Introducing T2DTutorials.com

An interesting experiment: set up a website, watch various search engine bots index it, and then see if anyone stumbles upon what you are doing. This was not something I had intended to do, but it has been amusing seeing a handful of people find your site before you've announced anything to the world. In any case, I would like to introduce T2DTutorials.com and the first in a series of video tutorials covering the creation of simple games. The goal of the site is to compliment the text based official documentation and provide new users to TGB/T2D with an alternate venue in learning to use the engine.



Even though TGB will be replaced at some point in the future with T2D, I thought it would be worthwhile to start creating video tutorials in TGB now and gather feedback as a learning experience for myself. This way when T2D is released, I can hit the ground running with a bunch of videos that the community will find useful. Although I've written a few tutorials for TDN in the past, creating a video is in a lot of ways a totally different animal. It certainly is just as time intensive, if not more so!

Now Showing

So, on to the actual content. The first video series is a visit back to the basic tutorial that came with the original T2D engine (big thanks to Melv!), and has been carried along in one form or another through various TGB versions via TDN. I've broken it down into 7 videos as follows:

Video 1: Introduction
A short video that quickly covers creating a project and importing/configuring ImageMaps.

Video 2: Creating the Player
The player sprite is set up in the level builder, and then we script the keyboard movement functions. Clamping the player within the camera view is also covered.

Video 3: Scrolling Background
After showing a scroller object, the main focus is on the tile editor and creating a tile layer.

Video 4: Adding Enemies
The player can't be the only object in the game, so an enemy ship or 2 will be added. A custom world limit will be scripted.

Video 5: Shooting Projectiles
We'll set up a missile template for both the player and enemy, then clone that template from script.

Video 6: Collision Course
Configure the collision properties for all scene objects.

Video 7: Particle Effects
Not content to just take and use a few premade effects, the player ship's thruster and ship explosions will be made from scratch.

All together this series is about 85 minutes long and is aimed at new users to TGB.

Since finding information is just as important as having it available, I've tried to index as many of the features and functions shown within the videos as possible.

Pressing Forward

When I started work on this project at the beginning of this year, I thought this series plus maybe one or two more single topic videos would be the extent of my "practice" with creating Torque Game Builder video tutorials. With the announcement that T2D is being delayed though, it does open the possibility for a bit more TGB content. How much more is difficult to say right now, but I have started work on a new game in a different genre. Developing games that spawn a multi-video tutorial series are a ton of work, which means it's not something that I can pump out on a monthly basis, never mind any type of shorter time-frame. To help fill the gap, I am also planning some one-off videos that don't belong to any type of game or series but perhaps cover specific features or topics a bit more in depth than normal. And because I didn't have enough on my to-do list already, general website enhancements will also follow.

It should go without saying, but any feedback regarding the videos or the website itself, especially from new/beginner users to TGB, is more than welcome.