Point and Click game with Torque 2D?

#1 Torque 2D is very powerful!

By point and click do you mean Diablo style point and click, or do you mean a game maker style of interface.

If you give some more details about how you plan to have your game work/look then I can probably give you a better response :)

#2 www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=7705

www.garagegames.com/blogs/33542/7526

www.garagegames.com/blogs/33542/7498

#3 I was talking about games like: Dark Fall, The Longest Journey, Myst, Syberia.

Thank
Kori

#4 I haven't tried Torque 2D, but honestly --- you could probably do something like Myst pretty easily in raw Torque. I can't imagine it'd be anything but easier in Torque2D.

#5 I don't understand the difference between Torque and Torque 2D. Since my interest is in making a 2d Point and Click adventure game, it caught my eye. I thought Torque was a 3d engine for real-time rendering, so I passed it up when I first saw it. Then I saw the Torque 2D, and I thought I better have a look.

Kori

#6 Like I said, I don't have Torque 2D, but from my understanding, it's stripped out the 3D hoops you have to go through, simplified the interface, and REALLY beefed up Torque's 2D rendering functionality with stuff like sprite animations, tiled 2D environments, etc.

#7 Myst and the Longest Journey are very different. Are you trying to do something where you can look around, a la Myst III, or something like Kings Quest where you point and click and you character walks there?

Myst III essentially rendered every scene to a skybox, so you could look around, full 360 degrees. (Transitions between locations were FMV)

Something like the Longest Journey (or any of the quest games) would probably be much more suited to Torque 2D, wiht a collision map for the characters.

I believe Myst IV was full 3d, someone correct me if I'm wrong on that one.

#8 A point-and-click game like you are referring to would be very, very, very easy on Torque2D. Torque2D continues to amaze me on a daily basis with how easy it is to get a game up and running. If you follow the tutorials you can literally have a game running in less than 5 minutes.

#9 Myst and the Longest Journey are very different. Are you trying to do something where you can look around, a la Myst III, or something like Kings Quest where you point and click and you character walks there?

Myst III essentially rendered every scene to a skybox, so you could look around, full 360 degrees. (Transitions between locations were FMV)

Something like the Longest Journey (or any of the quest games) would probably be much more suited to Torque 2D, wiht a collision map for the characters.

I believe Myst IV was full 3d, someone correct me if I'm wrong on that one.

#10 The other possibility is the Grim Fandango approach, which rendered the characters in 3d and pasted billboarded snapshots of a 3d environment over and under the characters for the environment.

All in all, if you want something simple, though you should prob go with T2D.

*edit: this is the approach The Longest Journey uses, I believe (as well as my first published title, Star Trek: Hidden Evil... maybe I shouldn't say that in public)

#11 Most of the games he mentioned are a mix of 2D and 3D. With the exception being Myst.

You could make a good adventure game with T2D but your not going to get 2d backgrouds with a 3d character like syberia, longest journey etc... with Stock T2D.



You may be able to work something out with TGE using T2D but not without modification.

If that's what you need, then Wintermute supports that.

But to be honest, I am not a big fan of those types of 3D character/2D games because the graphics look wierd. The backgrounds are all sharp and crisp and the characters don't match up correctly.

That's just my opion though.


All and all, T2D is way more powerful and expandable then Wintermute. And your right on about being able to change engines in the future and have a leg up on Torque scripting

#12 I am sorry about the confusion. I am interested in adventure games, which for the most part are point and click with prerended backgrounds. I thought I would start out making and learning on a simple game like the first Myst game or Dark Fall game. Both are first person node games. After I had some experience with the first game, I thought I would try making a game like Syberia or The Longest Journey where the background is a 2d node and the character is 3d.

Wintermute would do both, but I was interested in the Torque engine, hoping it would do both also. My idea of learning the Torque engine was, to take a long view, just in case I become interested in doing a full 3d game with real-time rendering. If the Torque engine will do all three type of games, I would not have to spend my time learning Wintermute, and then Torque later. At least that was the idea.

It sounds to me like I need to buy the Torque 2D engine for my first game project. And, there any books that I should buy with this engine to help me learn the Torque 2D engine?

I will be new to programing or scripting, so I will have to start from the beginning. I already know how to make the 3d graphics. It is the game engine programing/scripting part of the game that is new to me.

Thanks
Kori

#13 Torque2D is fairly new, so there aren't any books out for it yet (although I heard Kenneth Finney was working on one, the same guy who did the TGE book).

There are plenty of resources and the private forums are phenomenal. Plenty in there to get you started in the right direction.

#14 If you are intersted in a sepcific type of game, say Myst, then I'd recommend Macromedia Director over just about anything. Since you're looking at a long-view, Torque is definitely a better option than Wintermute (not that it's a "bad" engine, mind you, but simply for extensibility in the long-view.

Links to various adventure engines

Being new to game programming and development, here's the course that I would recommend for you.

1. Download the Wintermute engine. It is free for non-commercial use. This will get you familiar not only with the terminology, but the various factors associated with adventure game setup, design, and development. It gives you a an easy entry point, though not a very extensible one. But it is a sold little engine that will get you up and running quickly.

1.5. Purchase the EA version of Torque 2D. It is an extremely powerful 2D engine, but it's currently in Early Adopter to give the community a taste of what is to come (and it already has more than most any 2D engine on the market). Since it is in EA, it is more programmer-oriented and has scant documentation currently. The beginner documentation is excellent and a large number of excellent tutorials have been developed (especially by Matthew "King Tut BoB" Langley). The main reason that I recommend purchasing T2D EA is that it will give you the extensibility in the long-view while Wintermute gives you the context and terminology for future development plans. Another reason is that there is a rather rabid adventure game audience among Mac users. In this step, I'd recommend picking up 3D Game Development All In One. It will teach you the organization and structure of TorqueScript programming using the Torque Game Engine. This knowledge is directly applicable to Torque2D and will give you a strong sense of script organization mastery. Combined with the documentation, you should be able to get up and running quickly as both a designer and programmer.

2. Integrate the Flash GUI component to create Myst-likes with video-feeds as your between node movement and interactive elements.

3. Work with T2D and TGE combinitively plus the advanced camera resource to create adventure games such as Resident Evil with pre-rendered backgrounds and 3D characters. You can load unrendered collision meshes to complete the illusion that the pre-rendered backgrounds have a certain depth. Casting shadows on pre-rendered environments isn't a trivial process, though. This is a much more advanced solution, but certainly doable.

4. Develop a first-person adventure title ala the Echo Night series. This is doable with stock TGE right now. In fact, it is conceptually extremely doable with the demo completely in script. But the artwork development jumping a dimension is challenging.

5. Third-person adventure title. Utiliizing the advanced camera resource for cinematic shots (and eventual movement into TSE to provide next-generation crystal-clear rendering technology on high-end video cards).

TGE/TSE/T2D is definitely the long-view way to go. It is amazing technology at an affordable price, and has an excellent community to boot. Choosing Wintermute initially to learn is wise simply because it will give you the vocabulary and context to realize your design. Once you have the solid context to move your designs over the concept hump to prototype, the Torque Application Platform can take you anywhere beyond. It will take a lot of work regardless, but game development is all about hard work, dedication, and doing. I'm trying to lay out of a realistic engine workflow to help you get things done in short(er) order!

Good luck!

#15 Thanks for the long post with all that information.

Kori