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January Product Update

by Eric Preisz · 01/20/2011 (3:43 am) · 117 comments






If you haven’t read our other blog, you might want to read it first. This blog, is a more detailed look into our near term product road map.

Bad news first…

TorqueX – February 28th will be the last day that you will be able to purchase TorqueX. The community is tight knit and working on a their own version of the engine, so for the next thirty days you will still be able to buy TorqueX and assign those licensees to other developers through a studio access panel. Discontinuing TorqueX is a hard decision for us, especially when considering how dedicated this community is. I would personally like to take the time to thank Pino. He’s a rock star and anyone using TorqueX knows that. We are still fans of XNA and we have a lot of time invested in the API. Don’t be surprised if/when an XNA based product finds it's way back to GarageGames. We have put a lot of effort into a future Windows Phone 7 product; however, we are taking a step back to reevaluate direction on all emerging platforms. Your opinions are greatly appreciated.





iTorque 3D – We will be discontinuing iTorque 3D. In the future, we will not be pre-selling our new engines without absolute confidence of a QA date. We will be offering refunds to everyone who we can validate as a purchaser of iT3D. We are very happy to have our new owners (more on them in the first blog ) support on this – it’s the right thing to do.

Torque 2D – We have no significant updates to Torque 2D ( aka TGB ) at this time. The good news is that Torque 2D is a very stable product that is able to meet the specs of a wide array of machines including netbooks. Torque 2D’s next version, which we discussed last year at this time is still in development and part of long term plans. It’s unfortunately still to early for us to provide more detail about the next version of Torque 2D and at this time, we recommend that you focus your development plans on Torque 2D ( aka TGB ) until we are able to hone in on a release window.

Good news…

Torque 3D 1.1 Final –Torque 3D 1.1 Final will be heading to QA in the coming weeks. We have a pending driver issue and a relatively short list of bugs in Jira that we are currently slaying. We have a 1.1 version of T3D for the Mac; however, we aren’t able to say with 100% certainty that it will meet our gold standard by the release of 1.1 Final. That decision will need to be delayed until we are able to properly review the code. Our contractors continued to work on Torque 3D 1.1 during the transition and their hard work has kept the ball rolling towards a final release.

Docs & Tutorials – We are going to be working towards our goal of better documentation, docs, and tutorials over the next few months. This work will move slowly at first, but over time, we will be able to hire and scale our efforts as we progress on our product roadmap.

iTorque 2D 1.4.1 – We are in the final rounds of QA and updates for 1.4.1. Barring any new iOS updates that would create a ripple effect to our timing, iT2D 1.4.1 will be going to QA in a couple of weeks.

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#61
01/21/2011 (10:27 pm)
Please consider open sourcing TorqueX if you no longer wish to sell it so that Pino and friends can continue to improve on it.
#62
01/22/2011 (1:04 am)
Please add an (RTS) Documentation / Tutorial for T3D aswell.
#63
01/22/2011 (4:40 am)
Great news, indeed! Thank you and good luck to you all in GG.
#64
01/22/2011 (8:32 am)
I really can't express how great this is, glad to have you back. Sure is comforting for everyone on our end.

And a really nice job on the intro "Everything you loved about Garage games.. is back" Thing on the front page.
#65
01/22/2011 (10:55 am)
@Xzalion - I wrote a tutorial that showed out to create a prototype RTS. It's in the T3D documentation already. I've really been wanting to revisit the doc to expand functionality and add better art. That's probably going to happen now that we are staffing up.
#66
01/22/2011 (12:46 pm)
Please Eric add South Pacific in T3D 1.1 Final for all the hard workers that been here since 2006 and will not get the great discount at $99 and try to get
Wetness Forum linkto look like the Wetness and Precipitation in this video

thanks and so glad that we are back :)
#67
01/22/2011 (1:34 pm)
@Kory
Wetness as in that video will most likely not happen unless it is an adaptation of the work in the topic that you linked. And I'm not sure if it would ever be stock. South Pacific will be released as a separate download that 1.1 Final since not everyone needs it. But it will be available.
#68
01/22/2011 (1:37 pm)
I'm thinking of getting iT2D with my next paycheck, if I can afford it.
Not sure I can afford the $100 to Apple, especially since I don't have any ideas yet and just wanted to mess around with iT2D and learn how it works.
Is it possible to use iT2D and test games on my iPhone, just just sign up with Apple to publish it on the App store? I'm assuming the only way to get the SDK is to pay that $100 per year.
#69
01/22/2011 (1:45 pm)
Shaolin Dave, register with Apple's iOS developer site and you should be able to download the SDK. You will not be able to deploy to the device, however, but you can deploy to the simulator. At least that is how it used to be. I've been a licensed member for long enough now that I'm not sure if the general download is still available with deployment being the subscription price.
#70
01/22/2011 (2:29 pm)
I believe your right, just sign up for free and down load the sdk.
Membership gives you the ability to put the game on your test devices, so you can get started on your project before paying for the membership.
That is unless they made any recent changes I have not heard of.

#71
01/22/2011 (3:02 pm)
That's still how it is. The SDK and Xcode are both free and you can deploy to the simulator without a developer license.
#72
01/22/2011 (3:43 pm)
@David thanks I hope they will release the south pacific for all the T3D license holder that been here sometime that would be a nice gift.
#73
01/22/2011 (4:07 pm)
Yes and the Chinatown demo. That would be a plus for developers.
#74
01/22/2011 (4:43 pm)
@any re: South Pacific, Chinatown demos

Would love to get my hands on these but understand they were developed by Sickhead and Luma respectively. Not sure whether they were sold and, even if they were, if that was part of the tech GG bought in reforming. The ownership may reside w/ those studios. They could tell you. Just figure it _may_ be more complicated than it seems to ask for. And those are valuable demos... =)
#75
01/22/2011 (7:00 pm)
I talked to Luma and they saidit was developed for TP, and only they could release it.
So if GG owns it then they have the rights to do whatever they want.
#76
01/22/2011 (8:04 pm)
@ David and John

Thanks.
#77
01/23/2011 (12:05 am)
@ Micheal Perry, that is good, I am making an HUGE (RTS) game on torque, & it will be just epic stuff to mention, maybe you can assist me if you like :)

Keep well

Xzalion
#78
01/23/2011 (8:50 pm)
So the last day to submit XNA with 3.1 is February 7th. Is TorqueX currently XNA 4 compatible?
#79
01/23/2011 (9:29 pm)
@Danilo TX is not 4.0 as it sits, however the license gets you in on the community version that is 4.0 look for the thread from Pino in the TX2D forum on CEV RC version
#80
01/24/2011 (12:56 am)
Just please get the T2D update out very "soon", we have already waited a really long time already with no news, updates, feedback, or Eye Candy. I have hopes that the GG spirit coming back returns the community involvement and feedback to its previous awesome state. I think you would be surprised at how many people look for any posts and news for new content frequently.

I just bought the 3d engine also. $99 is so damn cheap. I'll never build a 3d game (just not my thing) , but for $99 its worth the educational value alone!