That little blue button....

Been away for a while, but still here on a daily basis... sometimes from an airport or a bus station, but most often on a cel-phone. Many people don't know me so I'm finally saying hello. Several years ago I began lurking around here and thought this was an awesome place with a remarkable amount of information and the necessary tools to allow just about anyone the means to realize their dream of creating something approaching some semblance of a game.

The last time that I finished writing a game was more than 20+ years ago on a Commodore 64. Around about 1998-99 I came across a FPS game, that while not my first, really caught my attention more than any other. The game was StarSiege Tribes (and later Tribes 2). This began a love affair for modding that game which has lasted for almost a decade -- I still do! I like to think that I figured out how to do things in it that were far outside the paradigm of what the developers had intended it being capable of. As time went by I met a talented local artist and we had grand visions of a Total Conversion that would rock the mod community. But our sights were too low and over time came to realize that instead modding an existing dated game we should be creating one ourselves. Or at least create some sort of proof of concept that would help attract some attention and help for th project. Oh, but the horror at the thought of writing a game engine from scratch.

So we began a search for a suitable and affordable game engine. I won't list the number of differing engines that we tried out and found to be lacking, but there were more than just a few of them. Somehow or another I ended up here and found Torque. It was like coming home :D Finally, in Sept 07 I took the plunge and registered as a member here on the website & forums and became a TGE 1.5.2 license owner.

But I was a shadow only.

I'm not a communicative person, in fact an early girlfriend called me "Silent Mike" for a reason. But as time went on and I frequented the forums more often -- not so much to ask for help but to look for solutions -- I started coming across questions that I knew the answer for. Yet at the same time I was witnessing a lot of frustration of newcomers whose same ol' questions were being ignored or they were being told to "use the search!" Don't even get me started on just how I critical I still am about that piece of non-functionality ;) So I took it upon myself about a year ago to try and be helpful, to volunteer to help make these newbies a little bit more welcome -- the total opposite of what I appeared to be seeing. I do that a lot, it's part of my contrary and chaotic nature.

So here I am 1275 posts later and I like to think that I've managed for the most part to be generally helpful -- I certainly talk a bit more! I quickly grasp new ideas and often come up with unorthodox solutions -- I may not even make sense some of the time because it's hard to put the way in which my mind works into something like words. Sometimes I've even been a bit critical and possibly left some people with a bad opinion or impression. So if I've ever inadvertently offended or slighted you in anyway don't take it to heart because I was only trying to better us both.

We're all passionate by our being here. Be it that we're hobbyists, students, or serious developers. I don't mind being labeled a hobbyists, but I do have a goal.

A lot has happened in that past year:
- upgraded to using TGEa because it was so damn shiny!
- the artist friend died
- helped create a content pack (Kaboom!) in collaboration with Apparatus
- forced to quit my day job for being too quiet and making people uncomfortable (yes, it's true)
- re-joined my old metal band for something to do + free beer!
- fire destroyed 3 computers and assorted backup devices (among other things) -- there went several years worth of game development up in smoke but it can't/won't hold be back!
- for the past couple of months I've been helping (a little) with Torque 3D development. Nothing major or important, just been trying to improve the old FPS starter kit.

That last one has been hard not to talk about. The last 2-3 months have been exciting times, watching the growth of what those who pre-ordered Torque 3D are finally seeing in the Beta released about two weeks ago -- and yet there's more still to come!

Like I said back at the beginning I've been away for a while and haven't done much of anything Torque related recently. I came home, made a few changes to a few scripts in the FPS Genre Kit and committed them to the Torque 3D repo -- then I left again. Unfortunately I forgot to pack the power adapter with my laptop so the majority of my emails and forum postings of the past week or two have been done with a cell phone -- in text only webpage mode.

But what does all of this have to do with anything? Think of it as a late hello. So I'm finally back home to stay this time -- time to find a real job. So I logged onto the site a little while ago and made a post and lo-and-behold that little button with our names on it has been upgraded to a blue one (at least I think it's blue). It seems that I have been accepted into the hallowed ranks of those with Associate status -- how awesome is that!!! It's a nice feeling of accomplishment because I never felt I needed or deserved any recognition, but all the same there it was...

There's a lot of great people in this community, and I'm only a small part of that. It's great to be here. The Torque product line has never been so strong or exciting. So I feel the need to say:

THANK YOU GARAGEGAMES!

Thank you for enabling all of us.

Now I better get back to improving that Basic FPS Kit.