We did it and so can you....
by Mindwedge · 08/15/2012 (4:00 pm) · 13 comments
It's my hope that this blog will help provide some amount of inspiration for the old and new Torque developers alike out there. There are always times when we can use a boost in the inspiration department, and when you see a team succeed at making and publishing a title it can be very refreshing and motivating.
Way back in 2004 when we started this project we were just getting our feet wet in game development, as I expect some of you are now. There were many hurdles to overcome and lots of code to write. Having access to the source code was very helpful to our technical staff, and made it possible for us to add and refine the necessary functions to make our title work the way we needed it to.
Learning the ropes of how to put everything together was a trial-and-error process of iteration. There were tools to make, mechanisms that needed refinement and general TLC to get them working for our needs. You should know though that all of this is possible and you too can accomplish what we have here if you have the same dedication and determination that the members of our team showed throughout. And speaking of that...
Ed Phillips - Technical Director, and Chris Robertson - R&D Director on this project were instrumental in the making of this game. my hat is off to them both for their talent and dedication. Some of you may already know Chris for his MS2DTS exporter plus tool, and his earlier work on COLLADA for Torque 3D.
I hope this blog provides inspiration for you, and for your enjoyment, try out the demo of our published title here:
The Monster Minis Extreme Off-Road Website
Also, you can still get the latest version of Chris Robertson's very popular and free MilkShape exporter which we used in making this game here:
Chris Robertson's MS2DTS Exporter Plus
Way back in 2004 when we started this project we were just getting our feet wet in game development, as I expect some of you are now. There were many hurdles to overcome and lots of code to write. Having access to the source code was very helpful to our technical staff, and made it possible for us to add and refine the necessary functions to make our title work the way we needed it to.
Learning the ropes of how to put everything together was a trial-and-error process of iteration. There were tools to make, mechanisms that needed refinement and general TLC to get them working for our needs. You should know though that all of this is possible and you too can accomplish what we have here if you have the same dedication and determination that the members of our team showed throughout. And speaking of that...
Ed Phillips - Technical Director, and Chris Robertson - R&D Director on this project were instrumental in the making of this game. my hat is off to them both for their talent and dedication. Some of you may already know Chris for his MS2DTS exporter plus tool, and his earlier work on COLLADA for Torque 3D.
I hope this blog provides inspiration for you, and for your enjoyment, try out the demo of our published title here:
The Monster Minis Extreme Off-Road Website
Also, you can still get the latest version of Chris Robertson's very popular and free MilkShape exporter which we used in making this game here:
Chris Robertson's MS2DTS Exporter Plus
#2
08/15/2012 (7:52 pm)
Wow, the demo was lots of fun. Love the beach music. Really nice look. Great job. 
#3
08/15/2012 (10:51 pm)
Fun to play the demo. Nice game also and great work!
#4
I have a zero bugs policy too, which kept our engineers Ed and Chris pretty busy as well, and they did the job with dedication and valor, but that left little time for blogging about it. Chris did make one of our dev tools available for free though. So we were able to share that much.
What's really great for us is that Trent Oster's team thought enough of this game to put it in their Staff Picks list at Beamdog. We're very proud of that.
Make sure to play the whole game if you can. There are a lot of ideas in there that wouldn't be explored by a big publisher's dev studio. That might be the most inspirational part of this lesson - you can do anything you imagine when you dedicate yourself to it.
08/16/2012 (5:39 am)
Thanks much guys. There's no dev blog, sorry. There really wasn't time at my end. I wear more hats than I can recite and it took many years to both learn how to make our game, and to get it right so that it has passed approval on distribution portals (it didn't crash their rigs for openers, and they felt it was worthy of inclusion to their store lineup).I have a zero bugs policy too, which kept our engineers Ed and Chris pretty busy as well, and they did the job with dedication and valor, but that left little time for blogging about it. Chris did make one of our dev tools available for free though. So we were able to share that much.
What's really great for us is that Trent Oster's team thought enough of this game to put it in their Staff Picks list at Beamdog. We're very proud of that.
Make sure to play the whole game if you can. There are a lot of ideas in there that wouldn't be explored by a big publisher's dev studio. That might be the most inspirational part of this lesson - you can do anything you imagine when you dedicate yourself to it.
#5
True Indie deving! Congrats on release. :)
08/16/2012 (6:45 am)
Quote:
I wear more hats than I can recite and it took many years to both learn how to make our game
True Indie deving! Congrats on release. :)
#6
08/16/2012 (7:08 am)
(chuckling) - thanks Steve. 
#7
Right on the money for any kind of startup or small company.
@Mindwedge,
Thanks for sharing your success story. We need more of that around here. Would it be possible for you to do a post mortem? Has Game Developer shown an interest in your game? Perhaps we can convince GG to do one if you have the time?
Edit:
$4! Holy crap I picked it up from Beam Dog for $4! Just what I will learn from a shipped game using Torque is worth way more than that! Thanks!
08/16/2012 (3:09 pm)
@Steve,Right on the money for any kind of startup or small company.
@Mindwedge,
Thanks for sharing your success story. We need more of that around here. Would it be possible for you to do a post mortem? Has Game Developer shown an interest in your game? Perhaps we can convince GG to do one if you have the time?
Edit:
$4! Holy crap I picked it up from Beam Dog for $4! Just what I will learn from a shipped game using Torque is worth way more than that! Thanks!
#8
There are a few things I will do differently going forward (mostly related to what I could have done better myself, and as a leader), but I have no regrets about the past. It happened as it was supposed to happen, and in its own time. I guess I could expand on that if called upon.
We did do a good job of keeping things organized, like keeping a private PHP forum so everyone knows what's going on and anyone could review the information, tasks, feature requests, bug reports and work blogs of each member of the team. It takes a bit longer to type things than to Skype them, but there's no one saying, I forgot about that, or no one told me. It's all there.....
Glad you like the deal on the game. We want everyone to feel that they got a good value for their money.
Thanks for your support Frank. That's the kind of support I'm sure everyone here wants to have.
08/17/2012 (10:45 pm)
Post mortem, hmmm, let me think about that. We did so many things in an unconventional way, partly because we started with no conventions to confine us, partly because I tend to shun convention as it IS confining, and partly because those confines restrict both creativity and flexibility. People have lives and that doesn't mesh with a hard-and-fast schedule. It was really about dedication and good old-fashioned hard work, and perhaps most of all, patience. There are a few things I will do differently going forward (mostly related to what I could have done better myself, and as a leader), but I have no regrets about the past. It happened as it was supposed to happen, and in its own time. I guess I could expand on that if called upon.
We did do a good job of keeping things organized, like keeping a private PHP forum so everyone knows what's going on and anyone could review the information, tasks, feature requests, bug reports and work blogs of each member of the team. It takes a bit longer to type things than to Skype them, but there's no one saying, I forgot about that, or no one told me. It's all there.....
Glad you like the deal on the game. We want everyone to feel that they got a good value for their money.
Thanks for your support Frank. That's the kind of support I'm sure everyone here wants to have.
#9
I am also going to use this for the company I am building. We really need some pictures and dialog to keep things cohesive. This will be great.
You see, it may seem like a small thing, but little bits like that make a huge difference. Seeing progress of the team is a good thing!
Hey, it is a good deal to see what other programmers are up to. That why blogs are so important. I think I even remember this development early on. Specifically I remember a post about collision boxes getting ahead of the vehicle depending upon velocity. I don't remember the outcome of the discussion, but I remember the posting.
I also like the distribution channel you chose. Beamdog seems to be a very clean environment to publish a game with. I have used Steam and while I like it overall there is a feeling of complication to the interface. I don't see that with Beamdog.
08/17/2012 (11:00 pm)
Ooh, I like that idea for keeping things tracked in a PHP forum. I am going to do that for a couple of my projects. I am developing a game in-house (literally in our house with my family). It is hard for some of the members to stay focused and progress and screenshots for them to look at and comment on would be good.I am also going to use this for the company I am building. We really need some pictures and dialog to keep things cohesive. This will be great.
You see, it may seem like a small thing, but little bits like that make a huge difference. Seeing progress of the team is a good thing!
Hey, it is a good deal to see what other programmers are up to. That why blogs are so important. I think I even remember this development early on. Specifically I remember a post about collision boxes getting ahead of the vehicle depending upon velocity. I don't remember the outcome of the discussion, but I remember the posting.
I also like the distribution channel you chose. Beamdog seems to be a very clean environment to publish a game with. I have used Steam and while I like it overall there is a feeling of complication to the interface. I don't see that with Beamdog.
#10
There was a post about collision boxes, yes. We fixed that and a number of other things. Since you have the game go ahead and crash your truck around and see how well the guys fixed the collision detection. It's very solid.
Trent Oster and his team at Beamdog are great people. They gave us their time to test and approve our game, while hard at work on their own titles. I'm getting the impression that the other portals don't have those resources or willingness. Still, we'll be submitting to Steam Greenlight very soon, and with a Linux build too if our beta testing has positive results (we're confident it will).
I should give a shout out to Scott Reismanis at Desura too. His team is just as helpful, and Tim Jung has been very patient with us while we learn the ropes of selling on Desura.
Feel free to send me an e-mail if you want to chat. The marketing link on my site gets mail to us.
mindwedge.com
08/17/2012 (11:19 pm)
If you have your own web site, there's probably a PHPBB2 or better feature you can use. We keep ours elsewhere (on a different ISP than our web pages). It's also good to have a code repository. If you like I could point you to an ISP that handles these things. Since you're working entirely locally, maybe you can just set it up there. We're distributed (2 locations in the USA and 1 in New Zealand) so we needed the outside server.There was a post about collision boxes, yes. We fixed that and a number of other things. Since you have the game go ahead and crash your truck around and see how well the guys fixed the collision detection. It's very solid.
Trent Oster and his team at Beamdog are great people. They gave us their time to test and approve our game, while hard at work on their own titles. I'm getting the impression that the other portals don't have those resources or willingness. Still, we'll be submitting to Steam Greenlight very soon, and with a Linux build too if our beta testing has positive results (we're confident it will).
I should give a shout out to Scott Reismanis at Desura too. His team is just as helpful, and Tim Jung has been very patient with us while we learn the ropes of selling on Desura.
Feel free to send me an e-mail if you want to chat. The marketing link on my site gets mail to us.
mindwedge.com
#11
08/20/2012 (8:13 pm)
Reminds me of Monster Truck Madness, why aren't there more games like this! Congrads on release! The road is long and hard but the satisfaction of creating something to completion is, in some cases, reward enough. Hoping for the best, make sure to post up when you go on Steam Greenlight, and looking forward to seeing more soon (Monster Minis 2? :D).
#12
Maybe Monster Minis Head-2-Head on Andriod/iOS. Something we're considering, but it's going to be a whole different game, and fresh development cycle.
A sequel to this game will have to be more fully planned out, and need some fresh track theme ideas. Still, this is why indie devs profit from owning their IP. We can do that if we choose to.
08/21/2012 (1:22 pm)
Thanks Mack - will do.Maybe Monster Minis Head-2-Head on Andriod/iOS. Something we're considering, but it's going to be a whole different game, and fresh development cycle.
A sequel to this game will have to be more fully planned out, and need some fresh track theme ideas. Still, this is why indie devs profit from owning their IP. We can do that if we choose to.
#13
steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=93025511
We appreciate all the up votes we can get here! Thanks.
08/31/2012 (9:26 pm)
As promised, I'm posting about Steam Greenlight. Here it is:steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=93025511
We appreciate all the up votes we can get here! Thanks.
Torque Owner kcpdad
60 Tons
Is there a development blog? I don't see one on the site. I would be interested in hearing about you experiences using Torque.