Blog for Anthony Rosenbaum at GarageGames.com

Plastic Tweaker Tweaked!

Anthony Rosenbaum — 2008-11-04T15:12:26+00:00

Hello Garage gamers.

Plastic Games is proud to inform you that the Plastic Tweaker has been tweaked!!

Since its initial release we had several minor issues, console spam, typos and the like which has since been resolved;

Officially the changes are as follows

- Added bitmap = "./tweakScroll" property added to TweakMenuDefault GuiProfile, fixing crash in TGEA Stronghold Game Project
- Removed exec("./tweakServer.cs"); from /plastic/init.cs, instead it is called in plastic/server/init.cs
- Removed exec("./ui/tweak/guiUtil.cs"); from tweakInit.cs this was a legacy file that is unneeded now
- Change references of BETA to DEMO
- Version number updated

If you don't know about the Plastic Tweaker yet, you should look into it. The Plastic Tweaker allows you to edit datablocks, and global variables in game without reloading the application.

One thing that is very important in tool development is good documentation. We here at Plastic Games spent a week over the summer posting docs on the Plastic Tweaker; the following lists and links to all the great Plastic Tweaker documentation already available to you the Torque developer. Most articles have plenty of working code examples as well as images and videos to show you how powerful this tool can be.

Plastic Gem 35 : Plastic Tweaker
Plastic Gem 36 : Plastic Tweaker's comment convention
Plastic Gem 37 : Plastic Tweaker's support files
Plastic Gem 38 : Plastic Tweaker application examples
Plastic Gem 39 : Plastic Tweaker state machine example.
Plastic Tweaker recap blog

The retail version will allow you to save tweaks back to file. The time saving alone is worth the cost of the product.

I hope you enjoy it and be sure to check out other
Plastic Gems

Plastic Tweaker for Sale

Anthony Rosenbaum — 2008-10-23T13:38:00+00:00

Hello Garage gamers.

Plastic Games is proud to inform you that the Plastic Tweaker is now available for purchase thru the Garage Games development tool page. The Plastic Tweaker allows you to edit datablock, and global variable in game without reloading the application.

In case you missed its announcement this summer here is a link to its initial release as
Plastic Gem 35 . Some instructions on the Plastic Tweaker's comment convention some support files for gui picking and Ease support a couple application examples even a state machine example. If you would like to cut to the chase and see all the videos together be sure to watch this recap blog

The retail version will allow you to save tweaks back to file. The time saving alone is worth the cost of the product.

I hope you enjoy it and be sure to check out other
Plastic Gems

Plastic Gems: 35-39 Plastic Tweaker Recapped

Anthony Rosenbaum — 2008-08-15T13:33:24+00:00

Plastic Gems: 35-39 Plastic Tweaker Recapped

If you have been watching the resource section this week you will have seen a slew of resources dedicated to the tool, the Plastic Tweaker. We have covered many aspects of the tool and have included several examples. As of last night I included several Viddler videos to show the tool in action.
As a recap I am going to add these videos to this blog with a brief description so that you may see the power and flexibility of the Plastic Tweaker in action.

Tweak PlayerData
Here we see how the Plastic Tweaker can dynamically change the value used for vertical thrust on a player's jets.

Tweak ParticleData
Plastic Tweaker can also change particle properties on the fly.

Tweak Profiles
GUI Profiles are usually very cumbersome and time consuming to adjust but the Plastic Tweaker allows you to change the values in game.

Theses videos just scratch the surface of what the Plastic Tweaker can do. Try it out, before you know it you will find the Plastic Tweaker is an indispensable tool for Torque development.

Plastic Gem #35: Plastic Tweaker cometh

Anthony Rosenbaum — 2008-07-29T22:33:08+00:00

In case you missed the whole summer, Plastic Games has been releasing tons of code snippets, examples, and full out features for TGE and TGEA thru the Plastic Gem series. If you haven't checked it out yet, be sure to look into the past 34 Plastic Gems resources by following the link in banner above. But wait there is more...

Our next Gem might take a few days to release, because we want this next one to be perfect.

Plastic Gem 35: Plastic Tweaker

The Plastic Tweaker is a tool we have developed over the past two years and has had many iterations in development and design. Essentially it is a GUI driven, in-game, value adjuster.

"Huh?" you say? It is a tool designed to change the values of global variables and datablock properties while the app is running. This allows us to spend more time massaging the data in the game as designers, and less time watching the game close and re-open.

We will be releasing a beta of this tool to the public. We think the community will really benefit from this product as it has been indispensable to us.

Once we have matured the product, expect to see Plastic Tweaker Pro. Plastic Tweaker Pro will be designed for established teams who wish to tweak across a network.

So please enjoy,

and

Gem-A-day

Anthony Rosenbaum — 2008-06-09T13:12:11+00:00

Hi there Torquers, I would like to take a moment to remind you that today starts Plastic Games first ever Gem-a-day extravaganza. Over the past few years several very useful techniques have been developed at Plastic Games, and we feel you all deserve to have these resources at your finger tips.

This month's Game Developer has an article about how perspective changed the face of art during the renaissance. Perspective was mastered by Filippo Brunelleschi, but like many in the guild system he kept his techniques a secret. It wasn't until Leon Battista Alberti researched Brunelleschi's works that he was able to write a book comprehensively describing perspective. This book allowed future artists including Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael to learn from and ultimately take this knowledge to a new level.

What you will see in our Gems isn't anything 'new', these techniques have been around for a while, but hopefully you all will be able to leverage our code and do amazing stuff with it. So be prepared, in the upcoming weeks you will learn new ways to manipulate threads, animate guis' properties, consolidate code between TGE and TGEA, and get a hold of an in game datablock editor we call the Tweaker.

Gem A Day

Bixby and the Isle of Charms

Anthony Rosenbaum — 2008-02-12T21:59:33+00:00

It's time!

Yes time to see what Plastic Games has been doing for the past few months. We have been busy. We just installed our second attraction at a major theme park in Orlando, Florida. We have also been developing some game prototypes and we want feed back on the first one we have ready titled. . .

Bixby and the Isle of Charms

What is it? Well you should play and see for yourself.

Controls:
W : Forward
Left Mouse Button : Dig
I : Inventory
Mouse:: Steering

In case you have a gamepad alt + m switches to gamepad controls.

Feedback is essential. This project is in early development, we want to hear from YOU, our audience. We have included a small survey and comments form to complete when you are done playing the game. If you like Bixby be sure to pass along the link to others or let your kids and spouse give it a try. Your feedback and honesty is integral so please fill out the feedback form when you are done.

In fact, Bixby is just the first of several game prototypes that we are going to be showing in the near future. Each game is vastly different so we should have something for everybody.

Bixby and the Isle of Charms on GGE

Have fun!!
Anthony Rosenbaum

Hi from My Wii

Anthony Rosenbaum — 2006-12-22T14:47:26+00:00

Yes, the wii browser is out, from it i wrote this blog. Happy Holidays.

New New New

Anthony Rosenbaum — 2006-11-15T22:21:42+00:00

Well hello from Kentucky, Torquers. This is your ever persistant game developer in the Bluegrass state. Lots has changed for me over the past year and I hope to sum it all up in a few words. First off I no longer teach Graphic Design, yeah, because I am teaching Game Design at Itt-Tech Louisville, yeah yeah. In fact tonight is my first final, I know I sorta delayed this announcment but that is cause not all good things have happened, but I promise not to depress you with some reality.

On a positive note I have been working with Plastic Games, after IGC 05 I joined the team and well for the first six months we did A LOT of brain storming, we came up with several prototypes and various game ideas. Then just as we were about to embark on making a PG game, contract work began to show. We said hey if we are a game team we need to do contract projects. The project was just big enough to push us and prove to ourselves that we could suceed in this industry, so we said "lets do it". I wish I could tell you about such work but needless to say it was very rewarding and looks great on a resume.

Well that contract was the summer, and now it is about winter, and well right as my personal life took a dive for the worse ( again I rather not brodcast why) karma interviened and a new contract arrived. Yet again I can't say what or who this contract is for but I will say it is better than our previous contract. With any luck millions of people will enjoy the end product and the money is good enough for the majority of the team to go Indie!

So hopefully by the next IGC our secrets can be revealed. It is very exciting, our whole team is siked. The only thing better would be Torque for the Wii. Until next time.

Old Navy Game

Anthony Rosenbaum — 2006-02-20T17:49:23+00:00

Another week another project, this is an Old Navy number guessing game, using t2d , if only I had a Torque plugin

MAC
PC

all bugs or comments are welcome

MASTERS first class Final Project

Anthony Rosenbaum — 2006-02-13T18:29:28+00:00

So where have I been? At school, Savannah School of Art and Design's MAster program is Interactive and Game Devlopment.

Being a teacher it is nice to get the student perspective once in a while. Anyway here is a prototype of my Final Project, an Interactive Guide to Leonardo Da Vinci. It is feature complete, now is process of bug testing, tweaking and refining. All comments and found bug are welcome, feel free to post them here.

NOTE there are seperate builds for each platform. Please post comments and bugs as quickly as you can. When you load the app, give it a minute, it has to load a lot of images which takes time.

Thanks

MAC

www.afterschoolcartoons.com/pres/packaged_MAC.zip

PC

www.afterschoolcartoons.com/pres/Packaged_PC.zip