Torque School Instructor

First of all, if anyone hasn't read Dave Young's TorqueSchool Announcement go and do so right away. It is a very exciting time.

Since TorqueSchool.com has been officially announced, I thought I'd take the opportunity to introduce myself. I've been a TGE license holder since 2004, and I've been working with TGEA for almost a year now. I have a degree in Electronic System Engineering, and "by day" I'm the Lead Programmer on a suite of database applications totally about 950,000 lines of code. Like most of the people around GG here, I've wanted to work on games for my whole life. I was an avid gamer all through my childhood and when I was 12 I picked up my first book on programming from the library (QBASIC) because I wanted to learn how to make my own games. I progressed from QBASIC text-based adventures, to primitive graphical "multiple choice" games. Then I moved into trying to program my own engine in C++ using DirectX. Like many others, I thought this was the only way an "indie" could make a game. After hours and hours of work just to create something that rivaled Final Fantasy 1 in functionality, I discovered Torque. I've been here ever since.

I was very excited and flattered when Dave Young of Dream Games invited me to be an instructor for Torque School. When he asked me what classes I'd like to teach I knew right away: Introduction to TGEA, and Atlas. These are areas where I struggled mightily when I first started. I was grateful for the help that I got but I wished there was more. I repeatedly see people posting the same questions/problems on the forums so I think there's a great need for this material. My TGEA 101 class will focus on giving a comprehensive introduction to TGEA, but will assume a basic knowledge of common TGE systems (like the mission editor and scripting). The class will focus on the 2 biggest new systems to TGEA: Atlas, and the Material library. After that class I'll be teaching a class that goes into using L3DT to create Atlas terrains in-depth. This class has much more relevance now that L3DT is the "official" tool for Atlas map creation. Back when I started it was one of many choices available. There is a lot to learn in L3DT, and a lot more power and control than many people think, so I'm excited to share what I know on that front as well.

That's all for now. I hope to see you all in "skool!"