Having Problems Incredibly New to Torque

Ok so Im in my communications technology class and my teacher has allowed me to develop a game using the Torque Game Builder 2D, however I know nothing of it. No C programming background, only a Java programming background. And the only thing i know is the torque documentation and platformer tutorials.

So im trying to make a platformer and currently trying to make the movement code. Im also trying to implement a ladder feature. Im having struggles with this for a couple months now and half the semester has gone by. I tried everything looked at every platformer tutorial but most seem out of date and dont work for my game. i could only create a small base of one of the platformer tutorials.

Do take into consideration that im extremely new at this and that i cannot turn back from this project...
This is my player movement methods for horizontal and vertical movement:

function playerClass::updateHorizontal(%this)
{
if ($player.moveLeft == $player.moveRight)
{
$player.setLinearVelocityX(0);
return;
}

if ($player.moveLeft)
{
if (!$player.againstLeftWall)
{
$player.againstRightWall = false;
$player.setLinearVelocityX(-50);
}
}

if ($player.moveRight)
{
if (!$player.againstRightWall)
{
$player.againstLeftWall = false;
$player.setLinearVelocityX(50);
}
}

}
function playerClass::updateVertical(%this)
{
%yVelocity = %this.getLinearVelocityY();

%this.setLinearVelocityY(5);
%collision = %this.castCollision(0.005);

%normalX = getWord(%collision, 4);
%normalY = getWord(%collision, 5);

//no collision
if(%collision $= "")
{
%this.againstRightWall = false;
%this.againstLeftWall = false;
%this.ladder=false;
climb.setCollisionCallback(true);
%this.airborne = true;
%this.setConstantForceY(100);
%this.setLinearVelocityY(%yVelocity);
return;
}
//collide left wall
if(%normalX == 1 && %normalY == 0)
{
%this.againstLeftWall = true;
%this.setLinearVelocityX(0);
%this.setLinearVelocityY(%yVelocity);
return;
}
//collide right wall
if(%normalX == -1 && %normalY == 0)
{
%this.againstRightWall = true;
%this.setLinearVelocityX(0);
%this.setLinearVelocityY(%yVelocity);
return;
}
//collide ground
if(%normalX == 0 && %normalY == -1)
{
%this.againstRightWall = false;
%this.againstLeftWall = false;
%this.airborne = false;
%this.setConstantForceY(0);
%this.setLinearVelocityY(%yVelocity);
return;
}
//collide ceiling
if(%normalY == 1)
{
%this.airborne = true;
%this.setLinearVelocityX(0);
%this.setConstantForceY(100);
%this.setLinearVelocityY(%yVelocity);
return;
}

}