October TGB Challenge

This is my first blog. I had been wanting to write a "My First Month With Torque", but that slipped away a week or two ago and this new idea popped into my head for next month.

You see, I've now had both Torque Game Engine and Torque Game Builder for a little over a month with almost nothing to show for it. Well, a few scattered learning projects. If I had just shoved TGE/TGB off to the side, I wouldn't be too worried about it. But since Day 1, I have spent EVERY day on the GarageGames website reading the forums, reading over resources, how-to's, but only once in awhile actually fiddling around with the tools and building towards something. In other words, I spend more time reading about the tools than actually using them.

The last few nights I told myself, "I need to really try to figure out some of this stuff I keep putting off." So I've fiddled with Constructor (never did 3D art before this) and added items into TGE. I've made a particle effect in TGB. I finally figured out some issue I was having with shooting and collisions in TGB. I worked through several things and the other night I finally just concluded I want to challenge myself to learn ONE new thing in Torque Game Builder (TGB) each day in October.

One new thing. How simple is that? I really have no set goal of what I plan to learn. I'm not setting out to have a game or anything completed at the end. I simply want to learn concepts/techniques and become more familiar with the tools. I plan to document my work each day and, in the end, perhaps create a beginner's tutorial so others can benefit. Some concepts may be one idea (eg: Hmmm, let me first get this avatar to show on the screen.). Other concepts may be multiple ideas (eg: OK, I have my avatar, but today I will figure out how to move it left/right and jump.).

Some days may take an hour or more to figure something out, others may be as simple as 5-10 minutes. The other night, for example, I wanted to see if I could make a second tile layer in TGB for simply laying down trees on top of my already designed map layer. Sure enough, within a minute or so I was able to lay down my trees on top of the map tiles and I felt like I had accomplished something. It had been in the back of my head for days to try it out, but I just never did. A minute, MAYBE two, was all it took.

Well, you should get the point by now. So I challenge myself to not just read about things, but to actually work at something on a daily basis.

As a sidenote: Since I have already done some work with TGB, my first three or four days will, of course, cover things I already know. My intent is to start a tutorial from scratch so it may require some relearning.