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Platformer Starter Kit (TGB)

Name:	Phillip OShea
Date Posted:	Feb 26, 2008
Rating:	4.3 out of 5
Public:	YES
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Blog post

I am proud to announce Torque Game Builder's (TGB) Platformer Starter Kit (PSK)! The kit does not require source modifications and is available to any TGB user (version 1.5 and up)!

The PSK should hopefully be released within the next few weeks. It will include the full source, framework documentation, a small demo level and a tutorial on how to construct it.

This kit is based on the Torque X Platformer design, including all of its major features and a few more. Everything you see below is customizable. Thanks to TGB's behavior system you are able to modify nearly any setting for any object in the game, it is that simple.

Platforms

One of the most basic features of any platformer is to have platforms! The PSK sports Solid and One-Way, allowing for flat and sloped surfaces. There are also Moving, Bouncing, Falling and Conveyor platforms! The platform system has been set up with expandability in mind, if you can think of a new type, you can add it!

Ladders and Hazards

Most platform games have some kind of ladder or rope which allows characters to climb up and down, the PSK is no different. Included is an area damage hazard that deals periodic damage to your character when inside the trigger (ideal for lava or electricity fields) and will deal damage upon collision if it is a regular scene object (great for spiked floors or crushing doors).

Collectable Items

Objects are collectable by players and have been set up in a similar fashion to platforms. Adding the pickup behavior to your object will allow that object to be collected, but what sort of object it is, is up to you! The foundation for an inventory system has been set up which records the items that you've collected in your journey.

Spawn Points and Check Points

In order to improve performance, any type of object can be spawned through a spawn point. You wouldn't want the computer to process the information of the 50 enemies in your scene each frame, so you control how many there are in the scene at any given time. Check points not only record the player's respawn position, but they also record how many objects each spawned has spawned.

Sound and Animation Manager

Using TGB's sound system can be quite daunting at times. The PSK has included a sound manager which handles all of the sounds and music being played in the kit. Characters in the game are animated through the system created in the PSK. It uses a Finite State Machine to handle all of the details when changing states and supports animation transitions!

Object Manager

Conditional collisions are always a tricky aspect of any game. The PSK uses the graph group system in place in TGB, but has made it easy to manage through a new labeling system. Group types are labeled and can have parents and children types. Objects can then be told to collide with objects from specific groups. Here is a small example:

- An object is an Apple and a Fruit.
- An object is an Orange and a Fruit.
- An object is a Fruit (not an Apply or an Orange).

- An object set to collide with Apples will collide with Apples and Fruit, but not Oranges.
- An object set to collide with Oranges will collide with Oranges and Fruit, but not Apples.
- An object set to collide with Fruit will collide with Apples, Oranges and Fruit.

It is a pretty basic system, but it is a very handy tool to help with managing your scene. It means that you can have triggers or objects which affect all characters in your game, or just specific character types.

Basic AI Controller

Through the use of behaviors, characters in the world can act like players. Behaviors allow you to treat a characters body and its brain as two separate objects. This means that all you need to do is script the brain and the body will interact with the world. Included in the PSK is a basic enemy who walks side to side, but has the ability to behave like a player!

Parallax Scrollers

Parallax scrollers create a sense of depth to your game. When the camera moves, your background images can scroll at different rates. All you have to do is add the behavior, set the scroll rate and the kit will do the rest.

Final Note

This kit should provide a solid foundation for any user wanting to recreate any of the classic platformer games. Give it a go (when it is released) and I will do my very best to provide users with support in the creation of their games.

Much of this work could not have been done without the support from GG. They have been outstanding and have offered me a great deal of assistance over the past few months. Huge shout out to Derek Bronson and Thomas Buscaglia for their guidance and help.

I don't know of the pricing, but I would like to make it as accessible as possible. The kit is in its final stages and should be released within the next few weeks, however, nothing is guaranteed. I am continuing to polish the code and provide as much detail in the source as I can before release.

Phillip O'Shea
(Lead Designer)

Recent Blog Posts

List:	10/26/08 - Torque: Gui Updates - Beta 1 05/16/08 - Torque: Gui Updates v0.1 04/12/08 - Torque: GUI Updates 03/16/08 - Platformer Starter Kit - New feature incoming! 02/26/08 - Platformer Starter Kit (TGB)

Submit your own resources!

Ramen-sama (Feb 26, 2008 at 06:31 GMT)

What, no pictures?

Phillip OShea (Feb 26, 2008 at 07:14 GMT)

Edit: Added a few pics ;)

Jay Barnson (Feb 26, 2008 at 08:16 GMT)

Some people (like me) have experienced some camera jitter issues in scrolling games like this. Have you experienced anything like this? If so, have you addressed the issue?

Phillip OShea (Feb 26, 2008 at 08:30 GMT)

The cause of the jitter, as far as I am aware, is still relatively unknown. I have done all that I can to reduce any visible jitter, but there are still issues with the engine which causes small problems with most scrolling games, including this one.

When the engine is updated and a fix provided, I will test out the kit and modify it to ensure that no jittering persists.
Edited on Feb 26, 2008 08:44 GMT

Neil .S (Feb 26, 2008 at 11:14 GMT)

sweet! looking forward to its release. will it be priced like the TXB PSK?

and will the TGB PSK be an official gg product (i.e available from the gg product page)?

Thanks!
Edited on Feb 26, 2008 20:10 GMT

Leroy Frederick (Feb 26, 2008 at 12:23 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

Yes, nice work Phillip (and all involve), provided the price ain't crazy, I'd certainly like to purchase this as with the project on working on it should save a lot of scripting time and increase the focus on 'the game' itself rather then 'wheel inventing' so to speak ;-)
Edited on Feb 26, 2008 12:29 GMT

Kevin James (Feb 26, 2008 at 12:36 GMT)

Phillip,

Looks like an awesome job, my friend! Its about three weeks too late for me though. I already started a platform game, lol.

Michael Hartlef (Feb 26, 2008 at 15:03 GMT)

Do you use behaviours or is it all done in code like the adventure kit?

Tank Dork (Feb 26, 2008 at 16:20 GMT)

Michael.. it was in the last paragraph of the opening statement...

Quote:
This kit is based on the Torque X Platformer design, including all of its major features and a few more. Everything you see below is customizable. Thanks to TGB's behavior system you are able to modify nearly any setting for any object in the game, it is that simple.

Sounds like a fine tool, congrats!

David Montgomery-Blake (Feb 26, 2008 at 20:25 GMT)

Very, very cool! And I thought I would note (from the thread that Jay pointed out) that Melv is working on a number of the jitter issues.

Eric Schuld (Feb 26, 2008 at 21:57 GMT)

How about those who have purchased the PSK for Torque X?

Any difference in price? Or will it be the same full price?

Phillip OShea (Feb 26, 2008 at 22:07 GMT)

Quote:
I don't know of the pricing, but I would like to make it as accessible as possible. The kit is in its final stages and should be released within the next few weeks, however, nothing is guaranteed.

I would imagine it will be a similar price to the TX PSK. Unfortunately for current TX PSK users, GG hasn't created this kit, so I don't think that current TX PSK users will get access to this kit for free.

Eric Schuld (Feb 26, 2008 at 22:10 GMT)

@Phillip - OHHHH... So this kit was made separately from GarageGames. Just utilizes the same art as the one made for TX. So likely no break in price for those of us who already own the TX version.

Jerrod Putman (Feb 29, 2008 at 01:59 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

Wow, looks and sounds great Phillip! I think this is the kind of stuff the community needs more of: really nice, well-designed starter kits so that everyone isn't always re-inventing the wheel all the time. It sounds like you've also taken great steps to ensure the kit is expandable, which should help everyone out a lot. Can't wait to see it up on the GG store!

Love Dahlgren (Feb 29, 2008 at 19:59 GMT)

The kit I was waiting for! Really good!
But will this work on mac os x?

Phillip OShea (Feb 29, 2008 at 20:17 GMT)

It hasn't been tested on OSX, but it is written entirely in TS, so I would imagine that it will. If not, I will be around to help get it work and then update it.

jydog (Feb 29, 2008 at 22:55 GMT)

I am defiantly interested in the kit. It would be for the scripting examples. As I already have the PSK, the art assets are not a draw. Now if you would have different art, that would be a plus. Remember this as you are pricing it.

Ajmul Hoque (Mar 08, 2008 at 13:36 GMT)

Hi everyone!! i was wondering if there is any step by step tutorial for TGB pro and TGB platform starter kit? i only searched on Amazon and found a book on Torque and i am guessing its to do with 3D?? If anyone have any idea plz let me know. Oh! by they way, does any1 know how long left till the TGB starter kit gets released??

Thankksss!!

A-jay

Phillip OShea (Mar 08, 2008 at 20:45 GMT)

There aren't any books on TGB, however it does ship with a lot of documentation and step by step tutorials. For the most part, the documentation supplied with TGB is really good, and the tutoorials cover a lot of the basics, but with most docs there are limitations. You are really going to need to get tucked in a get your hands dirty before you really learn anything.

As for the kit? It comes with some documentation describing the framework and also a small tutorial on how to create a basic level. All of this will be uploaded on Torque Developer Network (TDN) so I can update it easily and add more tutorials and guides.

Ajmul Hoque (Mar 08, 2008 at 21:56 GMT)

Thank you for your reply, i would like to know when is TGB platform kit going to be released, i am just waiting for that so i can purchase it altogether, The TGB Pro and the TGB Platform starter kit.

Thank you

A-jay

Phillip OShea (Mar 08, 2008 at 22:05 GMT)

The final build has been submitted. It should be up this week, but no promises ;)

jydog (Mar 11, 2008 at 02:16 GMT)

> I would imagine it will be a similar price to the TX PSK.

> Torque X Platformer Starter Kit - INDIE License $29.95 USD

> TGB Platformer Starter Kit - Indie $49.95 USD

Ouch!

Eric Schuld (Mar 11, 2008 at 03:43 GMT)

Yeah - I was slightly bummed by that price as well...

Phillip OShea (Mar 11, 2008 at 09:19 GMT)

Howdy all.

Firstly, I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has expressed interest in my work. I can whole heartedly sympathize with everyone who was expecting the kit to be priced at or under the Torque X version.

I was in discussion with GG regarding the pricing and we both decided that the price had to be different for two reasons. First and foremost, users will see a large amount of support for the kit. Secondly, it was developed by a third party (me =P) and not GG, so pricing had to be appropriate for both parties.

Platform games have been absent from the TGB scene since its introduction a few years back. This is because it is a difficult system to implement, period. I have included 4,000 lines of code and comments in the source alone and it has taken me 6 months of work to get it to this stage. It is not perfect, but I plan on making it as close as possible.

On to my support mission! While creating this kit I had a lot of ideas that I would have loved to implement in the first version. I then figured out that if I were to add all of these features, that the kit would take another 6 months, or more, to release. I cut down on the features, keeping it in line with the Torque X version and tried to make everything as neat as possible. I then came to the realization that I shouldn't dictate the features in the kit, you should. If the community expresses interest in a particular feature, then I will do my very best to get it up and running. Think of the kit as an ongoing project, one where you get to shape and mould into what you want.

I hope that people are not discouraged by the price and I really feel that users will see it has a great investment.

Just quickly, I have set up a page on the TDN for the kit here:
tdn.garagegames.com/wiki/TGB/PlatformerStarterKit

There are already a few little things for you and there will be more!
Edited on Mar 11, 2008 09:36 GMT

Neil .S (Mar 11, 2008 at 12:27 GMT)

Just got the Kit! .. But...
i tried to open the PlatformerDemo project and tgb(1.7.1) is telling me its unable to open the project...... any ideas?

it seems to be a problem with the project file itself, everthing else seems okay.

Neil
Edited on Mar 11, 2008 15:09 GMT

jydog (Mar 11, 2008 at 16:24 GMT)

It sounds well worth $50 with all the programming examples included. I was just hoping more around the PSK cost ($29). As I have many tools to acquire yet, my discretionary funds are quite limited at this time. I will just have to wait till later to see about it. Keep up the good work.

Ajmul Hoque (Mar 11, 2008 at 16:56 GMT)

So is the TGB starter kit released?? If it is please show me the link. And by the way above ^ some1 mentioned something about an error, found in PlatformDemo? I haven't purchased the TGB pro yet i want to purchase it altogether including TGB starter kit. Is platformerDemo working with TGB?

Thank you.

Neil .S (Mar 11, 2008 at 17:07 GMT)

Ajmul , you can find it here, sorry i dont know how to do the url tag thingy to make it a link.

http://www.garagegames.com/products/285/

Neil

M. Stolley (Mar 11, 2008 at 17:39 GMT)

I will use the psk on my Macbook but do not know how.
Can you explain me what to do, becouse just kopy the psk folder is not enough.
Edited on Mar 11, 2008 17:53 GMT

Thomas Oliver (Mar 11, 2008 at 18:21 GMT) Resource Rating: 2

While I think it looks like a great kit. For the asking price I would defently have to see a demo or some videos of it in action to see what type of issues there are and how bad the scrolling jitter is, ect.

After shelling out $29 for the same artwork and all on the TX Kit, I am not really seeing alot of bang for the buck here. Other then the platform demo being converted to use behavors. I just have a hard time with the high price tag is all. I mean TDN has resources up on it that are easly (took 3 mins) covered over to make a basic platformer demo. (Aka the Ninja Platformer updated from 1.0 to 1.7 only took 3 mins to covert it over)

$20-$30 would have been alot more acceptable with the artwork it uses now. $50 I would have expected your own artwork instead of a rehash of what was there. It just feels like your taking advantage of the fact that noone has released any platformer resources for TGB with the $50 price tag. And I understand you plan to offer full support and all for the product. But yeah thats been said alot in the past (cough RTS Kit), Cough many other kits on on GG. But look at them now, dropped, little to no support, hasnt been updated in over 3-4 years. Only kit that has maintained a active support has been AFX - It was just released, and the lighting kit that is now a intergrated part of TGE - so its support falls right out of GG.

But thats just my opinion. Once I see your update plans and how long you take between updates, I may reconsider purchaseing it. But not tell then. $50 is just abit too much for a TGB kit with what is being offered.

Will Zettler (Mar 11, 2008 at 20:43 GMT)

Thomas:

I just got on board this TGB pack and its well worth the money to me any way. You figure how long it would take you to do the same base yourself and get things up and running. Sure, it came from the Torque X side to the TGB with a little bit higher price tag, and yeah, he could have kept the same price here but figure it like this, if you hack the pack and make a game from it, and it sells like say... Mario or something good like that, then wasn't the $50 an investment? I think so. I *know* I will be getting my $50 investment back and then some from the game I'm making using this framework. It has boosted my to a point that allows me to drop in my own art, do minor tweaks on the code and bam I will have a platformer game, and it has cut down del time on the game by at least 9-12 months thanks to this pack. So please, reconsider what your saying cause in the long run its an investment not a curse to own this pack. I'm thrilled it came out when it did and looking forward to many strong sales from the framework.

Will
Waskom, Tx

Phillip OShea (Mar 11, 2008 at 20:46 GMT)

Neil: I think you need to update to TGB 1.7.2.

Thomas: I hope that I can live up to your expections, I will do my very best. This is my first product, and I don't plan on letting it fail.

Neil .S (Mar 11, 2008 at 20:55 GMT)

Phillip, what! when the hell did 1.7.2 come out, dam i can keep up with these minor . releases, lol. i wish they would email you when new updates come out.

kit looks good by the way, gonna be a big help in getting my game back on track.

i look forward to the updates and getting stuck in with the kit.....now off to get tgb 1.7.2..

Thanks

Neil

Wiley (Mar 12, 2008 at 01:41 GMT)

Phillip, you may want Garagegames to recheck your EULA for your Platform kit. It appears to still reference the TORQUE X platform kit pricing in it:

"5. FEES.

(a) The Torque Game Builder "Platformer Starter-Kit" License fee for the Framework is $29.95 USD per each developer seat using or accessing the Source Code, Framework, Binary Distributable, Software Development Kit, or any associated media or assets included with Framework. There are no additional royalties due to GarageGames, and Licensee does not have to show the Games or publish the Games with GarageGames.
"

BTW, nice job on the kit. I just bought a copy.

Phillip OShea (Mar 12, 2008 at 02:29 GMT)

Wiley, thanks dude. I'll have to get the GG guys to modify it.

Steven Smith (Mar 12, 2008 at 05:31 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

Hi Phillip....I got the TORQUE X platform kit a wile back but did nothing with it....BUT this one looks great!
I'm an art guy (not a coder) so i can just drop my art work in it (backgrounds, bad guys, good guys, etc...) and it should work...right?
also will you have a behavior for the player or enemies like "shooting"?

Glenn Thomas (Mar 12, 2008 at 08:49 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

Wow thanks for the conversion! Now I just gotta find away to scrounge up the extra cash. I let you know of any bumps I come across to help development.

Ajmul Hoque (Mar 12, 2008 at 18:52 GMT)

Hello everybody! I have purchased and downloaded the TGB Pro, TGB Starter kit, However when ordering TGB pro i saw below there is a TGB Upgrade? Can anyone please tell me what difference would that make?

And also when i purchased TGB Pro in my download account page, i saw Torque X was available for me to download as well????

Oh by the way i came across this website called Stencyl? Its another 2D game engine, its not out yet, because i am a beginner if any TGB pro users can one day download this Stencyl Engine (and its free as well) and tell me what the Woo! Haa! and the Excitement is all about?

Thank you

A-jay
Edited on Mar 13, 2008 13:31 GMT

Neil .S (Mar 13, 2008 at 22:57 GMT)

Philip, i am going through the the kits tutorial and i am stuck on the spawn points (creating the dragon through the spawn point bit), in theory in a new project with platformer as the base, you can add the spawn behaviour to the dragon or any sprite and then set the target object based on the datablocks in the datablock.cs file, which is the same as the list in the 'config datablock' drop down yes? following the tutorial, i add the spawn point behaviour to the dragon, but the target object list is empty, it just says 'none', but the config datablock drop down has the 'dragonTemplate' etc . ... so i dont get it, is there something i am missing? ....... the same problem is in the demo level also, the target object list is empty, and if i click on it, it assigns 'none' and then the dragon does not spawn anymore.

any help would be appreciated.

Thanks, Neil.

Phillip OShea (Mar 13, 2008 at 23:25 GMT)

Neil, this is a minor problem with TGB, check out this post in the PSK forum for info on how to correct it.

www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=73018

Neil .S (Mar 13, 2008 at 23:42 GMT)

Thanks Philip, you know i looked for a psk forum earlier but couldnt find one.
now i know where to look.

the more i start to understand how the kit works, the more i think it was really worth the asking price.

Thanks, Neil.

Phillip OShea (Mar 13, 2008 at 23:46 GMT)

Thanks Neil, it is comments like that which makes doing this sort of thing worthwhile. I appreciate it mate.

Ajmul Hoque (Mar 30, 2008 at 15:07 GMT)

Hello Phillip, i was wondering if there is a step by step tutorial of the orange dragon game, that was created in TGB platform starter kit. As i am a beginner, i wanted to know how you applied collisions and made the character jump and float etc. I have already purchased the TGB pro and starter kit, i also purchased the Torsion and the adventure kit. I am learning C++, plz let me know if i am on the right track.

Thank you

A-jay

Phillip OShea (Mar 30, 2008 at 20:40 GMT)

Ajmul, the PSK isn't a tutorial it is a system in place so that you don't have to create it yourself. The only way to learn is go read through it bit by bit. Everything has been commented and explained and if there is something you don't understand you can always ask in the PSK forum.

Also, check out the TDN page: tdn.garagegames.com/wiki/TGB/PlatformerStarterKit

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