this up and ship!
Well done, a real feather in GG's cap.
-Rob
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