The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
Making a Game with Torque.
halkun
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I graduated Carthage, and as a full time, unpaid, third shift job decided to start a small indie game development company. (Big dreams, yea, I know). Right now there is one employee, me, but it's something. I still have my "day job", which I won't be quitting in the near future. This new adventure for me is something I always wanted to do.
I'm keeping a blog, (Or as I say, "blag", I hate the word "blog"). It contains my adventures working on my first title. I'm letting you guys know so you can laugh at this poor fucker and my neophyte attempts to be a grown up software designer. I've looked on the interwebs and haven't really come across anyone else who is willing to share the insides of making an indie game.
It was PA that actually got me to start this adventure. After hearing that "Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness" was going to use the Torque engine, I grabbed a demo from garagegames and played with it. (Now, I was actully in the pre-production process before hand, and was planning to use crystalspace.)
It's interesting, I have a workmake at my "day job" which is beside himself that I'm using the "Shitty-ass Tribes engine". He keeps telling me I should use the Farcry engine, or HL2. I try and explain that I don't have a few million dollars laying around to license something like that. He then tell me it's free and that I'm making shit up.
Turkeys and eagles.
So I have my development blag, which is in my sig to keep the sitewhoring down. You guys have any experience in making things, and trying to do them professionally? Have any stories to offer me?
Am I full of myself and won't even make it a month without getting handed a big heap of fail?
__________________
I'm keeping a blog, (Or as I say, "blag", I hate the word "blog"). It contains my adventures working on my first title. I'm letting you guys know so you can laugh at this poor fucker and my neophyte attempts to be a grown up software designer. I've looked on the interwebs and haven't really come across anyone else who is willing to share the insides of making an indie game.
It was PA that actually got me to start this adventure. After hearing that "Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness" was going to use the Torque engine, I grabbed a demo from garagegames and played with it. (Now, I was actully in the pre-production process before hand, and was planning to use crystalspace.)
It's interesting, I have a workmake at my "day job" which is beside himself that I'm using the "Shitty-ass Tribes engine". He keeps telling me I should use the Farcry engine, or HL2. I try and explain that I don't have a few million dollars laying around to license something like that. He then tell me it's free and that I'm making shit up.
Turkeys and eagles.
So I have my development blag, which is in my sig to keep the sitewhoring down. You guys have any experience in making things, and trying to do them professionally? Have any stories to offer me?
Am I full of myself and won't even make it a month without getting handed a big heap of fail?
__________________
halkun on
0
Posts
You will fail on your first project. And most likely your second. But this doesn't mean you should give up! You will hit a lot of walls, scrap projects because you didn't like how it is turning out. Or, you may not have the passion for the project anymore. Eventually, you will finish a project. It won't be easy, but you can do it.
And for your co-worker. Fuck him. Torque is fine for indie games. As you said, you don't have the money for a big name engine. And I am sure you don't have the time to code your own engine.
Good luck halkun.
My 360 is [strike]back[/strike] [strike]bricked[/strike] back!
Fuck Torque.
I recommend Game Maker, or just write it all yourself. Depends on what your goal is, to make a game and be known as a designer, or to make an engine to become a programmer.
On that topic, Torque (TGE) is complicated at first, compared with Gamemaker, mainly because of its scope and structure.
Once you play a bit with it to understand the underlying principles, the engine opens up possibilities that few other commercial engines will allow in terms of flexibility. It does require the user to put in the effort, which is what drives most people away. Like all things that are worth it, though, the amount of success you have with it is directly related to the amount of effort you put into it.
The later post by j0hnz3r is probably focused on TGB, the Torque Game builder, which is based on the same core engine, only optimized for hardware-accelerated 2d games.
This engine really rocks, as I have been using it from its beta days, and have seen the evolution of the product to what it became with version 1.5.0.
I do not want to make this personal, I simply want to debunk a few lies here.
There are two versions of the Torque Game Builder (100$), one for hobbyists, simply called Torque Game builder, which gives you access to the scripting tools, the editors, and everything you need to make a game. You literally won't need anything else to start making games.
The other version is called Torque Game Builder Pro(250$), which ships with the full source code to the engine.
As for the particles system being broken, the physics being broken and all those other claims,
the physics system works perfectly fine, and the particle effect editor had a slight bug in version 1.5.0, which has been promptly fixed.
Game Maker is a good tool for learning the logic basics of game design. Coding your own engine is unfortunately not an option for many people.
Best of luck with your projects, everyone.
Simon Love
I'm actually using the Quake 3 engine for a current project of mine, because it has everything I need in an engine right now and it's easy to work with and has a whole ton of support.
Now if only I could do 3D modeling.
http://forums.indiegamer.com/index.php
There's a good bit of reading for beginners to go over in there. I myself am going to get that Torque jazz after I complete my next game. My first game, in money making terms, has been a mega flop, but on the other hand, just finishing something has taught me loads about how to improve my methods, and my skills have increases amazingly because of it. Also, don't expect your first game to make it big, sometimes it happens, but not often. It seems from what I've read of the pro indies is it take your second or third game to really begin to make money. Anyhow, Just give it your all, you'll get there eventually.
Snowballs in peril! Action/Puzzle = Snowball's Chance E1 (it's free now!)
Are we talking Torque Game Builder or the Torque 3D Engine here?
let's make the vidya gem together!
For the record, this is from other peoples experience but anyone who has worked with coding in the source engine and unreal engine will hate you if you somehow manage to get him to code for source
If this is indeed your first own project maybe making mods would be more suitable than making your own game. Could also join someone elses' projects and if you can code, expect rabid modders to fight over you
First of all, I'm using the Torque Game Engine v1.5. It does come with source. (Which I'll be changing. I need some trivial shader effects that don't come out of the box, but not enough to warrant the TGE-A license.)
I'm not a beginner. This is also not my first project. You might of seen me post about the other project I've done. I actually going to be handing that off to a community so I can work on my new title full time. I also have help. Besides a very strong local business support group here, I have a friend who I have known for 19 years who is willing to pony up licensing costs for a stake in the company.
I also have a BA in business, and though only college trained, know the basics of business management.
Making a mod is out of the question. You should read the EULA sometime about any rights you have to your content, (none) and what kind of legal recourse you have in case of litigation. (none, trial by jury is waived). Also try selling even a TC to a mod without the original engine developers blessing and watch how fast you wind up in court.
That's not going to be much of a problem for me. That is when I have the most fun! (Linked for h-scroll rape)
^_^
These links might also help you out: Digital Content Creation Tools. It links to Ogre3D but most of the tools listed there are fairly universal.
Basicly how it goes down for casual games is you first complete the game. Then you submit the game to "Game Portals". They take 60% of your money, but for your first few games...who cares. Its way better then xbox live's ass raping with the 80/20 split. www.GameProducer.net has WAY more information about anything ive said.
-- the best indie dev resources --
http://www.gameproducer.net/
http://www.gamedev.net/
http://forums.indiegamer.com/
my site if anyone would like to see my indie game. Its not 100% complete and screens are a bit old.
http://www.impellerhead.com
While he is probably the most charming person I've ever talked to, 99% of what he said is correct.
P.S. NegativeGeForce's game is shit.
Steam, PSN, XBL, Xfire and everything else JamesDM
I don't recall you ever making an attempt at anything unless its to shit on anyone else's hard work.
I love you James.
Do you have some screens? This sounds really awesome, especially from just one guy. MS Paint is OK in my book.
Also a bit of self promotion on my part: I made the game in my sig. It's my first game, but I think it turned out well. /highhorse
3ds friend code: 2981-6032-4118
Its the torque engine recoded to work with C# XNA. Seems pretty neat seeing as how XNA is pretty much managed DirectX and that would save alot of time (I think, I have yet to get too far into XNA).
Tofu wrote: Here be Littleboots, destroyer of threads and master of drunkposting.
Not that I mean that people should immediately switch over to XNA especially if they have work invested in other dev kits, but if Xbox 360 and PC stuff interests, it looks to have a lot of legs going forward.
You can actually mod the free demo quite extensively, even making a TC if you want. I suggest grabbing the book I recommend in my blog and follow along. Just remember to get the 30 page pdf with all the corrections.
Does the book apply to Torque X?
This is from before I have the slopes/grass/animation system added, so it looks a little bare. Also forgive the South Park ripoff placeholder characters.
http://www.geocities.com/j.suto/game.htm
By the way, I like your game! Familiar enough to pick up and play, but with enough new elements to make it unique. Very polished, and the professor character is good for branding (IPs are where the money is at, lol).
Wow that's really cool. To me the fact you have the blood (particle system?) and then have it texture the ground when it lands, and overall just have a working 3d prototype is awesome. I think you should keep the characters, but just make them look a little less jagged. They're hilarious
No Torque X is just the 2D port of torque, not the 3D engine
Internally the Torque Game Engine (TGE, or as I say "Torque 3D") is the same on all platforms. You do the bulk of the "coding" in the running engine itself. To use TGE, you need to gave at least least $10,000 to Microsoft per title to have a license to develop for the X-Box. (This is SOP for most consoles) You have to contact GG themselves if you are interested in a license for X-Box development.
Torque X is the XNA port of Torque Game Builder (Or as I say, "Torque 2D") so you can make 2D games using XNA.
Also, there are some things in the T3D namespace, though they are probably just stubs. Looks like they fully intend to implement 3D support at a later date.