My Ideas for the Future of Torque3D
by Dark Tengu · 03/27/2013 (8:42 pm) · 7 comments
First off, I want to say how excited I am that Torque3D is now open source. I think that open source is a great thing for Torque3D and its best chance at success. I think in order for Torque3D to be successful, it will have to follow in the footsteps of other successful open source projects. Here are my ideas (in order of importance):
1) Blender has had great success and great exposure by doing open projects. I think Torque3D would highly benefit by doing an open game project. I would suggest doing a Tribes-like game since that is what most people probably associate game wise with the Torque engine. An open game project partnership with The Blender Foundation would be a very strategic move. GarageGames would provide the game design (maybe get one of the old Tribes guys to come be the lead) and scripting. The Blender Foundation could provide the art assets. I would imagine that a Kickstarter campaign to make a Tribes-like open game would get a great fundraising (assuming you could get some of the original Tribes guys on board). It would be real easy to also have modding lessons to get people working with Torque3D.
2) This kind of goes hand in hand with the previous entry, but an in-depth wiki and tutorial series for modding an example game would be awesome. I would love to see a massive amount of content. Make it easy to learn.
3) Further open game projects. Just like Blender focuses on new features on each project, do the same. For example, a game that would focus on getting Torque3D running on iOS/Android. Once again, you would get exposure and have an open game people could enjoy. Really the sky is limit on this one.
I think with a solid plan, Torque3D could become the Blender of the OpenSource movement.
1) Blender has had great success and great exposure by doing open projects. I think Torque3D would highly benefit by doing an open game project. I would suggest doing a Tribes-like game since that is what most people probably associate game wise with the Torque engine. An open game project partnership with The Blender Foundation would be a very strategic move. GarageGames would provide the game design (maybe get one of the old Tribes guys to come be the lead) and scripting. The Blender Foundation could provide the art assets. I would imagine that a Kickstarter campaign to make a Tribes-like open game would get a great fundraising (assuming you could get some of the original Tribes guys on board). It would be real easy to also have modding lessons to get people working with Torque3D.
2) This kind of goes hand in hand with the previous entry, but an in-depth wiki and tutorial series for modding an example game would be awesome. I would love to see a massive amount of content. Make it easy to learn.
3) Further open game projects. Just like Blender focuses on new features on each project, do the same. For example, a game that would focus on getting Torque3D running on iOS/Android. Once again, you would get exposure and have an open game people could enjoy. Really the sky is limit on this one.
I think with a solid plan, Torque3D could become the Blender of the OpenSource movement.
About the author
#2
People always think of T3D as a FPS engine and forget that you can create everything in T3D.
The key is funding, for a open game project we would need a committee who would spend a lot of time monitoring changes, keeping the direction of the game and QA the incoming pull requests.
If they are gonna spend so much time on that, some kind of payment would be in order.
Also for art etc..
T3D's kickstarters haven't gained a lot of funding so I don't know if we can get funding for an open game project right now. I can imagine creating some showcase video would be better atm (which Ron Kapaun is working on).
03/28/2013 (1:05 am)
I'd say create something other than a FPS..People always think of T3D as a FPS engine and forget that you can create everything in T3D.
The key is funding, for a open game project we would need a committee who would spend a lot of time monitoring changes, keeping the direction of the game and QA the incoming pull requests.
If they are gonna spend so much time on that, some kind of payment would be in order.
Also for art etc..
T3D's kickstarters haven't gained a lot of funding so I don't know if we can get funding for an open game project right now. I can imagine creating some showcase video would be better atm (which Ron Kapaun is working on).
#3
There will be more information concerning this project at a later date.
Ron
03/28/2013 (4:31 am)
I agree with your idea. I am actually working on a design doc for just such a project. However, I am with Lukas, it will NOT be a first person shooter. I think most everyone knows that T3D can do FPS, and many feel that is ONLY what T3D can do. I want to change that misconception. There will be more information concerning this project at a later date.
Ron
#4
That way everyone could find the type of files and etc for whatever type of project they are working on. This location could even provide some art to start people off with.
Nonetheless ALL great ideas!
03/28/2013 (5:23 am)
Definitely a great idea. I also like the idea that is being done for T2D with the 3 step studio (I think that's the name). Where there would be a central location that individuals can go to, and maybe download templates for different genres. For example: chinatown (FPS), ??? (rpg), sector (tps), etc, etc...That way everyone could find the type of files and etc for whatever type of project they are working on. This location could even provide some art to start people off with.
Nonetheless ALL great ideas!
#5
03/28/2013 (8:33 am)
Well the reason I go with a Tribes-like game is those are the games that people are willing to fund on Kickstarter. There are plenty of games that have become well funded due to nostalgia. I'm not saying other games wouldn't work, but I think a Tribes-like idea has significant potential. 
#6
03/28/2013 (6:23 pm)
I am already trying to do an open source FPS on Torque, you can check out my progress on my blog/youtube. But I'm just a newbie in game design and modeling, so everything takes it's time.
#7
GamePlay 3D is an open-source Game Engine(or Game Programming Library), it can export to Android, iOS, BlackBerry and many other platforms, i read few things about it and turns out, it's mainly C++ (and [according to a comment] it supports LUA too). So since Torque 3D MIT does not support iOS and Android export, what do you think about GamePlay 3D integration / support in some future release of Torque 3D?
I'm not saying "it's open source, how about stealing it's code and getting it in Torque" as it might seem but i mean that since GamePlay 3D is just a C++ Library for coding Games, it'd be amazing to have something like: code in TorqueScript, configure path to GamePlay Libs and compile the Game.
it's web streaming support that i think is needed, don't know when it'll be supported but it will be amazing for the Web when it's supported.
I'm eagerly awaiting Torque 3D 3.0 release, it surely will have a lot of bug fixes and cool new stuffs added, i check GG website everyday to make sure i download it if it's released ..
Thumbs up to GG, Thumbs up to Torque 3D and Thumbs up to Open Source
03/30/2013 (7:19 am)
This is just a thought now so please feel free to make any points that you feel that i'm missing:GamePlay 3D is an open-source Game Engine(or Game Programming Library), it can export to Android, iOS, BlackBerry and many other platforms, i read few things about it and turns out, it's mainly C++ (and [according to a comment] it supports LUA too). So since Torque 3D MIT does not support iOS and Android export, what do you think about GamePlay 3D integration / support in some future release of Torque 3D?
I'm not saying "it's open source, how about stealing it's code and getting it in Torque" as it might seem but i mean that since GamePlay 3D is just a C++ Library for coding Games, it'd be amazing to have something like: code in TorqueScript, configure path to GamePlay Libs and compile the Game.
it's web streaming support that i think is needed, don't know when it'll be supported but it will be amazing for the Web when it's supported.
I'm eagerly awaiting Torque 3D 3.0 release, it surely will have a lot of bug fixes and cool new stuffs added, i check GG website everyday to make sure i download it if it's released ..
Thumbs up to GG, Thumbs up to Torque 3D and Thumbs up to Open Source
Torque 3D Owner Jacob Dankovchik