Torque 3D/2D

#1 It would actually be fairly easy to do a 2D game with T3D, but it does require a bit of faking. You can easily use screen-facing quads with your animated sprites on them and lock the camera in place. This can be a bit of a pain, but it has the benefit of allowing you to use all kinds of GPU accelerated screen-space effects which most 2D engines do not allow(not to mention the browser deployment which will hopefully become available in a later version of T2D;Is this already available? It's not listed as a feature of TGB). One change you will need to make to the engine which will make your life so much easier is changing the engine to use orthographic projection so you can reference direct screen coordinates and don't have to worry about camera perspective. If you want to go this route I suggest reading up on orthographic projection and texture coordinates if your not already familiar with them since most of your graphical work will be altering textures directly such as using spritesheets for animation and tiling.

#2 No Torque 2D is not available yet. Actually from what mentioned its even unlikely it will happen in 2009 as only 1 blog has happened yet on it and that was on the realtime networking back in Aug or Sept.

But yes, waiting for Torque 2D and using that would likely make a lot of things significantly easier.

#3 well they said they going to post a big blog about T2D today or tomorrow so you can check that when they post it.

#4 Well the only reason I was uncertain if TGB had gotten the web deployment stuff was this line in the TGB Features blurb: "With developments paths that allow publishing to Windows, Mac, Xbox 360, Wii, iPhone, and even web platforms, your game will reach the widest possible audience."

GarageGames seems to have gotten pretty good at inadvertently posting misleading or easily misinterpreted information on their engines.

On topic though, it would certainly be better to wait for T2D, as the workflow is likely to be much easier then using a 3D engine and faking things with quads and doing direct texture manipulation for even the simplest animated effects.

#5 but will there ever be a T2D version with web deployment?

what do you guys think????

BTW: I was also missled by that same anouncement :(

#6 I'm guessing T2D will have many of those new features from T3D - toolbox and webplayer included.

#7 @Ronny: That's a pretty good guess :)

#8 Well, more than a guess, really ;)