Plan for Josh Williams
by Josh Williams · 02/22/2005 (9:21 pm) · 111 comments
Okay, time to prime the pump here some more. :) Melv and I couldn't resist posting some screens of the T2D demos we've been working on. Check out the pics below!
These demos are just simple, simple little examples of what Torque 2D can do. "Demo in a day" is a good way to describe 'em. None of them are anywhere near being games, but they look great, thanks to some extremely talented artists: Craig Fortune, Nauris Krauze, and Matt Mitman. These guys are incredible. For your viewing pleasure, may I present screens from the Torque 2D demos!
Simple "grav gun" demo:
Every engine today is trying to show off their physics, with grav guns and pachinko machines, and blah blah. Grav guns are easy, as our little hero Flegg demonstrates in this demo. And check out those particle effects! Melv does amazing things w/ T2D's particle system, but I bet it won't be long after release before someone out there is even better with it than he is. The great looking art you see here was provided by Craig Fortune and Nauris Krauze, of De-railed. These guys amaze me.
Simple pool demo:
This is a little pool "game" (not quite a full game, but you can knock balls around). Art by Matt Mitman, thanks *tons* Matt! My real-life pool game has improved by about 10x since we started working on this thing. And, I have to be honest, T2D has probably been delayed a little, due to time lost playing this thing. ;)
Simple undersea scene:
Next, a little undersea screen-saver type demo. This screenshot doesn't really do it justice. Melv created some *fantastic* dynamic lighting effects for this thing. Melv's friend Craig Ball helped out with this demo, and the great art was produced by Craig Fortune and Nauris Krauze of the De-railed team, with a little help from Jeff Gran, a talented intern here in the office. Thanks guys!
Checkers!
The best-looking checkers game ever created? ;) If so, it's thanks to Nauris and Craig once again! These guys rock. Pat Wilson did most of the coding for this game, thanks Pat! This demo is still being worked on, it'll have some cool features that aren't displayed in this pic yet.
Side-scrolling shooter:
None of these demos have much gameplay at all, they're really just meant to show off a little bit of what Torque 2D can do. But Melv has been cranking away on this Mars attack shooter, and it's actually pretty fun to play. I guess earlier today Melv's whole office had a big high score competition for this one. You get power-ups like triple-shot, shields, and side-kick ships, and your goal is to destroy the swarms of enemies that fly your way. This demo has been totally re-coded since IGC, but it was originally written in < 9 hours by Pat, who it should be clear to everyone by now, rocks. Nate Feyma and Alex Swanson created this great art, thanks guys!
So there you have it. :) T2D is just around the corner! None of these demos took more than a dozen hours or so of coding, so T2D really lets you focus on game design and art. I can't wait to see what everyone does with this thing! Let's launch this puppy!!
And once again, many, many, many thanks and congratulations to Melv for all his hard work on T2D. Melv, it has been an utter pleasure working with you. With the help of the awesome community around here, I'm sure this thing is going to be worth all of the hard work we've put it on it. It's gonna feel great to see all the work put to use in helping people make cool new games!
For technical info on T2D, see my ridiculously long informal tech overview .plan: T2D core classes, and T2D core systems. Or.. just pick T2D up in a few days, and see for yourself!
These demos are just simple, simple little examples of what Torque 2D can do. "Demo in a day" is a good way to describe 'em. None of them are anywhere near being games, but they look great, thanks to some extremely talented artists: Craig Fortune, Nauris Krauze, and Matt Mitman. These guys are incredible. For your viewing pleasure, may I present screens from the Torque 2D demos!
Simple "grav gun" demo:
Every engine today is trying to show off their physics, with grav guns and pachinko machines, and blah blah. Grav guns are easy, as our little hero Flegg demonstrates in this demo. And check out those particle effects! Melv does amazing things w/ T2D's particle system, but I bet it won't be long after release before someone out there is even better with it than he is. The great looking art you see here was provided by Craig Fortune and Nauris Krauze, of De-railed. These guys amaze me.
Simple pool demo:
This is a little pool "game" (not quite a full game, but you can knock balls around). Art by Matt Mitman, thanks *tons* Matt! My real-life pool game has improved by about 10x since we started working on this thing. And, I have to be honest, T2D has probably been delayed a little, due to time lost playing this thing. ;)
Simple undersea scene:
Next, a little undersea screen-saver type demo. This screenshot doesn't really do it justice. Melv created some *fantastic* dynamic lighting effects for this thing. Melv's friend Craig Ball helped out with this demo, and the great art was produced by Craig Fortune and Nauris Krauze of the De-railed team, with a little help from Jeff Gran, a talented intern here in the office. Thanks guys!
Checkers!
The best-looking checkers game ever created? ;) If so, it's thanks to Nauris and Craig once again! These guys rock. Pat Wilson did most of the coding for this game, thanks Pat! This demo is still being worked on, it'll have some cool features that aren't displayed in this pic yet.
Side-scrolling shooter:
None of these demos have much gameplay at all, they're really just meant to show off a little bit of what Torque 2D can do. But Melv has been cranking away on this Mars attack shooter, and it's actually pretty fun to play. I guess earlier today Melv's whole office had a big high score competition for this one. You get power-ups like triple-shot, shields, and side-kick ships, and your goal is to destroy the swarms of enemies that fly your way. This demo has been totally re-coded since IGC, but it was originally written in < 9 hours by Pat, who it should be clear to everyone by now, rocks. Nate Feyma and Alex Swanson created this great art, thanks guys!
So there you have it. :) T2D is just around the corner! None of these demos took more than a dozen hours or so of coding, so T2D really lets you focus on game design and art. I can't wait to see what everyone does with this thing! Let's launch this puppy!!
And once again, many, many, many thanks and congratulations to Melv for all his hard work on T2D. Melv, it has been an utter pleasure working with you. With the help of the awesome community around here, I'm sure this thing is going to be worth all of the hard work we've put it on it. It's gonna feel great to see all the work put to use in helping people make cool new games!
For technical info on T2D, see my ridiculously long informal tech overview .plan: T2D core classes, and T2D core systems. Or.. just pick T2D up in a few days, and see for yourself!
About the author
#103
@Matthew: I'll let Jay answer that, my brain is fried and I'll say something not quite correct, I just know it. With regards to your other question; it depends on what you mean by 3D interaction. If you're talking about rendering then no because the GUI controls are rendered discreetly by T3D. T2D can only be over/underlaid any other GUI controls, not intermix rendering, at least not stock. You can of course freely communicate any other information you want, even at the C++ level if you want. The majority of T2D is about the management and manipulation of the scenegraph, its objects and their state. It is possibly to develop a 3D object, using something like my fxRenderObject, that renders the fxSceneGraph2D. The core T2D object is a fxSceneObject2D and that contains all the goodies but the great thing is, it doesn't do any rendering so you can create new objects that do, and work in 3-space with the 2D layer being some Z in 3-space. Some of the stuff though just wouldn't fit or be appropriate and I'm not sure exactly the benefit of doing all this work.
It'd be much easier to develop 2D 3-space objects than try to convert T2D.
- Melv.
02/26/2005 (12:07 am)
@Corey: Nobody said no T2D today! Patience. :)@Matthew: I'll let Jay answer that, my brain is fried and I'll say something not quite correct, I just know it. With regards to your other question; it depends on what you mean by 3D interaction. If you're talking about rendering then no because the GUI controls are rendered discreetly by T3D. T2D can only be over/underlaid any other GUI controls, not intermix rendering, at least not stock. You can of course freely communicate any other information you want, even at the C++ level if you want. The majority of T2D is about the management and manipulation of the scenegraph, its objects and their state. It is possibly to develop a 3D object, using something like my fxRenderObject, that renders the fxSceneGraph2D. The core T2D object is a fxSceneObject2D and that contains all the goodies but the great thing is, it doesn't do any rendering so you can create new objects that do, and work in 3-space with the 2D layer being some Z in 3-space. Some of the stuff though just wouldn't fit or be appropriate and I'm not sure exactly the benefit of doing all this work.
It'd be much easier to develop 2D 3-space objects than try to convert T2D.
- Melv.
#104
I'm thinking it would be fine, because I would be coding T2D and they would be "moding" it... but then again "moding" of T2D released games hasn't been mentioned... and I still may be incorrect, no rush on that I can wait till he can give me a solid answer on that :)
More what I was thinking was basic things... like say I store a Players Health Information in $playerHealth... can T2D have access to that global variable ? Naturaly I'm thinking yes considering you can access different variables with different GUI's (in essence I'd say they share the same "scripting space") but then again I may be wrong... wasn't thinking massive interaction... but if I wanted to have a little bit, would it be feasible to keep setting up info in globals and then access them through T2D ? Could imagine if I tried doing this 32 times a second it would be incredibely inefficient but still feasible ?
02/26/2005 (12:13 am)
Ahh... thx for the explanation Melv... lol I can't even imagine how fried your brain is right now... didn't mean to drop a big thinker on yah. I'm thinking it would be fine, because I would be coding T2D and they would be "moding" it... but then again "moding" of T2D released games hasn't been mentioned... and I still may be incorrect, no rush on that I can wait till he can give me a solid answer on that :)
More what I was thinking was basic things... like say I store a Players Health Information in $playerHealth... can T2D have access to that global variable ? Naturaly I'm thinking yes considering you can access different variables with different GUI's (in essence I'd say they share the same "scripting space") but then again I may be wrong... wasn't thinking massive interaction... but if I wanted to have a little bit, would it be feasible to keep setting up info in globals and then access them through T2D ? Could imagine if I tried doing this 32 times a second it would be incredibely inefficient but still feasible ?
#105
02/26/2005 (12:39 am)
So... pretty soon here will be a good time to start hitting refresh... 
#107
Im still trying to master my 'patience' mechanism.. Luckily, I can rest easy knowing T2D will be worth the wait!!
@Josh
You tease. You marvelous, marvelous tease.. :D
02/26/2005 (12:58 am)
@MelvIm still trying to master my 'patience' mechanism.. Luckily, I can rest easy knowing T2D will be worth the wait!!
@Josh
You tease. You marvelous, marvelous tease.. :D
#108
As an example, say you had T2D running overlaying your game, perhaps in the corner somewhere. You may been using it to render some kind of radar perhaps. You create the radar background and add little radar-blips using T2D sprites. It's entirely possible for your 3D positioned objects to tell the T2D radar control where they are or perhaps the control pollls the objects. It's all compatible with each other. All is possible and most of the time, very easy when it comes to T2D and T3D communicating in games, it's the rendering of T2D stuff intermixed with 3D objects that's the complex stuff.
As an overlay, underlay for menus etc or even use T3D for the 3D backdrop, it's real simple.
- Melv.
02/26/2005 (1:01 am)
@Matthew: You work with T2D exactly as you would with T3D.As an example, say you had T2D running overlaying your game, perhaps in the corner somewhere. You may been using it to render some kind of radar perhaps. You create the radar background and add little radar-blips using T2D sprites. It's entirely possible for your 3D positioned objects to tell the T2D radar control where they are or perhaps the control pollls the objects. It's all compatible with each other. All is possible and most of the time, very easy when it comes to T2D and T3D communicating in games, it's the rendering of T2D stuff intermixed with 3D objects that's the complex stuff.
As an overlay, underlay for menus etc or even use T3D for the 3D backdrop, it's real simple.
- Melv.
#110
Party poppers popped!
Banners unleashed!
Champagne flowing!
T2D Bought!
And its 1am UK time so I'll crash into bed safe in the knowledge of knowing that when I wake, I will be able to tinker with making 2D games to my hearts content.
Great work guys!
:-)
02/26/2005 (1:13 am)
Wahoo! Party poppers popped!
Banners unleashed!
Champagne flowing!
T2D Bought!
And its 1am UK time so I'll crash into bed safe in the knowledge of knowing that when I wake, I will be able to tinker with making 2D games to my hearts content.
Great work guys!
:-)
#111
I'll be working on my wife as soon as she gets home!
Truthfully, Just playing the demo, I can tell you that I am really, really impressed. I can't wait to get my hands on it
02/26/2005 (1:29 am)
Kudos guys. I'll be working on my wife as soon as she gets home!
Truthfully, Just playing the demo, I can tell you that I am really, really impressed. I can't wait to get my hands on it
Torque Owner Corey Martin
:(