What I did in my first month with TGB
by Maurice Ribble · in Torque Game Builder · 01/07/2007 (7:57 pm) · 5 replies
I bought TGB one month ago. First I went through the fish game demo, and then I decided to try and write a 2d space shooter with Asteroid's type controls. Here is what I have after one month. I've probably spent around 10-15 hours a week on it. www.glacialwanderer.com/games/SpaceForce/0_1/SF_0_1c.zip This is for MS Windows.
The controls are:
Up_arrow - acceleration
Left_arrow - turn left
Right_arrow - turn right
Space_bar - fire
z - Switches to inverse world (color obviously get reversed, but also the gravity from the black holes gets reversed)
There is certainly a lot of work to do in both the art and the script. Currently all the code for the game is script (except for one small fix to trigger collisions in the c code).
While it isn't much of a game yet, I am pleased with the progress. A lot of my time was spent just learning how TGB works and I feel I could put a new game together much quicker now.
My next goal is to start tweaking the AI and various parameters in the game until it's fun, and then I'll slowly add some more features. I'm going to try and make sure that every feature I add makes that game more fun. I've already had to pull out some things that were not making the game fun. For instance I had a more complex version of gravity for the black holes, but it was just getting too confusing for the player. I do plan on revisiting the gravity, but for now I put it back to a very simple linear acceleration.
If you happen to try this out please let me know what you think.
-maurice
The controls are:
Up_arrow - acceleration
Left_arrow - turn left
Right_arrow - turn right
Space_bar - fire
z - Switches to inverse world (color obviously get reversed, but also the gravity from the black holes gets reversed)
There is certainly a lot of work to do in both the art and the script. Currently all the code for the game is script (except for one small fix to trigger collisions in the c code).
While it isn't much of a game yet, I am pleased with the progress. A lot of my time was spent just learning how TGB works and I feel I could put a new game together much quicker now.
My next goal is to start tweaking the AI and various parameters in the game until it's fun, and then I'll slowly add some more features. I'm going to try and make sure that every feature I add makes that game more fun. I've already had to pull out some things that were not making the game fun. For instance I had a more complex version of gravity for the black holes, but it was just getting too confusing for the player. I do plan on revisiting the gravity, but for now I put it back to a very simple linear acceleration.
If you happen to try this out please let me know what you think.
-maurice
#2
01/09/2007 (7:53 pm)
Thanks! I'll be sure to post an update when things are further along. 
#3
-Kevin
01/25/2007 (4:39 pm)
You're doing great Maurice. If you haven't already, you may want to plan out where you want to take this game within reasonable boundaries. If you don't, the project might just pitter out before it reaches it's full potential. I know this from experience, however, some people are better at developing games without a plan than with one. Only you can decide what is best for you and your goals.-Kevin
#4
I've already decided to move on to another game. I have no regrets on what I did for this game, since the real purpose of it was to learn torque script and that is what I did. I decided to try a few smaller and more original game ideas. I'm currently in the process of writing very rough prototypes for a handful of different ideas. Then I'll pick whichever one seems the best and flesh it out a little more.
The one I'm working on right now is gameplay where the player draws lines with the mouse to connect different level elements.
01/25/2007 (7:20 pm)
Actually your message is a little too late :-)I've already decided to move on to another game. I have no regrets on what I did for this game, since the real purpose of it was to learn torque script and that is what I did. I decided to try a few smaller and more original game ideas. I'm currently in the process of writing very rough prototypes for a handful of different ideas. Then I'll pick whichever one seems the best and flesh it out a little more.
The one I'm working on right now is gameplay where the player draws lines with the mouse to connect different level elements.
#5
01/26/2007 (1:04 pm)
Hey, as long as you're happy with where the game went, that's all that matters. You can check out one of my projects that failed sooner than intended by looking at my profile and finding the "Shellcore!" link. 
Torque Owner Nathan Huffman
Nifty so far, bro. I actually must admit I found myself enjoying flying towards the black hole and timing inverse world correctly to have enemy units sucked in but myself home free. hehe :)
I'll watch for further works.
Take care.