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January Product Update

by Eric Preisz · 01/20/2011 (3:43 am) · 117 comments






If you haven’t read our other blog, you might want to read it first. This blog, is a more detailed look into our near term product road map.

Bad news first…

TorqueX – February 28th will be the last day that you will be able to purchase TorqueX. The community is tight knit and working on a their own version of the engine, so for the next thirty days you will still be able to buy TorqueX and assign those licensees to other developers through a studio access panel. Discontinuing TorqueX is a hard decision for us, especially when considering how dedicated this community is. I would personally like to take the time to thank Pino. He’s a rock star and anyone using TorqueX knows that. We are still fans of XNA and we have a lot of time invested in the API. Don’t be surprised if/when an XNA based product finds it's way back to GarageGames. We have put a lot of effort into a future Windows Phone 7 product; however, we are taking a step back to reevaluate direction on all emerging platforms. Your opinions are greatly appreciated.





iTorque 3D – We will be discontinuing iTorque 3D. In the future, we will not be pre-selling our new engines without absolute confidence of a QA date. We will be offering refunds to everyone who we can validate as a purchaser of iT3D. We are very happy to have our new owners (more on them in the first blog ) support on this – it’s the right thing to do.

Torque 2D – We have no significant updates to Torque 2D ( aka TGB ) at this time. The good news is that Torque 2D is a very stable product that is able to meet the specs of a wide array of machines including netbooks. Torque 2D’s next version, which we discussed last year at this time is still in development and part of long term plans. It’s unfortunately still to early for us to provide more detail about the next version of Torque 2D and at this time, we recommend that you focus your development plans on Torque 2D ( aka TGB ) until we are able to hone in on a release window.

Good news…

Torque 3D 1.1 Final –Torque 3D 1.1 Final will be heading to QA in the coming weeks. We have a pending driver issue and a relatively short list of bugs in Jira that we are currently slaying. We have a 1.1 version of T3D for the Mac; however, we aren’t able to say with 100% certainty that it will meet our gold standard by the release of 1.1 Final. That decision will need to be delayed until we are able to properly review the code. Our contractors continued to work on Torque 3D 1.1 during the transition and their hard work has kept the ball rolling towards a final release.

Docs & Tutorials – We are going to be working towards our goal of better documentation, docs, and tutorials over the next few months. This work will move slowly at first, but over time, we will be able to hire and scale our efforts as we progress on our product roadmap.

iTorque 2D 1.4.1 – We are in the final rounds of QA and updates for 1.4.1. Barring any new iOS updates that would create a ripple effect to our timing, iT2D 1.4.1 will be going to QA in a couple of weeks.

About the author

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#21
01/20/2011 (8:35 am)
@David - Time for me to sniff out an XDK license somehow...impossible in the interim, but dont get me wrong glad GG is back, just purchased T3D and iT2d on the joy of the news =)
#22
01/20/2011 (9:36 am)
Good news, I can afford Torque3D.

Bad news, my favorite engine TX is being canceled.

I'm sure you guy's will bring back TX eventually, but theres always engines out there, and I'm very thankful for everything I've learned here with TX, and will be happy to put your logo on my products.
#23
01/20/2011 (10:37 am)
Does this means iTorque3d will never and ever be made? or its just dropped for time being and what about support on other platforms like xbox 360 and ps3..oh god iam waiting for the road map blog..........
#24
01/20/2011 (10:39 am)
We will not be continuing development on iTorque 3D.
#25
01/20/2011 (10:43 am)
Great news and refocused product direction.

Question about our (Associates) NDA's, SVN access, and behind the scenes insights: will this continue forward as it had been in the past or require some new direction/focus as well?
#26
01/20/2011 (10:44 am)
Perfect news all! Great clarity to the products you're focussing on, and a buzz to get GGs back again.

Awesome screenshot BTW 8)
#27
01/20/2011 (11:03 am)
Eric and Friends, please consider releasing some of the demos to us to take apart, like the "Chinatown" demo for T3D.
#28
01/20/2011 (12:09 pm)
Shame that TX is being discontinued and the WinPhone7 plans are being put on hold/discontinued. Personally I'd love to see an XNA engine which focuses on providing solid base for a game with the ability to integrate Synapsegaming's Sunburn for lighting and other fancy stuff, and perhaps third-party physics libraries too. All of this being focused primarily on Xbox 360/WinPhone7. Not sure if anyone else is looking for the same kind of thing, just thought I'd put that out there.

Stoked that you're back in business! Looking forward to the future of T3D.
#29
01/20/2011 (1:36 pm)
Awesome news today!!! So happy for the new change of ownership, congrats guys!

I like the more focused direction, I know some folks will be disappointed that TX and iT3D are being dropped, but it clears the way for more focused development on your core products T3D and T2D, and that should improve overall quality. In addition, I like to hear that the docs and demo's will be improved, that will let users access the power of the engine more fully.

Hey question on the $99 price point, does that include all versions of T2D? Wondering about T2D for Wii and Xbox.

#30
01/20/2011 (2:04 pm)
@Blake
Console licensing is not included in the $99 price-point and still requires official licensing from the console manufacturer. If you are a licensed console developer, I would recommend contacting licensing@garagegames.com for more information on pricing for those platforms.
#31
01/20/2011 (2:07 pm)
Great news!!! Good to here your back, and I am happy with the choice to drop iT3D.

Hope all the people that were there are back to work.

No rush, but how do we go about getting a refund for the iT3D.

Thanks
#32
01/20/2011 (2:10 pm)
@Brian
We will be contacting the pre-order licensees of iTorque 3D since it is a manual process.
#33
01/20/2011 (2:24 pm)
Congrats on getting the company back up and running.
#34
01/20/2011 (2:52 pm)
So much goodness!!! Welcome back GarageGames!!!!

Purchasing my licences ASAP!!!

EDIT: I just got my license but I can't download anything. I hope server problems are solved soon...
#35
01/20/2011 (3:21 pm)
Shame, I was excited about iTorque3D.
#36
01/20/2011 (4:06 pm)
Thanks for the info David.
#37
01/20/2011 (4:38 pm)
Great news all around. Slightly annoying news for those of us who paid $500 and more for T3D. =P
#38
01/20/2011 (5:06 pm)
@David & Eric

Just wondering as Torque X will be discontinued from Feb 28th, will the forums still be open on garagegames.com ?

Just there is a wealth of information out there and would be shame to see it go. Also it seems a bit fatalist to quit sales entirely of TX; ideally if it was still available for purchase it would allow newcomers to join in on the CEV programme. As it stands CEV could get "shut out". For example I knew of at least 4 fellow devs who picked up TX even after it was announced about the lack of upgrade from 3.1 to 4.0 just so they could join CEV.

Just my 2 cents, I'm sure there are people out there who would still buy it. Better yet give Pino a job at GG to dev up TX 4.0 God knows he deserves it ! =)
#39
01/20/2011 (5:17 pm)
@Hoddie - We will keep the TX forums open.
#40
01/20/2011 (5:34 pm)
This is precisely the post I have been holding my breath (and all my associated, half-baked comments) waiting and hoping for. The paring-down of the lines is most welcome, the price is solidly back in the realm of "indie spirit" which made GG so beloved in the past, and the news about the benevolent new owners is all manner of wonderful.

Thank you, congratulations, good luck, get a move'on, and welcome back. =)