Please Address This Issue
by Lolfu · in Torque Game Engine · 10/18/2008 (4:13 pm) · 2 replies
This community, supported by garge games is, in fact, the most difficult to follow community I've seen in a long time. The forums, for example, are visually lacking and have only the most basic functions of modern day forums. After getting the Torque Game Builder binaries, I was eager to start learning this seemingly exellent 2d engine. To my dismay, I realized the path to learning this mysterious engine was... non-existant... Other than some shotty, poorly written, tutorials on how to make some incredibably basic games, I still knew just about as much as I did before I finished the tutorials.
I was planning on putting together a platforming engine for myself to build a elaborate game off of when I realized that doing so would be unusually difficult. I wanted to save a large amount of time, a resource that I have very little of, by starting my work on an already existant engine and Torque seemed promising. Promising it may look, but without documentation, its like a walmart employee trying to land a spaceship on the moon.
I'm am not about to even consider purchasing the Platformer Starter Kit at the ridiculous price of 50 or so dollars for something I could make myself given an understanding of the engine. I'd like to point out that in other engines, such as the Game Maker engine, it takes someone about 1-2 days to learn how to make a complete platforming engine, whereas here it would take ???? days. Problem with most engines is their lack of up to date technology, although there are only 3 engines I know of including this one...
All my ranting aside, is there any resource existant in which I can learn the scripting side of Torque Game Builder that takes me farther than getting a fish sprite to move left and right?
I was planning on putting together a platforming engine for myself to build a elaborate game off of when I realized that doing so would be unusually difficult. I wanted to save a large amount of time, a resource that I have very little of, by starting my work on an already existant engine and Torque seemed promising. Promising it may look, but without documentation, its like a walmart employee trying to land a spaceship on the moon.
I'm am not about to even consider purchasing the Platformer Starter Kit at the ridiculous price of 50 or so dollars for something I could make myself given an understanding of the engine. I'd like to point out that in other engines, such as the Game Maker engine, it takes someone about 1-2 days to learn how to make a complete platforming engine, whereas here it would take ???? days. Problem with most engines is their lack of up to date technology, although there are only 3 engines I know of including this one...
All my ranting aside, is there any resource existant in which I can learn the scripting side of Torque Game Builder that takes me farther than getting a fish sprite to move left and right?
About the author
#2
If you just give it some time you will get to know these forums better and learn how to get experience by reading other peoples issues..
For an example at the top right corner there is a search bar i didn't mention it at first but now i realise it is the most powerful tool on this website...
And the forum is quite quick answering if you can't find something by searching or else you can always search on other websites..
IN GOOGLE WE THRUST
-Hope this post was helpful
10/19/2008 (1:24 pm)
This is how i had it with torque game engine xD Exact the same way but as i got more comfortable in surfing around pages and use these forum i still learn more and more of it! i still have a great lack and many issues i need to solve (Have made 5 Forum Posts this week xD)If you just give it some time you will get to know these forums better and learn how to get experience by reading other peoples issues..
For an example at the top right corner there is a search bar i didn't mention it at first but now i realise it is the most powerful tool on this website...
And the forum is quite quick answering if you can't find something by searching or else you can always search on other websites..
IN GOOGLE WE THRUST
-Hope this post was helpful
Employee Michael Perry
ZombieShortbus
Hey Lolfu. Let me be the first to welcome you to the GarageGames community. I appreciate the feedback on the docs and initial user experience. If you have any further criticisms or suggestions, feel free to post them in the Official TGB Documentation Feedback Thread.
I have to urge you to not get frustrated within your first month of development using Torque Technology. TGB, while the most accessible engine compared to our other products, is still a game engine and quite a bit more complex than Game Maker. I'm going out on a ledge by being the first employee to bluntly state TGB is the most powerful 2D game engine out there, but with that comes a learning curve.
If just picked up the binary, and started using the tutorials, I'm worried when you say you did not learn anything from the docs. Unless you instantly knew how to use TGB, the tutorials explain how to use the editors, datablocks, scripting, behaviors, and asset management.
The documentation is not perfect, but that's why GarageGames hired someone to dedicate every single day to improving the documentation for all the engines. Since you are new, I'm not sure if you have seen the online updates. Here are some useful links for you:
Main Documentation Landing Page
TGB Documentation Page.
You should find a healthy amount of Torque Script tutorials and docs on those pages. The offline docs also contain a good amount outside the tutorial sections. There is also the Torque Developer Network, but you may not be able to access some of that material until you are a license holder. I might be removing that restriction, but I'm still debating that.
If you had difficulty learning a particular aspect of TS, please let me know now. I can point you to the appropriate area.
On the opinion side of things, Platformer Starter Kit is well worth the cost. The cost of the assets and programming hours put into that go way beyond $50. It is a steal. Yes, you can do everything in the kit, but it is extremely useful in getting you started.
Start with the stock examples and documentation, then decide if you need the kit. I look forward to your response =)