Now that we know iT2D is currently "standing still" .. a CE discussion (shut down feb2013)

#41 Let's hope more people are interested. But just in case, I'm already started trying out some other engines, gamemaker looks promising for 2d games, and of course unity is looking really good. But I still hope I don't have to port my game to another engine. Fingers crossed here:-)

#42 That's sad.
I mean, there MUST be a lot of people looking for help in iTorque.
They just don't know about this thread...

#43 Well said Petr. You've helped me to rethink this..
[..and the post by someone who had 2 apps rejected today(YIKES) has also helped me to see the need for this no matter how many are interested.]


Let me think about this overnight..BBL.

#44 I can't believe no one else is interested in this, could a blog reach more people?

#45 To clarify my position a bit..
If I blogged about this..I would feel like I am trying to "clean up GGs' debacle"..and I do not like that feeling at all.

What they have elected to do is SERIOUSLY unprofessional. I will be happy to help others to help themselves as a collective. I will not be GGs' helper for free...ESPECIALLY when they still sell the engine as if it gets support or actually works without issue.

#46 You're right about that, didn't think of it that way.
What they are doing is indeed really unprofessional. Before all this I was already thinking about switching to another engine after our first game was done because there are really good engines that ARE multi-platform.
I would really like to finish this game with this engine but if I don't get everything working than I'm porting this one too.
Off course I will check out the new 3 step studio from garagegames, but only because I get it for free for owning t2d and it2d, I don't see myself paying for garagegames products anymore because of all this. </end_rant> :-)

#47 Hi GasMan,

Just sent you an email - thank you very much for taking the initiative. This is a great idea!

A few ideas/suggestions:

- A simple summary text file in the SVN (webpage even better) would be nice to briefly list what major changes have been made from the commercial version (like resources, etc). The code author could update it.

- Anyone committing changes surrounds their commit with clear comment separators that are standardized. This makes it easy to quickly see (and search for) community contributions in the code, and also helps when upgrading the engine to a new version. An example:
// >>> [author name]
... [code here]
// <<< [author name]

#48 Hey GasMan,

I've been holding off asking for SVN access because I have conflicting feelings on the whole 1.5 / version 2 debacle. I want to write games using the torque engine, it's what I've invested a lot of time and effort in but on the same hand, if the team can't keep up with the yearly iOS hardware and software releases then I'll have to look to a team that can. I certainly don't have the manpower or the time to deal with it myself - that's why we're using an engine in the first place.

From a software professional standpoint I'm a bit sore for not seeing frequent updates. This really hit home when someone pointed out how old 1.5 is now. While I understand a complete rewrite of the engine will take some time, I haven't seen any promising results of that rewrite. Have we seen any videos or demos of what is to come? Not so much.

We had a blog post from early September last I saw (though I might have missed a recent one) and though the updates are appreciated, they are still too infrequent... and lacking. After all this, the documentation will come up short and the GG team is looking to the community to help fill in the gaps? Again... I'm a bit sore on the subject so this didn't have the same appeal it normally would.

I'll quit ranting here and pop back here and there to see what progress is made. Best of luck.

-Joe

#49 I feel the same as Joe O.

And I think theGasMan is doing an incredible job and really applaud what he is doing. Keep it up!

#50 I also feel the same as Joe 0.
I don't want to have to worry about fixing stuff in the engine for a new ios or new iphone/ipad/ipod model, that's stuff that I shouldn't have to worry about, like Joe said, that's why we started using an engine in the first place.

Like I said in an earlier post I was trying out some other engines. The engine I always wanted to try was Unity but because I was aiming for 2D I never did. So I installed it and bought the 2D toolkit and I can tell you, this is all I ever wanted from an engine/editor and more!! I feel like I've been living like a caveman for the last 2 years. No offense to GarageGames, but that's just how I feel.

So to make a long story short, for now I've stopped using the torque engine. I'll keep following the new engine you're cooking up, but if I compare the current it2d with unity you guys got a really long way to go and I don't have the time to wait around for that.

#51 yeah, Unity and Shiva make Torque look like a Commodore64.
Shiva exports to more than 14 platforms including Flash ? Costs $200/sale & now has a closed public beta for their store and soon the release of 2.0. It's srsly a different learning curve but I love it for the price.
I've been using Shiva often for about 1 year now..and I have 1% of the complaints I EVER had with Torque and when I point out a bug in Shiva, the dev team fixes it. SRSLY. Tight knit community, great people.

Shiva is the upcomer, Unity is the leader and Torque is nearly in my trash bin.

a "wow" at lost ethics:

What srsly sucks is GG is still selling the iT2D engine and I assume the scapegoat is that the EULA, more or less states, "as is and no promise of updates". ..pair that with NO DEMO, and you have a perfect scam.
You buy it without trying it and you're stuck with a broken piece of tech...and that's where we, as a collective come in to save the day(possibly).

-------- I call things as I see them. ..but I will forego that topic / stop there.

[section removed as it is useless now]


P.S. thanks for the comments you guys have already made. I appreciate them.

#52 I would prefer if there was no money involved. There's only going to be about 7 people who will use this - i.e. the people who have a game made already with iT2D 1.5 and who want to be able to release it, or support it with updates in the short term. Everyone else has probably moved onto other engines already.

#53 Since TheGasMan isn't getting the response he requires for this I've gone ahead and hosted it myself, well, actually I'm piggybacking off our GG GitHub account. I did set up an svn server last night that was going to run from my apt (Mich and I had been looking for an excuse to road test uberSVN anyway), but Eric offered up one of the repo slots on our GitHub account. The thinking was that seemed better than hosting on my home connection, faster for you guys and my Netflix viewing won't get hampered by a bunch of checkouts.

So it's up and can be found here github.com/GarageGames/IT2D-CE.

This is a private repo for licensed iT2D users, so if you want access to it just let me know your GitHub account name and whether you want Pull access or Push & Pull access.

What this is:
A convenient way for you guys to share compatibility fixes and other resources in the near term. The plan is for this to only be up until the T2D update ships, which isn't that far off. If you guys dig this setup though it may stick around.

This repo will be the wild west. I won't be monitoring it saying yay or nay to any code that is pushed to it, nor will any other GG employee. If that's too chaotic I can change that some, and maybe parrot some of the T3D processes that are forming.

What this is not:
This is not a delivery avenue of iT2D updates for GG. This is solely for the community's use because we've got the space to spare for it hosting wise. Do not expect to see final product code from GG in this repo. Mich may or may not post some bug fixes here himself, and he may or may not use it to field test some things.

#54 @conor; The money wasn't the best idea but it was a directly meant to help keep the focus on the CE and make it difficult for GG to reap the benefits of our collective changes. AKA: adding scoreloop/leadbolt/etc.
I didn't like the idea but wasn't about to work on somehting that should already work, only for the company to gain benefit..blah blah u get the idea.


+1 @ Scotty.
I am happy this is out of my hands & best of luck with it.
I'll take push and pull access. eb7898 p&p plz.

#55 That's great Scott - thanks for organizing this, it's really appreciated. My GitHub username is 'conorokane' and I'd like Push & Pull access please.

Maybe this can be a trial run for open-sourcing Torque 2D in future :-)

#56 All right, you're both all set. Enjoy!

And yeah, there are some big advantages all around for everyone going this route for it. We get to do some more experimenting with git outside of T3D and you guys all get to focus on collaboration with others and not managing a repo.

#57 @Scott - Thanks for hooking this up. As soon as I get my new hardware, I will update to the latest iOS and start pushing some fixes in.

#58 I've emailed those who have emailed me. They should appear soon'ish.

#59 Count me in! Scott, my Github id is spud1 (warthog was taken) and I'd like pull access please.

Thanks to everyone for setting this up and keeping my game alive!

#60 @Warthog
You're all set!