Plan for Josh Williams

Hi there,

I wanted to make a .plan to let everyone know that there is a new revision of the Torque Documentation up on the site now.

I also wanted to introduce myself to those of you whom I haven't had the chance to meet yet, on the forums or elsewhere. I've been working at GarageGames for the past month as an intern, and I'm loving it. All the guys here impress me, they are very smart, and amazingly passionate and sincere.

I've been blown away by the community here too, I wouldn't have imagined that people would be so eager to help each other and share their knowledge. World domination through collaboration... in action. I can't wait to do my part in bringing about the GarageGames New World Order.

Ok, introductions aside, let me get down to business. I should do a bit of expectations management on the new documentation, linked above. I certainly don't consider these docs complete. You can never write enough documentation, and while Torque's body of documentation and tutorials has matured greatly over the past year or so, there's still a long way to go.

In my mind, this is really just the first step on a new documentation push. The documentation released on the site today contains some new content, and some updates to out-of-date material in the old docs. However, at this point, most of the work has gone into converting the existing documentation to a new, more flexible and useable format.

With this basic conversion out of the way, things are ready to get exciting (at least, if you are freaky like me and can get excited about documentation). Currently, my plan is to attack the documentation on four fronts:

--------------------------------------------------

1) Revise and update the currently released official documentation-

There are definitely some holes that need to be filled in the current docs. There are also some sections that should be updated. And there is lots and lots and lots of work to do on structure and grammar. The end goal, as I understand it, is to bring the current official documentation up to proffessional-snuff, and make it available in book format. That will involve a lot of editing, for content as well as grammar, and some additions of new material. My time will likely be split between a few projects in the future, so I can't give an estimate as to when this work will be completed. I'm enthusiastic about getting it done though, and Alex has been working hard on it too, so hopefully this isn't too far away.

We could definitely use some support from the community on this front. If and when you catch any of the many grammatical errors in the docs, or if you have content suggestions, please email staff@garagegames.com, or hit me up directly: joshw@garagegames.com.


2) Create a new set of comprehensive TorqueScript tutorials-

This is my pet project. There is a whole, whole lot of scripting documentation available right now, and it's very good overall. But there still does not exist a comprehensive, coherent, beginning-to-end Official TorqueScript Tutorial. I have been working on such a set of tutorials in my "spare time" (I'm sure many of you out there know exactly how silly it feels to say that), and they are progressing very nicely. I'll have more details in the future, but I can't say what portion of my time will be allotted to this work. I'm eager to get this out there, so I won't let it go too long.


3) Resource Organization-

There is a mass of useful resources and tutorials on the site. However, from observing many new users, and having recently gotten familiar with Torque myself, I know there is much work to be done in terms of organizing these materials. I hope we can make them more approachable for newbs, and more convenient for experienced users. I believe Alex and I will be working toward this end on an ongoing basis.


4) Other secret plans-

I have in mind some projects that I think will help to both support and grow the GG community. Unfortunately, I haven't yet had a chance to talk about these plans in a lot of detail with the crew yet, so I'll hold off for now before I announce anything that might potentially never get off the ground. I just had to mention, though, that I'm keyed-up about these proposals and hope some of them will come to fruition in the coming months.

--------------------------------------------------

That's my plan. Of course, the staff at GarageGames has a better pulse on both the company and the community, so they know what needs to be done to serve everyone best. As such, I leave it to them to direct my efforts as they see fit, and I can't say for certain that I will be tasked with the above projects exclusively.

Also, I'm a programmer through and through, so at some point I'll need to mix things up a bit with some hardcore engineering. I've written less code in the past month than I have at any other time in the past 10+ years, by a wide margin. I enjoy the art of programming far too much to go a whole lot longer without getting my hands dirty.

That's about it. I'd just like to say once again that I'm extremely proud and excited to be working at GarageGames-- I'm completely in love with the idea of the company and what they're trying to do. There are some very, very exciting projects being worked on in the office, and I have to say that being here is like a dream coming true. I've wanted to get into game programming since I was a little kid.

I'm happy that there are so many people with the same love for videogames, and support for GG, in this community. I'm looking forward to getting to know and work with you guys.

PS- Before closing I want to mention and thank everyone who has helped contribute to the new documentation. I don't mean the above to come off like I did most of the work... that's not the case by a long shot. Alex and Rick have directed the show, and they've both done a whole lot of work on these docs. Many others have contributed as well, including Joe over at BraveTree, Tim, Mark, Ben, Robert, and Chris here in the office, and many, many people in the community. I'd like to send a special thanks to Ben Woodhead as well for his helpful contributions via email. For those of you in the community who I don't know or forgot to name, feel free to chime in down below and get your dues. :)