To buy, or not.

#1 Yes buy this engine, I teach at a computer graphic design school and I push this on all my students with resources, like the book that link points to, young developers like yourself can get an upperhand in game design.

#2 Oh, most definately... Torque is by far the best learning tool out there, and easily the best indie engine around. BUY IT<

#3 Probably not the best place to start with no programming experience at all . . . probably a better start would be to create a mod for an existing RPG game.

Torque is a formitable undertaking for someone that is familar with programming and RPG's are probably the most complicated type of game to try and create. Combine the two and you will probably struggling still in 24 months. Learning C++ to the level required is like playing an instrument, you never know everything, and the Torque C++ code is not trival by any stretch of the imagination.

I doubt you could and one other person could even re-write NetHack in a the amount of time you are talking about. Much less learning all the ins and outs of 3D content creation and all the other associated skills require for something like Torque.

just writing a 2D isometric engine from scratch is a challenge for someone that have never written a line of code in their life.

Start small and work you way up.

#4 BTW: i taught myself to program ASM over the summer between 8th grade and my freshman year in highschool. 6502 code guess what year it was? And the machine(s)?

#5 Anthony, there will be an Instructor's Resource coming out as a companion for my 3DGPAI1 book within a few weeks. ISBN 1592004229. I'm working on it now.

#6 Jarrod, it was 1982 and the computer was an Apple 2C.

#7 Close . . .

first 6502 I code for was my cousins
I wrote a version of "tank battles" ( scorched earth ) way before the pc crowd new what that was and re-wrote a fish tank life simultor. this was back when you wrote programs and debugged them on PAPER! then typed them in because you had limited time with them if they were not yours!

then I moved on to this that I got in 1983!

It cam with Color STOCK! The first one required an add on card that cost as much as the computer! Thing have never changed! :-) Real sounds with attack, decay, sustain and release and not just various pitch beeps and buzzes like all the other stock computers of the time!!!!!

My first program on that was a joystick driven music composer!

#8 I wrote my first program in 1974 - we wrote them on cards we filled in with pencils. Ran them through a card reader to generate a paper tape. Gave the tape to the High Priest, then waited till the end of the day to find out we had a syntax error.

We played star trek on a teletype console...:-)

#9 Hehe...my first computer gaming code was written on a PDP-8E teletype that had a wopping 12k of shared memory space, and a paper punch tape system for storing your programs. That was in 1980 :)

#10 Anyone else enter those long hex listings from a certain game programming magazine (the name doesn't exist in my brain anymore) into their C64? They had a nifty little checksum system, which unfortunately failed me once and I had to enter the code all over again...

0A FF EF C9 4A ED AC 10 F5

OH MAN THE EXCITEMENT!

#11 Joshua it was Computes Gazette! That was definalty pre-sneaker net

#12 It sure was... sadly, the youth of today will never have an education like that... Perhaps I am missing a modern day equivalent? I really hope so :)

#13 I have like three years worth of them stacked in a box somewhere! Sad isn't it!

#14 Oh! the memories of the PDP 8...sniff....get it all typed in and tape all punched out...sniff...then run it in the feeder.. about a foot from the end and... sniff... the tape would shread...(tears rolling down cheek)...those where the days!LOL

Buy Torque!

#15 Aside from the reminicsing (which I can appreciate as i am from that same generation...) I would like to get back to the topic of this thread, which is basically this

"I am beginner with no game making skills...should I buy Torque"

I would strongly suggest the answer is "no". Instead make the same RPG you want to make, but a 2D version instead. A great idea would be to use something like Game Maker [url="www.gamemaker.nl"]www.gamemaker.nl[/url]. (NOTE: I am not sure why the previous link does not work when you click on it..but the URL listed is correct)

If you are starting from total scratch then a full up AAA 3D multiplayer game engine is not the right place to start. Modding an existing game would be a better step but even that is likely too much to chew on for your first bite. :-)

Also you likley want to get to the designing/making/testing of a game. If you start out with too lofty of a goal you wont ever get to that promised land. I realize a 2D game is likley not what you have in mind, but it's a better first step, and it will give you many of the skills you need to do coding for a more ambitious game.

Should you buy Torque later on when you have more skills? Absolutely! There is not a better deal on the planet for indie game makers.

#16 @ Paul Dana

I disagree. I started out knowing absolutely nothing about what went into making a game, or how to go about it. I Had never written a bit of C# or C++, just a little bit of basic back in grade school.

I had never touched a 3D tool ( MAX MAYA GAMESPACE ), no Photo Shop, and I had used world craft once, and thought it to be a crappy tool. ( an opinion I stand by )

I can now write script, C++, I'm very proficient I'm 3ds MAX, Photo Shop, QuArK, and a host of other tools.

Buying Torque was what motivated me to learn all those things. If I needed something, it was either in the resources section, or I learned how to do it from all the help on the forums.

In the process I have created countless little mini-games, that I never finish, and each one has taught me more and more about what making a game consists of.

Anyone who wants to see if they have what it takes to make games should give Torque a shot... Its only $100 bucks... What do you have to lose?

--No disrespect intended Paul

#17 1981 i dropped my stack of punch cards while waiting in line to get them compiled in my first year university programming course. 2AM in the basement dungeon. yeesh. I spent time re-organizing them and had to go to the back of the line. Wait another half - hour to move to the front of the line. Program doesn't work. et ad nauseum.

What a jump to working with Torque.


smiles . . .

#18 Clutch stated:

Quote:
Anyone who wants to see if they have what it takes to make games should give Torque a shot... Its only $100 bucks... What do you have to lose?

Well for someone with no programming or game experence its
100 bucks for Torque
100+ bucks for an IDE/Compilier
25 bucks for Milkshape
75 bucks for an image editing SW
------
300 bucks at a min. If more than one member of their team is going to do the programmer then the cost goes up.

Having said that many people feel gipped even if they paid 100 bucks.

If they feel Torque is the route they wish to go, I would recommend downloading the demo, add new characters, alter the scripts and the like. If you get frustrated with adding stuff you know you should be able to add via scripts then you know this isn't the engine for you.

The original poster wants to make and RPG. Not a simple add to Torque. Sure there are tutorials and resources on RPGs to help them but many have dead links or are so old that it takes a some knowledge to get the to work.

So if I had to give advice the original poster wanted a " baulders gate". If this is a free game I would buy Neverwinter Nights and make a mod that they want. If its a game they want to sell Paul Dana's suggestions are good ones.

#19 I think the true test is one's motivation. When Torque was released I had only one C++ class under my belt, but a Art degree behind me. My first thought was to become a CGI artist because I loved wathcing CGI movies, but as I experimented more with the engine it was the programming that I truely enjoyed.

Not biting off more than one can chew is also very important. Initally several others at MGT, myself included, wanted to make games, by our lonesome ourselves. However there came a time where we understood why developers need teams. No one person can do it, at least not full time and still pay the rent. We each learned a lot from our personal projects and used everything we learned for our first real project Dark Horizons : Lore

What I recommend is to learn Torque and find others to work with. A RPG is a huge game type, I would recommend making a FPS or racer just to learn "how to" do it not to mention GG gives examples for each with the Demo and engine.

When you get comfortable with Torque start over and take what you learned and make your RPG, it will be all that much better. As a freshman in high school you have 4 years to perfect your craft.

#20 To reiterate, a RPG is a huge game type... it will swallow your soul. If it doesn't, you aren't making it properly.