June 2002 - Community Discussion

#1 Ah, I guess then "whenever GG is in office" is the problem here... ;-)
So can we take this as "the newsletter is ready, folks, but where the heck are these GG guys to kick it off, dammit...?" ;-)
I'm desperately waiting for it... :-))

#2 Any news concerning the news?

#3 It is ready, and yes. The only thing delaying it is GarageGame's schedule.

Expect it Monday at the latest.

#4 strip-mined design goes a lot further than the early 90s. It's been a part of the gaming industry since Day #1. Spacewars!, Pong, PacMan, Space Invaders...they've all been cloned many a times over. Some clones were dead-on ripoffs, some added new features or changed the graphics quite a bit. It'll always be an issue.
Being a clone doesn't make a game bad; being a bad game makes it bad. Hell, a PacMan clone might be just as fun as the original. It may lose points for being not very original, but who cares? Isn't playing games supposed to be about the fun?

oh, and that memory leak wasn't funny at all.

#5 Cel shading is the devil.

Mario Sunshine wasn't cel shaded at E3 so I don't think it's cel shaded, at least mario, the other characters, and all of the buildings weren't cel shaded... maybe a tree was....

hehe

#6 Clones aren't quite the issue at hand.

Features become popular through some sort of mainstream implementation, then are used in so many games that they become the epitome of what they originally went against; lack of creativity!

I think the only time this symptom will go away is when gaming hits a true "golden age" which I think is coming up very soon. When there are so many advancements that one can't be run into the ground. Dented sure. Overused, probably. But there will be so many things to work with that except in extreme circumstances, they won't be able to be worn out to become a sickening symbol of bandwagoning.

Like the zoom on a sniper scope introduced in Goldeneye (I think) has become a standard in games. Other things like Gibs from Quake are "staples" of game development.

Once something becomes a staple, it can't be overused. It'll be expected to be there!

#7 I have been reading old issues posted on your site, and liked them enough to want to print them out. But virturally all the information on this site is printer unfriendly. could you add a button to allow us access to a printer friendly version (640 width).

I would like to see several sections added to the paper.
1) an overview on atleast one command/script feature/tool, on the theory that eventually they will all have nice easy to read documentation.
2) a low level how to tutorial starting from the basic system and adding a widget/tool/etc. Here are a list of things i can think of as possibles:
a) add a new model/skin as the player
b) add a gui for selecting a player model/skin
c) creating and adding an NPC
d) how to map a world
e) how to make a milkshape model work
f) how to make a new AI and modify its behavior

I believe that documentation and training are what are needed most to get us all as top level tge builders. Yes I realize this is a lot of work. Yes I would be happy to help in any way I could.

MadWizard

#8 Michael,

Documentation and general guidance seems to be a major thrust at the moment and I know that a handful of dedicated people are compiling this stuff right now with others chipping in where they can.

Hopefully, over the next few months, we should see more and more of exactly what you asked for.

I myself am guilty of not yet participating in the documentation work but hopefully I will rectify that soon.

All the best,

- Melv.

p.s. Quite a few people have missed the links on the "Torque Engine SDK" box on the left-hand side of the GG web-page, "Getting Started" & Documentation", these being:-
www.garagegames.com/docs/torque.sdk/gstarted.php
www.garagegames.com/docs/torque.sdk/index.php

#9 I think that if a game is innovative in some way, so much that's it going to be subject to a million copycats trying to cash in on the new thing, then I don't think that the original game itself will be killed off in a flurry of flood-marketing.

Actually, because of its originality, it will stand up on its own merits and will probably become even more successful. While game companies can capitalise on the latest trend in games a year later, as trends seem to last a little bit longer because of all the copycats, they can't really dampen the effect that the original still has.

People aren't stupid; they recognise a game for its originality (most of the time) and when a year later, other things come out and start copying it, a lot of them will recognise what started the trend in the first place and say "But X game did that a year ago."

Eventually, it either becomes an standard in mainstream gaming, or like a fad, it peters out (only to resurface a couple years later). I don't see it as a good thing or a bad thing -- it's just what happens in any market -- and you've just got to make sure you're good enough to be one of the leaders, not the followers.

Paul.