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Teach Torque, Make Money

by Eric Preisz · 01/26/2012 (7:14 pm) · 42 comments








Tonight ends the final session of a nine hour course I’ve been teaching at usr/lib, a community driven Las Vegas technology savvy library run by Pawel, a Zappos developer. We sold out of twenty seats, and so far, the responses I’ve received have been overwhelmingly positive. All proceeds benefit the library and at the end of the course and I will be giving free T3D licenses to those who attend all three classes.

We’ve been asked when the next course is going to be since some folks weren’t able to sign up before it we sold out. ;)

Perhaps YOU should teach the next course(yes, I’m talking to you). For a limited time (or longer if we so deem it), GarageGames will empower you to chart your own course and provide your students with free full source copies of Torque. What or if you charge for the class is up to you. Here’s all you need to do:

#1 – First, build a video tutorial and post it on You Tube. It would be great if you posted it on a topic that others haven’t already covered. This is your application so you’ll want to show us that you are a competent Torque developer and presenter. Post a blog, embed the video, and send an e-mail to support@garagegames.com with the subject I WANT TO TEACH TORQUE.

#2 – Once approved, we will send you an e-mail with the course materials (we will likely post these somewhere publically as well)

#3 – Set up your class. This is all on you. Find some space and charge what you like. In my case, we charged $50.00 and all proceeds benefited the library.

#4 – At the end of your class, take a picture of the attendees and post it in a blog. Have your students post a comment in your blog on the final class and we’ll add T3D pro to their account.

It’s been a very rewarding experience to get back in a classroom. Several GarageGames employees have helped me and I truly feel like we are doing something great for Las Vegas. Who knows, maybe one of our students will find a new job, start a new company, or teach twenty others how to make games.

Restrictions:
You must already own T3D Pro already.
This offer is limited to individuals (and potentially small businesses...please contact us).

About the author

Manager, Programmer, Author, Professor, Small Business Owner, and Marketer.

#21
01/27/2012 (7:18 am)
Thank you for a great class! I definitely had more fun than I could by reading a book. While it was a short class, you guys really showed me what could be accomplished and have given me the tools and encouragement to keep going and working with Torque3D and game development. Thanks!
#22
01/27/2012 (7:29 am)
@Everyone - The material is mostly exercise based. I have 40 powerpoint slides and eleven exercises. The last three hours was essentially a three hour, mini game jam.

Plus I pointed people at the tutorial a lot, it was really helpful. We've posted forty hours worth of material that parallels the tutorial as well. www.garagegames.com/education
#23
01/27/2012 (8:20 am)
I am very excited to see what our community members come up with to add to these great courses!
#24
01/27/2012 (9:11 am)
Awsome, I wish I was there. I want to learn the programming side, downloading the education material right now.
#25
01/27/2012 (9:31 am)
Thanks for the class!

My scene was 'Simpicity'

Haha
#26
01/27/2012 (3:37 pm)
@Tim - Agreed. As I always say, don't trust a guy in a green shirt.
#27
01/27/2012 (5:21 pm)
Congratulations on pumping out the first torque class! This is really exciting news and a great opportunity for Indie Developers to make an extra buck;)
#28
01/27/2012 (8:14 pm)
The Torque class was great!
Kinda sad my group wasn't able to get our tower defense game all the way finished, but we did pretty good for 3 hours.
Looking forward to messing around with the engine!
#29
01/27/2012 (8:40 pm)
Thank you so much for coming out to teach us! You could tell that we all had such a great time learning. We appreciate how you feel about Vegas changing as a community too.
#30
01/29/2012 (1:13 am)
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to learn about video games. It was a lot of fun and I hope I can continue to learn more!
#31
01/30/2012 (10:38 am)
Well this is a great initiative. I've never really taught anything to anyone but a lot of people tell me that I would probably be a good teacher, so if I only had the time I would consider doing this :P Teaching game development with Torque3D sounds like so much fun :)

@Adrian: A tower defense game finished in 3 hours would be quite an achievement I think. From my experience with software I'd say you're usually spending at least 3 hours on debugging alone ;)
#32
01/30/2012 (4:32 pm)
I like to think that the T3D pro requirement is to keep that nag screen from coming up during the demo like it did during Eric's class. :)
#33
01/30/2012 (10:40 pm)
Ha!
#34
02/02/2012 (2:52 pm)
i have a question how much does this cost?
#35
02/02/2012 (2:54 pm)
@Brian - If you teach the course, it's up to you to set the price. We provide the licenses for your students for free.
#36
02/02/2012 (3:00 pm)
If I were to make a video about GUIs could I show source code? I think people would like to see where to put render code and gui hierarchy ect
#37
02/02/2012 (3:22 pm)
I don't see any problem with showing source code in a video for the purposes of educating someone on GUIs.
#38
02/03/2012 (10:31 am)
I'm saddened that this is for Torque3D and not Torque2D. More because I don't have Torque3D yet. Sounds like a great deal, and I really wish I could participate in it. If only to start a spree of tutorial creation of my own.
#39
02/03/2012 (10:43 am)
@Bryce
If you want to use the template to create a class for T2D, we won't complain!
#40
02/04/2012 (2:35 am)
@David
I might. I've gotten a few friends interested and I'd like to give them a quicker, and smoother jump into Torque2D than I had.