There and back again...
by Tom Bentz · 11/11/2006 (1:51 pm) · 2 comments
TGB Boot Camp
Im sitting in the Eugene airport ready to head back to Cali. Reflecting on the TGB boot camp earlier in the week. I was already familiar with TGB from making space rocks but I wanted to take the class to get some formal training on the engine so that I have a stronger and more solid foundation. That being said the class covered a lot of topics that I was already familiar with but also a lot that I didn't know or understand very well. Stephen Zepp taught the class and is very knowledgable about the inner workings of the engine. There were four students in the class and most everything we threw at him he was able to handle and if he didnt know it he asked the wizards behind the curtain at GG and explained it to us. The class was 3 days of intense pummeling of information. During each class I was amped up and my brain was wide open to absorb as much as possible. Two of the students were instructors looking to teach game programming using TGB and the other student was a game designer in the biz. During lunches and after each class we hung out and talked game development and it was really good to listen to these guys and pick their brains. Being around the people doing this stuff on a daily basis definately game me an amazing amount of motivation and inspiration. It gave me a certain 'buzz' about game development that I hadnt had before. It was also great to meet some of the team at GG and see first hand the process for getting a TorqueX project onto an Xbox 360 =)
What I learned
One of the things that I wanted to learn was how to work with the networking aspect of TGB. I understand now how the clients talk to the server and how the server talks to the clients. I may try to add some kind of networking to my space rocks game as an upgrade. I also plan to write up a simple tutorial on getting the clients/server to talk to each other. I also understand how to use the scenewindows better. We also got to see the next version of TGB and how to use the new features of that - which by the way is really awesome stuff. Its shows the commitment by GG to allow you to make games fast. Cant wait for that to come :)
To sum up my experience
What I learned here in Eugene is this: TGB is a powerful, solid, and very capable tool for making all sorts of games very easily, the team at GG is not sitting still they are working hard on all of their tools and docs, and being around like minded people with so much potential is one helluva high! It definately gave me a huge boost to my capabilites and confidence and Im very happy I did this.
Cheers to GarageGames!
Im sitting in the Eugene airport ready to head back to Cali. Reflecting on the TGB boot camp earlier in the week. I was already familiar with TGB from making space rocks but I wanted to take the class to get some formal training on the engine so that I have a stronger and more solid foundation. That being said the class covered a lot of topics that I was already familiar with but also a lot that I didn't know or understand very well. Stephen Zepp taught the class and is very knowledgable about the inner workings of the engine. There were four students in the class and most everything we threw at him he was able to handle and if he didnt know it he asked the wizards behind the curtain at GG and explained it to us. The class was 3 days of intense pummeling of information. During each class I was amped up and my brain was wide open to absorb as much as possible. Two of the students were instructors looking to teach game programming using TGB and the other student was a game designer in the biz. During lunches and after each class we hung out and talked game development and it was really good to listen to these guys and pick their brains. Being around the people doing this stuff on a daily basis definately game me an amazing amount of motivation and inspiration. It gave me a certain 'buzz' about game development that I hadnt had before. It was also great to meet some of the team at GG and see first hand the process for getting a TorqueX project onto an Xbox 360 =)
What I learned
One of the things that I wanted to learn was how to work with the networking aspect of TGB. I understand now how the clients talk to the server and how the server talks to the clients. I may try to add some kind of networking to my space rocks game as an upgrade. I also plan to write up a simple tutorial on getting the clients/server to talk to each other. I also understand how to use the scenewindows better. We also got to see the next version of TGB and how to use the new features of that - which by the way is really awesome stuff. Its shows the commitment by GG to allow you to make games fast. Cant wait for that to come :)
To sum up my experience
What I learned here in Eugene is this: TGB is a powerful, solid, and very capable tool for making all sorts of games very easily, the team at GG is not sitting still they are working hard on all of their tools and docs, and being around like minded people with so much potential is one helluva high! It definately gave me a huge boost to my capabilites and confidence and Im very happy I did this.
Cheers to GarageGames!
About the author
Torque 3D Owner Matthew Langley
Torque