Community Power Hour on Friday ( 8/5 )
by Eric Preisz · 08/02/2011 (4:38 pm) · 40 comments
Community Power Hour
Community is a big part of our product. People often tell me that one of the reasons they choose to use our products is because of the gracious help of community members they have met on our site.
We know that we play a major role in keeping the gears of the community spinning. As a result, we decided to run an experiment last week and asked every person in our company, from QA to janitorial services, to browse the site, jump on IRC, and surf the forums and post. ( just kidding, janitorial services declined our invitation )
Our current work keeps us very busy…
For example, right now we are working on Torque 3D 1.2, which includes a cradle-to-grave game tutorial and many great assets that will help you expand the tutorial into more complex games. The tutorial takes place in an updated, performance-enhanced version of Chinatown, the level you first saw last year at GDC. We have also added turrets and proximity mines as basic AI tutorials and advanced weapons development. We’ve also added other features like teleporting. While we are building the tutorial, we are fixing bugs and quirks that make for a bad experience (and bad tutorial). A lot of you have been asking for an all-inclusive tutorial and we think our work will go above and beyond what you’ve seen from other tutorials. Dexter and I ( both ex-game development instructors ) are lending our experience as educators and Derek, Chris, David(both Davids) and others are driving development and weekly playtesting. It will be a great primer for new users and a great opportunity for us to polish game framework code for existing customers.
But I digress…
My reasoning for discussing 1.2 is so you can learn more about what we are busy working on. My other purpose it to give you an example of the work that we sometimes focus on to the point that we forget to check in with the community.
Last Friday’s experiment was a positive experience for our team and we will be running another full hour on Friday. So from 12:00 to 1:00 PDT (7:00 PM - 8:00 PM GMT), expect to see all GarageGames employees in the forums and blogs and on IRC.
IRC Server: irc.maxgaming.net
IRC Port: 6667
Channel: #GarageGames
About the author
Manager, Programmer, Author, Professor, Small Business Owner, and Marketer.
#2
Except for the time in PST format. Your customers are all around the globe...
08/02/2011 (7:28 pm)
Nice idea, nice blog!Except for the time in PST format. Your customers are all around the globe...
#4
The team grew since Friday, so you will see more new faces in the forums during the Friday event. Also worth mentioning Torque 2D and iTorque 2D forums will be getting some attention from two new employees, including some bug fix postings and progress on updates. We are also coaxing our artists out of their creative shells to check out your work and post some teasers.
08/02/2011 (9:29 pm)
For those who need to see it in the blog: 12:00pm PDT (7:00pm GMT)
The team grew since Friday, so you will see more new faces in the forums during the Friday event. Also worth mentioning Torque 2D and iTorque 2D forums will be getting some attention from two new employees, including some bug fix postings and progress on updates. We are also coaxing our artists out of their creative shells to check out your work and post some teasers.
#5
That's nice, because I recently bought T2D for my son, so he can make his first steps in game development.
08/02/2011 (11:32 pm)
Quote:Torque 2D and iTorque 2D forums will be getting some attention from two new employees
That's nice, because I recently bought T2D for my son, so he can make his first steps in game development.
#6
08/03/2011 (12:25 am)
Awesome! Thank you GG. ;) 
#7
08/03/2011 (5:43 am)
This is great to hear, really reassuring. One thing I might suggest is formally recognizing community help in the form of a 'tutorial of the month' award or whatever. Even if it was a token gesture. 
#8
Turrets are awesome. I have some bada$$ turrets in TGE that are quite lethal. Can't wait to see what you guys came up with.
08/03/2011 (6:41 am)
Good call. 5-6 years ago this was common practice and many GG employees were very active in the community which was a great driving force for us indies. Keep it up. Looking forward to great things to come. :)Turrets are awesome. I have some bada$$ turrets in TGE that are quite lethal. Can't wait to see what you guys came up with.
#9
08/03/2011 (7:17 am)
function ConvertTimeToSeasonal()
{
if(%summertime == true)
%UseTime = "British Summer Time";//or what passes for it ...
else
%UseTime = "Greenwhich Mean Time";
} 
#10
08/03/2011 (7:25 am)
sounds like some interesting things for the 1.2 release, looking forward to it. 
#11
For those of you that don't want to go read through the blog again the Community Power Hour is this Friday, 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM GMT.
08/03/2011 (8:14 am)
Added the GMT time using wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/gmt-converter/ so hopefully it's correct.For those of you that don't want to go read through the blog again the Community Power Hour is this Friday, 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM GMT.
#12
08/03/2011 (9:34 am)
Updated the blog and posts to PDT instead of PST, all the times are correct though. 
#13
08/03/2011 (11:16 am)
It's great to have the employees around. To be honest though, I'd be more excited to hear about feature parity for the Mac release of T3D than jumping ahead to 1.2 while leaving Mac users behind.
#14
Oh world of clocks ... you so crazy!
08/03/2011 (11:55 am)
Or in other words 9pm Central European Time WITH DayLight Saving Adjustments! :POh world of clocks ... you so crazy!
#15
08/03/2011 (3:40 pm)
I -and Im sure many others-, appreciate to have the time in a more directly readable format, thanks guys.
#16
Btw....
The event will be on 6/02/1712 at 07:54:36 if you are a Klingon. :)
08/03/2011 (5:17 pm)
Sorry, bad habit. Thanks for the corrections!Btw....
The event will be on 6/02/1712 at 07:54:36 if you are a Klingon. :)
#17
08/03/2011 (5:33 pm)
I'll be there :) Mr Spock. 
#18
08/03/2011 (5:38 pm)
Quote:The event will be on 6/02/1712 at 07:54:36 if you are a Klingon. :)Your gesture is appreciated.
#19
Class. XD
www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html
Time Zone Converter!
08/03/2011 (6:53 pm)
Can't stop laughingClass. XD
www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html
Time Zone Converter!
#20
08/03/2011 (7:25 pm)
Eric, maybe you should just post the appropriate Unix timestamp.
Torque 3D Owner 'Sidikian'
Good stuff.