January Product Update
by Eric Preisz · 01/20/2011 (3:43 am) · 117 comments

If you haven’t read our other blog, you might want to read it first. This blog, is a more detailed look into our near term product road map.
Bad news first…
TorqueX – February 28th will be the last day that you will be able to purchase TorqueX. The community is tight knit and working on a their own version of the engine, so for the next thirty days you will still be able to buy TorqueX and assign those licensees to other developers through a studio access panel. Discontinuing TorqueX is a hard decision for us, especially when considering how dedicated this community is. I would personally like to take the time to thank Pino. He’s a rock star and anyone using TorqueX knows that. We are still fans of XNA and we have a lot of time invested in the API. Don’t be surprised if/when an XNA based product finds it's way back to GarageGames. We have put a lot of effort into a future Windows Phone 7 product; however, we are taking a step back to reevaluate direction on all emerging platforms. Your opinions are greatly appreciated.

iTorque 3D – We will be discontinuing iTorque 3D. In the future, we will not be pre-selling our new engines without absolute confidence of a QA date. We will be offering refunds to everyone who we can validate as a purchaser of iT3D. We are very happy to have our new owners (more on them in the first blog ) support on this – it’s the right thing to do.
Torque 2D – We have no significant updates to Torque 2D ( aka TGB ) at this time. The good news is that Torque 2D is a very stable product that is able to meet the specs of a wide array of machines including netbooks. Torque 2D’s next version, which we discussed last year at this time is still in development and part of long term plans. It’s unfortunately still to early for us to provide more detail about the next version of Torque 2D and at this time, we recommend that you focus your development plans on Torque 2D ( aka TGB ) until we are able to hone in on a release window.
Good news…
Torque 3D 1.1 Final –Torque 3D 1.1 Final will be heading to QA in the coming weeks. We have a pending driver issue and a relatively short list of bugs in Jira that we are currently slaying. We have a 1.1 version of T3D for the Mac; however, we aren’t able to say with 100% certainty that it will meet our gold standard by the release of 1.1 Final. That decision will need to be delayed until we are able to properly review the code. Our contractors continued to work on Torque 3D 1.1 during the transition and their hard work has kept the ball rolling towards a final release.
Docs & Tutorials – We are going to be working towards our goal of better documentation, docs, and tutorials over the next few months. This work will move slowly at first, but over time, we will be able to hire and scale our efforts as we progress on our product roadmap.
iTorque 2D 1.4.1 – We are in the final rounds of QA and updates for 1.4.1. Barring any new iOS updates that would create a ripple effect to our timing, iT2D 1.4.1 will be going to QA in a couple of weeks.
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#2
01/20/2011 (6:13 am)
Sad about the demise of TorqueX but glad GG is back in the saddle, and since I'm mainly using iT2D really glad to hear about the pending update :).
#3
www.hngamers.com
01/20/2011 (6:13 am)
Woot! Nice post, sad some of the lines is being discontinued, but awesome that you guys are back!www.hngamers.com
#4
01/20/2011 (6:18 am)
Sad news on TX front... well... we do have the 4.0 CEV though ;)
#5
01/20/2011 (6:19 am)
good news! yes!!!!!!!!!!!
#6
01/20/2011 (6:29 am)
great news all round - back in the garage at last!
#7
I'll say this again elsewhere, just putting it here so as not to have the "sad" above misunderstood:
Congratulations. Awesome congratulations. Excited and looking forward to more!
01/20/2011 (6:47 am)
Sad to see T2D delayed and some lines discontinued -- particularly sad to see T2D delayed -- yet... I'm hardly in a mood to complain and I can see this was an amply clearheaded prioriitizing with a lot of thought into it.I'll say this again elsewhere, just putting it here so as not to have the "sad" above misunderstood:
Congratulations. Awesome congratulations. Excited and looking forward to more!
#8
01/20/2011 (6:52 am)
something had to give. It was either that or closure I guess. But the best thing is that GG is concentrating on just Torque! This is what will make the company strong as long as they stay ahead of the competition - it's always good to be 2 if not 3 steps ahead :)
#9
Hmmm Today is a great day ! :)
01/20/2011 (6:53 am)
Yes guys focus on your flagship products ! Even if iTorque3D would be a good idea.Hmmm Today is a great day ! :)
#11
We'll certainly take advantage of the Mac release when it becomes available, but we're actually quite happy to hear that Torque 3D Final will get the final QA pass and release it deserves.
Quick question: We're looking at shipping in the next few months, with any luck, and are wondering what changes we can expect in our license agreement and the EULA for Torque 3D as a result of the recent announcements -- specifically, with Torque 3D branding requirements on shipped games.
Thanks, and looking forward to the new releases!
Dusty Monk
01/20/2011 (7:12 am)
Refocusing on your core product is absolutely the best direction to take with the company's re-emergence - so this is great news. We'll certainly take advantage of the Mac release when it becomes available, but we're actually quite happy to hear that Torque 3D Final will get the final QA pass and release it deserves.
Quick question: We're looking at shipping in the next few months, with any luck, and are wondering what changes we can expect in our license agreement and the EULA for Torque 3D as a result of the recent announcements -- specifically, with Torque 3D branding requirements on shipped games.
Thanks, and looking forward to the new releases!
Dusty Monk
#12
01/20/2011 (7:12 am)
Glad to see that decisions on the "thiner than paper" front were / are reevaluated again to get out of the misery the IA phase brought, so you can work your way back to the old reputation and name you guys had.
#13
01/20/2011 (7:15 am)
Nice work! Good to see the old spirit.
#14
New platforms will come and there will be time to get involved in the future, but for now I think this is best for rebirth of GG.
--RB
01/20/2011 (7:25 am)
Awesome news...refocus the efforts on what's worked in the past. I love it.New platforms will come and there will be time to get involved in the future, but for now I think this is best for rebirth of GG.
--RB
#15
Does this now mean I have a source version of T3D? I purchased a binary does it convert?
01/20/2011 (7:31 am)
Sad news on TX, The version that Pino is heading up will live on I am certain. So now what are our licensing restrictions on the CEV version?Does this now mean I have a source version of T3D? I purchased a binary does it convert?
#16
01/20/2011 (8:12 am)
Impressive news, sounds like you guys are ready for a fresh start with spirits high :)
#17
"Garage Games" YES!!!! Totally agree with your line of reasoning.
01/20/2011 (8:14 am)
Ya....Man......!!"Garage Games" YES!!!! Totally agree with your line of reasoning.
#18
Still its good news on the rest of the product fronts, time for me to dip into T3D I think....
I certainly would be over the moon if a XNA based GG product comes to fruition again (in fact I cant understand why people use TGB instead of TX, in TX you get to deploy to PC AND Xbox, TGB is just PC..always confused me that one...)
I guess the holy grail is a one stop deploy to all solution but I think all middleware providers are aiming for that at the moment.
Still the company that achieves that is gonna win over, hearts n minds, Go on GG you know you want to !
01/20/2011 (8:21 am)
Happy, but Damn, I had kinda hoped TX might be revived in the GG phoenix from the flames...=(Still its good news on the rest of the product fronts, time for me to dip into T3D I think....
I certainly would be over the moon if a XNA based GG product comes to fruition again (in fact I cant understand why people use TGB instead of TX, in TX you get to deploy to PC AND Xbox, TGB is just PC..always confused me that one...)
I guess the holy grail is a one stop deploy to all solution but I think all middleware providers are aiming for that at the moment.
Still the company that achieves that is gonna win over, hearts n minds, Go on GG you know you want to !
#19
Got a question about direction. Will there be more focus on the web publishing potential of T3D? We're working hard on making it work but there are definitely some shortcomings with the current system.
01/20/2011 (8:22 am)
Great news! Can't say that I ever really doubted GG would get picked up by someone with some business savvy.Got a question about direction. Will there be more focus on the web publishing potential of T3D? We're working hard on making it work but there are definitely some shortcomings with the current system.
#20
T2D deploys to Windows, Mac, iPhone, XBox (official XDK, not XNA), and Wii. Plus it runs on lower hardware requirements than TorqueX and XNA.
It is always a difficult decision when looking at potential platforms, but I think we have a strong path forward with our focus.
01/20/2011 (8:31 am)
@HoddieT2D deploys to Windows, Mac, iPhone, XBox (official XDK, not XNA), and Wii. Plus it runs on lower hardware requirements than TorqueX and XNA.
It is always a difficult decision when looking at potential platforms, but I think we have a strong path forward with our focus.

Torque 3D Owner Nicolas Buquet
I'm impatiently awaiting the T3D 1.1 Mac version.
The windows' beta version is already a pleasure to work with.
Happy new year to all the people at GG !! ;-)
Nicolas Buquet
www.buquet-net.com/cv/