Torque|Source
by Dan Boudreau · 12/18/2008 (11:34 am) · 6 comments
Hello everyone! Welcome to my second GG blog post.
I want to tell everyone about a new project I'm working on.
About a year ago I wanted to jump into game development, but I found it incredibly difficult to figure out where to start. So I bought a couple books read through them, ran through the tutorials and read through some forums. After messing around with quite a few engines, I found Torque. There was something completely different about Torque and GarageGames as a whole.
For me, it seemed that Torque had this HUGE community driven development side to it, where as with the other engines, sure there were forums and a few contributors, but nothing compared to the community you guys have built up here. So it's a pleasure to be a part of that now.
I'm sure all of you can remember starting off like this with little or no direction at all. So I've come up with an idea to help newcomers and the overall community to share resources and assets in a much simpler way. GarageGames has a great system with their well organized and moderated forums to their bloggers and the online store. I just want to kind of take a different approach at it.
So I'll hopefully be launching within the next week or so. I'd like to put the offer out to any web developers / designers, if you'd like to help, you're more than welcome, if not I'm sure I can manage this one on my own for now.
The site is located at www.torque-source.com. So add it to your bookmarks, favorites, whatever. Just keep an eye out. I'll be posting again once it's ready for launch.
Take fellow GarageGamers!
I want to tell everyone about a new project I'm working on.
About a year ago I wanted to jump into game development, but I found it incredibly difficult to figure out where to start. So I bought a couple books read through them, ran through the tutorials and read through some forums. After messing around with quite a few engines, I found Torque. There was something completely different about Torque and GarageGames as a whole.
For me, it seemed that Torque had this HUGE community driven development side to it, where as with the other engines, sure there were forums and a few contributors, but nothing compared to the community you guys have built up here. So it's a pleasure to be a part of that now.
I'm sure all of you can remember starting off like this with little or no direction at all. So I've come up with an idea to help newcomers and the overall community to share resources and assets in a much simpler way. GarageGames has a great system with their well organized and moderated forums to their bloggers and the online store. I just want to kind of take a different approach at it.
So I'll hopefully be launching within the next week or so. I'd like to put the offer out to any web developers / designers, if you'd like to help, you're more than welcome, if not I'm sure I can manage this one on my own for now.
The site is located at www.torque-source.com. So add it to your bookmarks, favorites, whatever. Just keep an eye out. I'll be posting again once it's ready for launch.
Take fellow GarageGamers!
About the author
#2
Don't get it wrong here, I merely point out that your initiative is warmly welcome, but why not direct your forces to a more productive game/project/etc ?
Add some actual content to the site and make it interesting, maybe you can also prove me wrong :)
12/18/2008 (12:36 pm)
It's a good idea and a nice initiative; however, when do people actually figure out that GG is paying Mike Perry to write up a fresh documentation? Why split this thing into so many parts and websites, it doesn't help anyone, au contraire. Don't get it wrong here, I merely point out that your initiative is warmly welcome, but why not direct your forces to a more productive game/project/etc ?
Add some actual content to the site and make it interesting, maybe you can also prove me wrong :)
#3
@Apparatus : I completely understand where you're coming from. My original idea with this site was to create a nice market for developers to sell Torque only resources and assets, which I most likely will still implement. Reason being is because developers, artists, modelers, composers that want to market their content to a large audience can't necessarily do so through the GG Store and are often left with only posting their content on the forums, which we all know can get lost after a good 10 - 20 new threads and never seen again. So the original idea was to create a site where people can sell and distribute their content very easily. And actually yea, I'm working on a game right now called "The World", check out my other blog post. The only problem with me, being as I am, I can't for the life of me just focus my attention on one project. I think that's where the ADD/ADHD sets into play. :D But like I said, I completely understand where you're coming from and it does, to a point, seem like it could be somewhat of a waste. But who knows, could be very useful too. :)
12/18/2008 (1:04 pm)
@Rene Damm : Thanks, lots of work being put into that game.@Apparatus : I completely understand where you're coming from. My original idea with this site was to create a nice market for developers to sell Torque only resources and assets, which I most likely will still implement. Reason being is because developers, artists, modelers, composers that want to market their content to a large audience can't necessarily do so through the GG Store and are often left with only posting their content on the forums, which we all know can get lost after a good 10 - 20 new threads and never seen again. So the original idea was to create a site where people can sell and distribute their content very easily. And actually yea, I'm working on a game right now called "The World", check out my other blog post. The only problem with me, being as I am, I can't for the life of me just focus my attention on one project. I think that's where the ADD/ADHD sets into play. :D But like I said, I completely understand where you're coming from and it does, to a point, seem like it could be somewhat of a waste. But who knows, could be very useful too. :)
#4
12/18/2008 (3:03 pm)
Don't get me wrong here, no harm intended. Why not use the time to add some stuff there first and kick the blog after. The reception perspective may change radically. I myself have a few things on my website but I rather call those an attachment to the original documentation. Let's make it easy for the new guys coming to torque. 
#5
When someone steps out of the chaos to say "I'm going to help the community", my eyes light up because that's how I landed my job =)
I don't know about clinical ADD/ADHD, but I definitely suffer from chronic lack of prolonged attention with development projects. I can completely relate to your statement. If you end up producing a single HTML page that is helpful to another Torque developer, then you have not wasted anything.
Apparatus has a point: GG hired someone to produce documentation, at no cost the community. While my game developer direction is lacking, my focus on documentation is an irresistible force with no immovable object in my path. My work doesn't stop there, as I help David with community management and provide QA where I can.
That does not mean others can't pursue their own methods of helping the community. That's awesome, especially if there is success. I think the point Apparatus is making, and I fully stand behind, is that there is a constant you can depend on: I'm going to be at GarageGames for a long time, aiding in documentation and community efforts.
Granted, the purpose of Torque|Source does not relate to my main job. However, keep in mind that the closer you are to GG the more traffic and success will be pushed your way.
Keep us (me) updated on your progress with your projects (both game and Torque|Source).
Buena suerte.
12/18/2008 (9:15 pm)
@Dan - Till the day I delete my account (i.e. never), no matter what my current job may be, I will always consider myself a GG community member. That's why I take .plans like this very seriously.When someone steps out of the chaos to say "I'm going to help the community", my eyes light up because that's how I landed my job =)
I don't know about clinical ADD/ADHD, but I definitely suffer from chronic lack of prolonged attention with development projects. I can completely relate to your statement. If you end up producing a single HTML page that is helpful to another Torque developer, then you have not wasted anything.
Apparatus has a point: GG hired someone to produce documentation, at no cost the community. While my game developer direction is lacking, my focus on documentation is an irresistible force with no immovable object in my path. My work doesn't stop there, as I help David with community management and provide QA where I can.
That does not mean others can't pursue their own methods of helping the community. That's awesome, especially if there is success. I think the point Apparatus is making, and I fully stand behind, is that there is a constant you can depend on: I'm going to be at GarageGames for a long time, aiding in documentation and community efforts.
Granted, the purpose of Torque|Source does not relate to my main job. However, keep in mind that the closer you are to GG the more traffic and success will be pushed your way.
Keep us (me) updated on your progress with your projects (both game and Torque|Source).
Buena suerte.
#6
12/19/2008 (6:43 pm)
@ Mike Perry : Wow, thanks man. I truly appreciate you're voice on this blog post. I'll definitely keep you guys updated on everything I'm working on and hope that we can all help out the Torque community as a whole whether it be with your tutorials and documentation or my site. Thanks again for your input, just drives me to do the best I can to help out. :)
Associate Rene Damm
BTW, great work with "The World". Looks real good.