Blog for Mark Barner at GarageGames.com

Barnsmorr Castle update.

Mark Barner — 2006-07-15T22:58:07+00:00

It has been a while since our last update of our project. We lost some time due to some software issues. It seems that when someone puts out a new release, they would make sure that it works first. Then it takes a month for them to update it. No I am not talking about GG, let me just say that we can't wait till Constructor comes out and leave it at that. GG and the community has been great in solving the problems and helping with our questions. Also, I purchased the MMORPG from MyDreamRPG. This has/will save us a lot of time on our project. Their support is great also. Because of the software issue, Rick Morrison ended up redoing the castle over. He is in the early stages of the design with very few errors.

I have been working on the forest. I really like using the fxShapeReplicator. Ed Maurina's book "The Programmer's Guide" has really helped out with learning how to use the settings. The forest is about halfway done.

This is not much, but we have learned a lot of things since my last update. One thing I learned over the last couple months is that you have to keep at it if you want to finish your game. I have read in some different forums recently on how out dated Torque was, lack of documentation, or how hard it is to use. I just think that they are excuses for them not trying to learn Torque. I think they lack the motivation it takes to make a game with Torque or any other engine.

A newbie

Mark Barner — 2006-04-30T00:06:30+00:00

It's has been a while since I updated the status of our game "Kilo-watt: A quest for power". Basically it is stopped for now. For several reasons we decided to stop the Kilo-watt project, but the main reason was we wanted to continue working on our original project "Barnsmorr Castle". Rick has learned 3DWS now and is building away. I am studying Torque script and the engine editors. So here is some screen shots of some of the things we worked on in the last couple of weeks:

Inside the dinning hall...

view of Barnsmorr Castle and the Fire Tree...

above view of the Maze Challenge...

side view of Maze Challenge...

Castle boat docks with town in distance...

swamp...

and in the swamp...

Well that is some of what we have been doing. This is actually our first game and the one that we are most motivated in finishing. It is really nice to see things and to run around in it. It give us ideas on what we want and where to put things.

Torque specific books

Mark Barner — 2006-04-21T22:59:26+00:00

I have seen several request in the forums similar to this:

Quote:

I have purchased a license of Torque and completed the tutorial provided with the install. I was wondering what books there may be to learn more about Torque if any?

Well here is a list of Torque specific books and a few others that help you make games with Torque. What I mean by "Torque specific books" is that a demo of Torque was included on a companion disk and was used in the examples. I also included a few other books that are not "Torque specific books" but will help a beginner creating games with Torque. And to help understand concepts not covered in the "Torque specific books".

**Note: Some of these books use different versions of TGE. All Torque scripts can be used in the current version with little or no modifications.

Torque specific books...

- The first book I want to get started with is "The Game Programmer's Guide to Torque" by Edward F. Maurina III. This book is the latest to date and uses the current venison TGE 1.4. It's step by step examples demonstrate how to use the engine to it's fullest. In depth references of engine classes, subsystems, and script functions. A lesson kit included on the companion CD. The CD has over 500 additional pages of appendices. You also have an option to build a game while you are reading the book. If you are tight on money and can afford only one or two books, I would highly suggest buying this one first before the others.

- "3D Programming All In One" by Kenneth C. Finney, this book covers each step required to make a fully featured game with Torque. It covers general programming concepts, modeling, textures, and music. This book uses version TGE 1.2. * Note: the second edition is to be coming September 2006.

- K. Finney's second book "Advanced 3D Programming All In One" picks up where his first book left off. It takes it up a notch and learn how to spice your game up. Covers AI, player control, simulation techniques, and Torque script. This book uses version TGE 1.3.

- The above books are geared more to Torque script. Now "2D Artwork And 3D Modeling for Game Artists" byDavid Franson cover the artist side. This book shows you how to create models, arrange U-V's, generate textures, then finalize your models for use. This book comes with several demo, including 3ds Max, Photoshop, Truespace and several other programs. This book uses a demo version of Realm Wars. An older book but very informative.

- "The Dark Side Of Game Texturing" by David Franson is an in depth discussion of the texturing chapter from the previous book above. I actually consider this book part of the previous book from above. The companion CD comes with hundreds of royalty-free texture images.

- Now if your interested in doing some physics, check out "Physics Modeling For Game Programmers" by David Conger. This book covers mathematical tools for physics and 3D programming, 2D and 3D transformations and rendering, 3D objects, movement, and collisions. Gravity and projectiles, cars, hovercraft, ships, and boats. You learn how to make the elements in your game move in a realistic way. This book uses version TGE 1.3.

Non specific Torque books...

These books are good to read if you are a absolute beginner prior to reading the above books.

- "Beginning C++ Game Programming" By Michael Dawson. This book covers the fundamentals of C++. As you cover each programming concept, you'll create small games that demonstrate them. The companion CD comes with six additional bonus appendices and all the source code from the book.

- "Beginning Game Level Design" by John Feil and Marc Scattergood, covers the basics of building a strong level or mod for your games. Create and test new ideas and follow up with a strong design document. Build terrain, architecture, and spaces. Effectively use lighting, fog. particle effects, and ambient audio. Write a solid dialogue and story lines.

summary...

Most of these books are for beginners, but some make nice reference books for the more experienced Torque user. There are many more books out there that can help you make games. I just wanted to let people know of the Torque specific books and of a couple books that make nice companion to the those books. All of these books are packed solid with tons of information. All come with companion Cd's full of source code, demos, free software, examples and extra content not included in the books. I hope this information helps answer the forum questions about books on Torque.

And here is a peek at two more books for Torque users coming soon:

- "Maximum Torque:The Ultimate Guide to Game Scripting" by Kenneth C. Finney

- "Reinventing Games Indie Style" by Jeff Tunnell, Jay Moore, Brad Cook

GPGT book: Half way - review.

Mark Barner — 2006-03-26T02:54:47+00:00

I wanted to take a moment away from reading /studying: "The Official Guide to the Torque Game Engine: The Game Programmer's Guide to Torque" by Edward F. Maurina III . I am half way through the book now (chapter 7) and wanted to let people know a little about it. First off... this book is awesome! If you have been stumbling around trying to learn TGE or just got TGE... this is the book for you. Edward has put tons of info in this book and the accompanying disk. Its structure flows very well. For those who wonder if the book covers the c++ coding of the engine... no. It does go into depth of Torque scripting. Some things that it covers:

- Torque Core Classes
- Basic Game Classes
- Gameplay Classes
- Mission Objects
- Game Setup Scripting
- Gameplay Scripting
- Special Effects
- Standard Torque Game Engine GUI Controls
- Game Interfaces
- Tons of info in the Appendices
- loaded with lots of examples
- GPGT Lesson Kit <--- I see this becoming a major tool in teaching people on the net and in classrooms

This book is a great reference for all that have TGE. This book covers TGE 1.4 release. For those who ask what the difference between Ken Finney's books and Edward's book?... different ways of teaching. One note on Ken's books is that his first book was on TGE 1.2 and the second was on TGE 1.3 release. Edward's book does go into more depth of TGE classes. If you bought Ken's books and wonder if you should by this book?...I would have to say yes. All three books are a great learning tools.

A little advice on reading this book... take your time and read it! At times I had to stop reading to absorb all the information that was presented in a section before going to the next. Work the examples and experiment with them. Edward has done an awesome job in putting this book together. I highly recommend this book.

Now it's time to dive back into "vehicle and vehicleData" section!

A newbie

Mark Barner — 2006-01-16T18:15:26+00:00

A newbie's journal - week 4 thru 10. The making of our first game. Kilo-watt: A quest for power.

Weeks 4 - 5:
- We purchased 3D World Studio from www.leadwerks.com. Introducing a new software package did delay work on our project, but in the long run it actually increased our production time. 3D World Studio is really easy to use. We will be using 3D World Studio until the Constructor is released.
- Sent prototype 2 release to Rick.

Week 6:
- Nothing got done on the project because of the holiday shopping and getting ready for families visiting.

Weeks 7-8:
- Holidays and spent most of it in bed with the flu.
- Rick worked on buildings for first level.

Week 9:
- Sent prototype 3 release to Rick.
- Rick worked on buildings for first level.

Week 10:
- work on web page prototype.
- Rick finished buildings for first level.

Review
Since this is my first blog of the New Year... I wanted to take the time to review our project. The last ten weeks have actually been fun. Some days I was really down because I wasn't able to get work done. I basically had two weeks that I didn't get anything done because I had the flu. I felt bad for not being able to get things done and while Rick was getting things done. We discussed this last week... it really doesn't seem to matter on how fast we progress as long as we continue to move forward on the game. We both have not really had much time in the last four weeks because of various things.

- One of the things I wasn't able to do was to do a weekly blog. Some weeks we really didn't have much to post. I am working on a web page and hope to be able to post screenshots soon. Our art will not be as good as others here, but as I seen big game developers release great eye candy... the gameplay sucked. So our main goal is gameplay. I still think the best game I played was Starsiege:Tribes. The gameplay was great.

- It has been taking me extra time to implement resources from GG. Alot of the resources are not updated by their authors. Basically I implemented them into TGE 1.3 release first. Reason for this was that there is more documentation on TGE 1.3 currently than TGE 1.4. Several resources did not even work with TGE 1.3. So, I got them to work in a stock copy of TGE 1.3 then transfered it into TLK 1.3.5.

- We learned alot about making interiors these last six weeks. 3D World Studio is an early adopter release. Torque users on Leadwerks Torque forums are busy working on plugins for exporting to TGE.

- Planning your game or levels on paper helps out alot.

- Backups on a regular basis saves time.

- Organization of files, notes and disks is very important.

- Time management is very important. Not only for your project but as well for your personal/family life.

What to do next?
- upgrade up to TLK 1.4
- continue working on first level
- add vehicle resource
- prototype 4 release

And for beginners to Torque...
*Apparatus released his "Mapping Pack One - Handbook". I highly recommend someone just starting out in game development and Torque to get this. Has alot of useful doodads for prototyping and included some real good textures.

Monday Nov 28 23:20

Mark Barner — 2005-11-28T23:20:30+00:00

A newbie's journal- week 3. The making of our first game. Kilo-watt:A quest for power.

Because of the Thanksgiving holiday, only a few things got done on week 3 of making our game.
Things that was worked on:
1.) Brave Tree Car pack integrated.
2.) Enhanced Telnet Debugger resource integrated.
3.) Rick fixed wall.dts in mission- wall was too small and at the wrong scale to player. Scaled to right size and added length to wall.
4.) Rick worked on oil pipe.dts- added different pipes and modified existing ones.
5.) Prototype website- I wanted to start my web page to help document things and for screen shots of our game.

And for beginners to Torque...
Enhanced Telnet Debugger resource - Great for helping to debug your program as well as learning TGE.

I have to highly recommend Brandon Maness website: smdlabs.com - awesome video tutorials on Torque. A great place for beginners to start.

That's it for "Week 3" blog of our game. A little late because of a busy holiday break.

Friday Nov 18 3:26

Mark Barner — 2005-11-18T03:26:33+00:00

A newbie's journal. The making of our first game. Kilo-watt:A quest for power.

I have had a Torque license since 2001, but have just been fiddling around with it like many others have. In my last plan we setup a new project. With this new project I decided to record everything we did and to publish what we went through while making a game. I will be posting what we experience from this project in GG blogs and on my website. Some will probably say who cares... well I hope that by doing it this way, that I can create input/feedback from GG community and hopefully have it help out others making their first game with Torque. Hence, why I call this "A newbie's journal".

My last plan we had started our project. I gave myself two to three weeks to come up with our first prototype. Well... we hit our first milestone in just over a week. I got the first prototype done two days ago. I learned several things from this:
1.) You get allot better idea of how your game will feel and play. - Until you run around and play do you realize if you are going to have fun playing it.I was surprised on how much a fast prototype can tell you if you will like playing it.
2.) Get a better idea of what technology you will use or need. - First was that Torque was the right engine to use. I also found that Synapse Gaming Lighting Pack was going to give us much better results in our environments. What a difference it made the game environment look. One other technology thing to add is a physics engine. Any suggestions on physic engines that can be used with Torque and is cheap?( that will be a search in the forums for a later date.)
3.) If your ideas suck or not. - Pretty much went well with the ideas we put on paper. By prototyping, it gives you allot more ideas. (Just write them down for another day to try.)
4.) Helps you learn TGE faster. - I found myself looking at specific parts of Torque. Searching and trying to understand what was needed. What was next... how does that work?...this happen because of this. I now understand how a game goes through the startup process in Torque.
5.) Content packs are great!- They just are! They are great for a fast prototype and you can use it in your final release. Saves time. I used Tim Aste's environment pack #2 Africa terrain. It took five minutes to pop it in and had my terrain for our first mission done... five minutes!
6.) Planning on paper is good.- Writing a plan down on paper keeps you focused on what you are trying to do. This helps out so much when searching the forums and resources. You can get side tracked so fast. If you find something of interest off track of what you are searching for,just bookmark it and save that for another day.

I asked a couple of questions on the forums this week. I got some really good info from them.
Topic: Who takes the time to read GG community blogs?
something of interest...

Quote:
FYI, posts made to .plans are one of the biggest ways that GG recognizes who needs to be elevated to Associate status, get contract work, or be presented with other opportunities. How you present yourself to the community, your level of communication, and seeing in-depth the type of projects you are working on is the only way we can know what you are capable of (until you come to IGC, of course).

-Jeff Tunnell, GG

Topic: How many people plan their games out on paper?
Sam Bacsa shares some really good information.

And for beginners to Torque... I suggest some really good reading material:
Chapter 2 of the Torque Game Engine Documentation.
TorqueScript -TDN
Working with the TGE Example -TDN
3D Game Programming All In One by Ken Finney
Advanced 3D Game Programming All in One by Ken Finney
Essential Guide to Torque(Lite) by Edward Maurina.

Next step:
Step 5) Iterate! Chapter 2.,Torque Game Engine Documentation

Wednesday Nov 9 3:06

Mark Barner — 2005-11-09T03:06:14+00:00

Plans for making our first game. Our project name is: "Kilo-watt: The quest for power". What is it about? It is a game based somewhat on the Mad Max movies. Tribes/clans will be fighting over gasoline, oil and other energy sources.

Since my last post on Oct 1, 2005... I got my computer back up and running. I lost very little data which was a relief.

A couple of months ago we decided to startup a new project. It was going to be a Battlefield type game. Well, after putting things down on paper, things kind of went a different direction. I guess when we talked about features in different games we liked, we developed a better idea for a game we wanted to make.

Here is what we got so far:

The team consists of myself and Rick Morrison. Our project name is: "Kilo-watt: The quest for power". What is it about? It is a game based somewhat on the Mad Max movies. Tribes/clans will be fighting over gasoline, oil and other energy sources.

What is our goals?
- to learn TGE
- to make a game
- to experiment on code for future game ideas
- to learn game development

Rules
- can only use free or low cost software ($0-$300 price range)
- use content packs for quick prototyping
- use GG community resources
- keep notes

In progress
- notes for game/ideas (legal pad)
- links to resources (webpage)
- setting up dummy objects/interiors for prototyping
- integrating content packs for prototyping
- weekly .plans to track progress (GG blogs)

What to do next?
- do a quick prototype with content packs (2-3 weeks)

...possible hurdles
- family life
- holiday season
- end of earth as we know it (game becomes reality)

Sunday Oct 2 2:25

Mark Barner — 2005-10-02T02:25:55+00:00

A big "AH Crap!"(not in those exact words though) ... my system crashed.

Well, I have to put a hold on my last plan til I get everything back up and running on my system. I had just made a backup not to long ago, so it isn't too bad. It will be a week or two to get everything back up to par though.

Saturday Sep 24 23:28

Mark Barner — 2005-09-24T23:28:44+00:00

An update from my last plan. I got a lot more ideas since my last plan for the Battlefield type game that I want to make.

First thing I decided to do is to learn how to make a design document for notes and keeping track of goals. I think ideas get lost if not put on paper. I am finding out it is easier to complete tasks and goals as well. I have been studying the Battlefield series games for the last month. Since this is a learning exercise for me... I plan on making things simple and then adding things one step at a time.

What is being used so far:

TGE 1.3
FPS Starter Kit
Racing Starter Kit
Synapse Gaming: Lighting Pack 1.3.5
Brave Tree Tank pack
Brave Tree Character pack
3D Diggers FX01 pack
Tim Aste Environment pack #1 (parts of it)
Tim Aste Environment pack #2 (parts of it)

Resources:
GarageGames (website)
3D Programming All In One (book)
Advanced 3D Programming All In One (book)
Physics Modeling for Game Programmers (book)

Future add-ons:
Tridinaut's Soldier Pack (not purchased yet)
Ragdoll Animation Pack (not purchased yet)
RTS Starter Kit (not purchased yet)

With these resources as a starting point, we will be creating the first mission. Rick Morrison will be helping me with this project (if he ever stops playing Battlefield 2). We planned our first mission out last week. The game will be the Red army against the Blue army just like the Tactics/Tactics 2 board game. I will have to learn on how to create/write a story for the game later...one step at a time remember! But our story is basically the quest for energy resources(oil/gasoline) like in the Mad Max movies. We also decided on the name for our game... Kilo-watt: The quest for power. Like I said this is a simple start to build and learn on. I really don't know if people read these .plans or not, but I just wanted to share what we are planning to do. I have learned in the past couple years that you need to write down and set milestones in order to complete your goals/game, no matter how stupid it sounds to others.