New Documentation System Has Arrived!

In my last .plan, I hinted that there would be a huge second announcement regarding documentation. This is the announcement. When I was first contracted by GG, I was mainly working on content generation for TGEA. However, when I was hired on as a full time employee the real work began. Going beyond simply writing tutorials and reference docs, it was time GarageGames implemented a full Documentation System.

Before I continue with the .plan, the following links show off the new documentation pages, content, and system:

Main Landing Page

TGE Landing Page
TGE Official Documentation

TGB Landing Page
TGB Official Documentation

TGEA Landing Page
TGEA Official Documentation

TorqueX Landing Page
TorqueX Official Documentation

Artist Landing Page

You can find these links in our updated menu bar at the top of the website:

To understand the Doc System and what I do at GarageGames, allow me to explain the documentation process I use. I have consolidated all of my work as Documentation Engineer into 3 categories: Content Generation, Organization, and The Doc System.

Content Generation

When most users think of documentation work, they are thinking about content generation. Tutorials, reference docs, how-tos, and so on. You would think this would take up the majority of my time, and perhaps later on it will. However, the Torque Technology docs need a lot more than just new tutorials. Which brings us to...

Organization

If you've been following any of the various documentation feedback threads in the forums, there has been a major demand for re-organization of what docs are available to the community. Contrary to popular opinion, there is a ton of very useful tutorials for the various Torque engines. However, these tutorials are scattered across the forums, GG resources, TDN, and personal websites with no GG affiliation. 1/3 of my job is to locate and consolidate these resources. This is why we have new landing pages for all of our engines. I'll talk about those in just a minute. I have to organize more than just existing content...for those of you who have been contributing, you'll notice I have also been organizing all the feedback and doc-related contributions from the community.

The Doc System

This part of my job has been unknown to the community. Previously, there was not much of what you could call a "system" for our documentation. The Doc System, previously (and jokingly) code named "Project-X Zombie Raptor," is my long term project as Documentation Engineer for GarageGames.

Over the years, various tools have been developed which allow previous doc writers to generate new content and formats. Those who wrote Torque docs before I came on board spent a decent amount of their time developing these tools and trying to plan for the future.

Now that I'm at the head of documentation efforts, I am consolidating those tools and plans. The other two components (content generation and organization) feed directly into The Doc System. Simply put, The Doc System is all the new technology and design that will allow the doc team to generate new content and deliver it to you as frequently as possible, independent of engine point releases.

The Documentation Team

Quite a few community members believe I am the first and only documentation person at GG. I've said before that I am a part of a documentation "team". Now, if you have any complaints or suggestions about documentation, you should still e-mail and talk to me directly. However, I have relied on the following GG employees to get this project off the ground and out the door.

The tools I use to generate the new docs, such as the TGEA Official Documentation, were created by Matt Fairfax and Matt Langley. GO TEAM MATT!

The person responsible for the awesome artwork and web code of the new landing and engine pages is Jason Hetu. Jason also helped with the design, making sure we kept things attractive, clean, and organized.

While you won't find it in her profile, and though she might argue, I'm going to count Deborah Marshall as a member of the documentation team. Deborah is the person I report to. She keeps me in line, organized, and motivated. I may be driving the documentation effort, but she has the keys to the car. At the very least, she provides feedback and performs edit passes on what I submit.

Assisting with QA, is Kenneth Holst. Checking all of these new pages for dead links, web errors, and so on would have taken a lot more of my time if I was alone.

Of course, we can't forget about the various engine devs who authored the hundreds of engine reference docs, like Stephen Zepp and other writers I have yet to track down =).

Rock Star Community Members

When I created the documentation threads in the public forums, I had faith that I would receive positive, constructive, and overwhelming amounts of feedback. I was not disappointed =) As with this first major doc update, I will be drawing from the community to find out what new content I should create and how it can be organized.

For this particular update, I chose to focus heavily on updating the TGB and Artist doc content. TGB was chosen because it has the most amount of features (Doc System, not engine) I wish to utilize. I also chose Artists because they have received the least amount of documentation attention over the past few years. If you go to the TGB Doc Feedback Thread or the Artist Feedback Thread, you can read how much the following users have helped make this release happen:

If you are TGB developer, you will be happy to know that I addressed nearly every single issue and suggestion posted by these awesome TGB users:
Jeramy79
Patrick Shaw
Shaz
Oscar Taylor
Mike Lilligreen
amaranthia
Kevin James
BlueRaja
James Ford

I am not an artist, so the following community members posted feedback that was critical in creating the new Artist Landing Page:
L Foster
Benjamin L. Grauer
Joseph Greenwalt
Mark Dynna


I can't stress enough how important the documentation feedback threads are. In my eyes, those who post are rock stars and are helping out the entire community with each suggestion. I'm happy to shine a spotlight on them for their contributions. Awesome work, everyone!

Conclusion

So, this concludes the second part of my major documentation announcement. I could have posted several more images and descriptions of the new doc pages, but I want to give you all a chance to browse through. Remember, any bugs, suggestions, or criticism should be posted in the various documentation feedback threads. You can also e-mail me directly using the address posted in my profile.

Adding new landing pages and online documentation is just the first step. I have to say, it's one helluva first step! I'm about to start a cycle of heavy content generation for all the engines, but in between I will be working on The Doc System.

If there are any major updates about content or system updates, I'll be sure to post a new .plan. Thanks for taking the time to read through all of this, and thanks to everyone for their help thus far.

In the mouth of madness...