Blog for Marcus at GarageGames.com

Torque Wii Port

Marcus — 2007-07-17T15:31:53+00:00

With the release of the Torque Wii port, I am getting a lot of great ideas and my imagination is running wild. I'm looking forward to hopefully getting my hands on this. This is a great day to be an indie. Now if only Sony will follow Microsoft and Nintendo's examples.

The Press Release on GameDev.net

An enemy becomes a friend...

Marcus — 2007-03-05T05:32:07+00:00

I have been critical of Blender in the past. I thought the interface was horrible and an utter waste of effort to learn. I've been thinking recently about what it would take to succeed as an indie game dev. I came to the conclusion that my soon to be wife will not let me spend a lot of our cash on tools that may never bring any financial return. Will browsing the local Borders I noticed the new "Introducing Character Animation with Blender" book recently published by Sybex. I decided well, Blender is free and there are many people who find Blender to be a very capable app. I picked up a copy.

I must say, that my bias against Blender has vanished. I am working extremely fast in blender and am finding it a very capable modeler. I haven't got into the animation chapters yet but I promise some screens in the next couple of weeks. If you have been against Blender in the past, try this book. There is no comparison between this and the online tutorials. Highly recommended. Who knows what the future may hold...

Grabbing Torque by the Horns!

Marcus — 2006-06-27T23:04:41+00:00

To be honest, up until now I (like many others) have blamed the tools for my lack of finishing a project. I have struggled with Torque technology for some time now. A realization that I came to lately is that the only thing holding me back is myself and my lack of discipline to TRULY learn how Torque works and HOW it should be used.

I bought 3DGPAI1 about a year ago and was very confused with the jump that happens between chapter 3 and chapter 4. I was discourged and I put the book aside. When GPGT came out I was very excited. I made some good progress through the book and eventually became lost again.

Recently while thinking about why my approach to Torque was so difficult. I came to the conclusion that I had such a weak foundation of how torque works at a rudimentary level. I couldn't ever remember the difference between a SimObject and a SceneObject. I started digging around looking for all of the information I could find about the basics of Torque (i.e. Objects, namespaces, Datablocks, ect...). I came to the conclusion that I should treat these subjects as if I had to teach it to someone else.

I have started writing mini-essays on each of these core subjects. I can't even begin to tell you how much this has helped me to understand how Torque works. I have new hope for learning Torque. I think that as I have this solid foundation that the rest will fall into place.

I hope that this helps encourage others out there struggling to learn Torque. Just turn off the TV and start writing some mini essays/lessons on the basic elements of Torque and it will come together for you. Good luck everyone. I hope to be posting some snapshots very soon. ;)