What's my blog doing under the GarageGames tab?

As many a blog has started: Long time no blog! A lot has happened since July of last year -- including the realization that it is indeed possible to cram even more into each 24 hours. How is this possible you ask? Method #1: don't write blogs! Method #B: Have children. No matter what time you go to bed you can always count on them to wake you up at sunrise. :o) Now on with the show...

Give me an E! E! Give me an M! M! Give me a P! P!...
If you've been reading the GarageGames' Employee Roster at all over the past few months -- and really, who hasn't -- you'll have noticed my mug plastered near the bottom. How could this be? Well you see, when you alphabetize a list from A-Z by last name, my W and Y always put me at the end. Usually I'm at the very end...damn you Zadell and Zepp!

Oh you meant why am I even listed at all? It's because I'm GarageGames' first remote employee!!!1!!one!! Yeehaw! Or as they like to say in Oregon...Waheey! Because, you know, I'm now up on these things.

I've actually been working closely with GarageGames for a while now. But now its official. And by official I mean that the conversation with Josh went something like this (transcribed from the wire tap):

Josh: Dude.
Me: Ya?
Josh: You in?
Me: Oh ya, eh!
Josh: Cool!
Me: Rock on!
* Air guitars ensue *

So what else has been happening?

Torque ShowTool Pro included in TGE 1.5
First it started with a demo of TST Pro included in TGE 1.4. And now every owner of TGE 1.5 gets a full copy. As a third-party developer it doesn't get much better than to be included with the core product. Bundling FTW!

Torque X
I had the pleasure of helping out with Torque X at the end of 2006. I did the programming on Torque Combat as well as add to the core engine. It is a cool engine to work with and learning Visual C# was actually fun. Seeing your game for the first time on your TV through the Xbox360 is pure coolness.



Torque Constructor
So, you've probably not heard as it has been kept quite hush hush, but Torque Constructor will be released on April 9th for free! You heard it here first! Oh wait, there is the news posting. Hmm, and the IOTD. And on the Forums. Well let's see. Carry the 2... You heard it here 11th! Don't you feel special?

Starting with that fateful IOTD posting in March, 2005 that spawned the joy of a thousand needles in your eye, it is great to have that final push to get it out there. They say that finishing off something is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. Well with all of the Coke and coffee I've been drinking lately to get the last minute stuff done, I'd say it is also at least 50% urination. I'll call it Wyand's Hypothesis of Finishedness...ination.

OK, joking aside, it is great to finally get Constructor out to everyone. A lot of people have helped the core team, especially recently, from internal project management and testing at GarageGames to the Beta testers. Now it's your turn to bang on it. Will it be perfect on April 9th? No. There are a few known issues. And there's nothing like a few thousand individual mouse clicks to let you know where you goofed up. But there comes a time when you need to poke it and call it done. Will we continue to work on Constructor to improve it? Most definitely.


Image from Constructor reference documentation on TDN.

Until next time...

- LightWave Dave